20th November 2009
Bridges Weekly | Ashton to Step Down as EU Trade Commissioner
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The European Union will be getting a new trade commissioner fewer than 14 months after Catherine Ashton was appointed to the post.
Lord Baronness Catherine Ashton of Upholland, formerly head of the UK’s House of Lords, has grabbed headlines around the world since it was announced on 19 November that she has been chosen to become the European Union’s first ‘High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy’.
Lutz Gullner, a spokesman for the EU Trade Commission’s office, said that Ashton will likely step down as trade commissioner as of 1 December, although she will probably not be officially confirmed in her new post until 1 January. In the meantime, she will serve as the EU’s ‘acting’ foreign affairs representative, Gullner added.
Ashton was appointed to the trade post in October 2008 when the previous trade commissioner, the UK’s Peter Mandelson, was called back to London to serve as a member of the cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown (see Bridges Weekly, 9 October 2008, http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/30855/). At the time, Ashton, who had virtually no experience on trade issues, was criticised by some as under-qualified for the job. Since then, however, she has reportedly proven herself among her colleagues.
“I have had the great privilege and pleasure to work with Commissioner Ashton on a number of important multilateral and bilateral trade issues over the past year, and I can say from my numerous exchanges with her that she possesses formidable intelligence, vision, compassion, and charm,” United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement. Her appointment to the EU’s top foreign policy post “is good news both for Europe and the United States,” he said.
Who is to succeed Ashton has not yet been decided. EU member states will submit their nominations to the European Commission, which will distribute the list in the next seven to ten days, the EU’s Guellner said. An announcement is expected soon thereafter.
ICTSD reporting.
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