Update: I stand corrected. Baroness Ashton will, it turns out, remain a member of the European Commission as well.
William Hague has just issued the following reaction to the appointment:
“We congratulate Herman van Rompuy and Cathy Ashton on their appointments. We wish them well. We will work with them in the British national interest. We did not agree with the Lisbon Treaty’s establishment of these posts but they are now a fact. We look to the President of the Council and the High Representative to ensure that the EU’s business as an association of nation states is conducted efficiently.
“So I am very pleased that those of us across Europe who said that the President should be a chairman, not a chief, have won the argument. Gordon Brown spent a great deal of energy and political capital trying to secure the presidency for Tony Blair. The summit’s result is a defeat for him. Now that Britain will no longer have an EU Commissioner with a major economic brief it will be vital that the British Government, whichever party is in power, engages closely with the EU Commission to ensure that it keeps to a pro-growth agenda.”
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It is being confirmed that Baroness Ashton is to be the EU's new "High Representative" - the job being described colloquially as "European Foreign Minister" (the Belgian Prime Minister is set for the job of President).
She is of course currently Britain's European Commissioner, so a vacancy is now created for that post. Would Gordon Brown dare send an MP out to Brussels and create a by-election? I think it highly unlikely. Ashfield - the seat of the most obvious Labour nominee, Geoff Hoon - was lost to the Conservatives in a by-election in 1977 when a Labour MP took a job in Europe.
So who might Brown send to Brussels now?
