La diplomatie de l’Ue forme ses bataillons
J-J. Mevel, Le Figaro
July 8 2010

While waiting to define a coherent foreign policy, Europe has established an autonomous diplomatic service. After months of negotiation, the Europarliament is set to approve, with the backing of the main political groupings, the creation of a European External Action Service. It is the moment of truth for Catherine Ashton. For the 27, who have not pulled their punches in their criticism of the English baroness, the time has come to put perplexities aside and bring to fruition an old European dream. It is also the moment to define the components of a service that will amount to 6,000 diplomats and civilian and military experts, who until now were scattered among the Commission, the Council and the capitals of the various countries. Lady Ashton's objective is to organise the new headquarters and have the External Action Service up and running by 1 January 2011. The Europarliament vote sanctions a compromise between the Commission and the Council: the euro-deputies will have the task of monitoring Catherine Ashton's budget, but they will not be able to monitor nor impose their veto on defence and security operations, which will remain under the control of the Council.