Ashton has the confidence of all the parties.

Baroness Ashton s voice at the recent European Council was characteristically muted.

That will not happen if Baroness Ashton remains a low profile operator.

The UN resolution pushed by Ashton neither refers to nor endorses Kosovo s independence.

Lady Ashton should be able to tie together the political and resource arms of Europe s external policies.

It has been French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister David Cameron who have vied for the limelight, leaving Ashton in the shadows.

Ashton s EEAS could have established a clear lead at a much earlier stage by responding publicly to the spreading Arab unrest.

Lady Ashton will need to be firm in dealing with Russia and with member states who subordinate Europe to the commercial interests of their national energy companies.

The European Union, now through High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, has always been a key actor in the negotiations between Iran and the P5 1.

conclude that It would not be inaccurate to say that 30 million people died prematurely as a result of errors of internal policy and flawed international relations.

During the Libyan crisis, Solana s successor, Catherine Ashton, deliberately sought to limit the EU s role to that of a super NGO focused on humanitarian aid and economic development.

write that policies leading to food shortages, natural disasters, and a slow response to initial indications of food shortages were to blame for the famine.

But it is not yet clear, whatever the Lisbon Treaty says, that Ashton has full control of either the EU external budget or of appointments to the new diplomatic service.

The EU s new High Representative for external affairs, Baroness Catherine Ashton, tried to justify her failure to go to Haiti in the immediate aftermath of its terrible earthquake by saying, I am neither a nurse nor a fire person.

Moreover, handshakes were exchanged by the two countries foreign ministers, when John Kerry and Javad Zarif, joined by the European Union s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, held a formal meeting to organize the upcoming nuclear negotiations in Geneva.

In September, Catherine Ashton, the EU s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, succeeded in breaking the deadlock in Serbia Kosovo relations by bringing both sides back to the negotiating table.

The joint statement released by European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif referred to the agreement as a joint plan of action that sets out an approach toward reaching a long term comprehensive solution.

This was a triumph for the EU s foreign policy chief, High Representative Baroness Catherine Ashton, who secured the backing of EU member states (even from the five that do not recognize Kosovo s independence), the United States, and both Serbia and Kosovo.

LONDON The selection of Herman van Rompuy as President of the European Union s Council of Ministers, and of Lady Catherine Ashton as the EU s foreign policy chief, surely underlines the extent to which member states are in the driver s seat in the EU.

BRUSSELS It took eight years of ill tempered political wrangling to create the European Union s new diplomatic service, but its fate and that of its chief, Catherine Ashton may well be decided over the next few weeks.

The European External Action Service (which serves as the EU s foreign ministry and diplomatic corps) is a work in progress, and the divisions between member states have affected High Representative Catherine Ashton s ability to speak for Europe on Libya.

But the nominees for those offices betrayed the intentions of all three EU powers honorable and competent though President Herman Van Rompuy and Baroness Catherine Ashton may be, they are perfectly unknown and thus pose no threat to the powers that be in Berlin, Paris, and London.

BERLIN In Istanbul this week, representatives of Iran and the 5 1 group (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany), led by European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, will resume talks about Iran s nuclear program.

Moreover, handshakes were exchanged by the two countries foreign ministers, when John Kerry and Javad Zarif, joined by the European Union s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, held a formal meeting to organize the upcoming nuclear negotiations in Geneva. Kerry and Zarif shook hands again when the two met separately.

Few expect such a colossal achievement, of course, but far fewer expect anything remotely similar from Catherine Ashton, the EU s foreign policy czarina, or, for that matter, any European leader.