EU's Ashton urges end to Brussels in-fighting
(STRASBOURG) - European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday urged Brussels powerbrokers to give up their traditional fiefdoms and allow her to do her job unfettered.
"Europe is going through a phase of building something new," she told lawmakers in the EU parliament in Strasbourg, France. "Where people have to adjust their mental maps and institutions have to find their new place.
"Doing so is messy and complicated," admitted the English baroness, who has toiled to retain control over the shape of a formative global diplomatic staff of thousands she officially heads, amid a turf war pitting member states against the EU's day-to-day executive.
However, "it is impossible to over-state just how important this moment is," she said, warning Europe has a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to build" a "stronger, more credible European foreign policy."
Ashton, who has never held elected office, has struggled since her selection by national leaders as the EU's grandly-titled High Representative for foreign and security affairs.
She has faced accusations she was too inexperienced for the job and was also slammed roundly for not rushing to Haiti after a devastating earthquake on January 12.
Last week, she was warned by her own national government that EU in-fighting risked diluting the multi-million-euro External Action Service as machinations to secure powerful ambassadorial jobs hit fever pitch ahead of an April deadline to agree its scope and structure.
Uniquely responsible both to the 27 member states that fund the bloc and the independent executive that manages it, London's Foreign Secretary David Miliband -- the preferred choice of many top diplomats for her job -- issued a stark warning interpreted by many as a slapdown, although he denied any such intention.
The EAS "will only work if the European Commission, the member states and the council secretariat are able to work together coherently," Miliband wrote in a joint letter with Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt.
A British diplomat underlined then that Ashton needed "support" to deliver what member states want, but that "the commission is resisting."
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