EU Parliament blocks new foreign minister

No sooner has Catherine Ashton been elected as the European Union's foreign minister than the EU Parliament has started blocking her assumption of office. Brussels is on the brink of making a fool of itself yet again, the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Will the current Trade Commissioner [Ashton] assume her new post on December 1, when the Lisbon Treaty comes into effect? That's what the European Council is pushing for at any rate. Or will she have to wait until the new European Commission has been formed and confirmed, which won't be before the end of next February, as the Parliament demands? Brussels threatens to plunge into a petty squabble about competences. The embarrassing thing about all this is that it is because of the Lisbon Treaty, hailed as a reform, that Ashton is stuck with this hybrid role. The Treaty stipulates that the High Representative is a member of both the Council and the Commission because he or she is also the latter's vice-president. And the Parliament has the last say on the Commission. The EU would be well advised to resolve the conflict quickly and quietly. Otherwise not only the foreign minister's international reputation will be tarnished even before she takes office, but also the longed-for Lisbon Treaty."

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