Euro-Parliament to grill new foreign chief Ashton

(BRUSSELS) - The European parliament intends to grill Britain's Catherine Ashton next week after she takes up the job of EU foreign policy supremo, officials said Monday, amid concerns over a lack of experience.

"The parliament's foreign affairs committee has proposed a detailed exchange of views" with Ashton the day after she becomes the EU high representative for foreign and defence policy next Tuesday, said parliamentary spokesman Jaume Duch.

Ashton must receive parliamentary backing as her post also comes with the title EU commission vice-president, and all 27 new commissioners must get questioned and approved.

Next week's hearing will not be a substitute for a proper MEPs hearing but will at least lend the process a degree of parliamentary involvement, as the formal vetting procedure will not start until January.

Besides the procedural niceties, concerns continued to be raised over the choice of Lady Ashton, a member of the British House of Lords, who will head up a huge external action service but has no foreign affairs experience and has never faced an election.

EU heads of state and government chose Ashton for the post at a summit in Brussels on Friday, at the same time selecting Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the EU's first president.

Both new top jobs are created by the EU's Lisbon Treaty which comes into force on December 1, though Van Rompuy will not take up his position for some weeks.

Former French European affairs minister Pierre Moscovici, a socialist and thus from the same political family as the Labour peer, said he was "shocked" by the choice of Ashton.

He called the current EU trade commissioner "totally incompetent" and bereft of political and democratic experience.

Ashton -- who a decade ago was running a regional health authority in England -- has promised to prove herself.

"Over the next few months and years I aim to show that I am the best person for the job," she said in a recent BBC interview.

"I think for quite a few people they would say that I am the best person for the job and I was chosen because I am."

The eurosceptic Daily Telegraph in London sees her as a perfect fit for the EU culture: "She is totally untainted by any experience of democratic election at any stage in her career... this serial appointee is custom-made for high EU office."

The EU parliament is not expected to reject her as MEPs did not want a big hitter who would be difficult to control, according to parliamentary sources.

The new commission as a whole, with members from all 27 EU nations each with a separate policy area, is not expected to be formally in place before February.

However, before the end of the year EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso will be busy handing out portfolios. He cannot make too much progress at the moment as three national governments -- Denmark, Malta and the Netherlands -- have still not presented their nominees.

The largest nations, such as France and Germany, are pushing for the prime economic portfolios, where the EU executive has the most clout.

Given her lack of foreign policy experience, Ashton will have to learn quickly on the job.

Ashton's commission office admitted that her diary for next week has not yet been finalised. Aides say it is not even clear where Ashton's office will be.

However, the EU agenda is busy.

On December 4, there will be an EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev.

Three days later there will be a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels ahead of a full European summit on December 10.

Adding to the confusion she will take up her duties next Tuesday, halfway through a key World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting from next Monday through Wednesday.