After eight years of bullying, cajoling and harrying, the EU formally introduces the Lisbon Treaty today and will replace the quiet man of foreign affairs, Javier Solana, with the unknown and unwanted Baroness Catherine Ashton.
Solana has led the EU bloc in foreign affairs for over a decade. His most notable achievement by far has been the steady centralization of foreign policy in Brussels. Concrete achievements toward global stability and security are virtually impossible to identify: Solana will leave office with a third of Georgia’s territory under Russian occupation, despite having the European Union take the lead in negotiations during the August 2008 War; Iran has just announced that it will further defy the international community and construct another 10 uranium enrichment plants despite years of much-trumpeted EU negotiations; and Russia has just simulated a nuclear attack on Poland, to deafening silence in Brussels.
From today onwards, a different voice will be on the end of the line when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rings ‘Europe’. The inexperienced and clueless Baroness Ashton, who has never held elective office, will take over the EU’s sprawling international bureaucracy and become the face of Europe. No one is expecting much and neither should Washington. Secretary Clinton should take note therefore: there is still no substitute for calling London, Paris, Berlin or Rome if she really needs to talk to ‘Europe’.
