By Brian Johnson - 27th July 2010
Our aim is to do foreign policy in a modern way, differently and better. Not to compete with or duplicate what our member states are doing, but to add value and play to our strength of acting as a union
Catherine Ashton
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has welcomed the decision by EU member states to give the final nod of approval to the setting up of the European external action service (EAS).
Ministers gave the new EU diplomatic corps the green light on Monday, during a general affairs council meeting in Brussels.
Welcoming the decision, Ashton said, "I am delighted that in the four short months since I tabled the proposal, we have come so far.
"We can now move forward to build a modern, effective and distinctly European service for the 21st century."
The ministers' agreement should bring to an end the somewhat ill-tempered and often public dispute between the EU's institutions over the size and shape of the new service. However further political battles still lie ahead as EU member states vie with each other for the plum senior posts within the service.
The new service, which is expected to employ around 6000 personnel, will be staffed predominantly from the EU institutions, in a move designed to limit the influence of member states.
Aston will also have to win backing for her plans to amend the EU's 2010 budget, if the service is to be up and running in time for the first anniversary of the Lisbon treaty at the end of the year.
Writing in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Ashton said that getting the EU's three main institutions to agree on the EAS was "not easy".
But the real significance of Monday's decision "lies outside Brussels" she said, adding, "Our aim is to do foreign policy in a modern way, differently and better. Not to compete with or duplicate what our member states are doing, but to add value and play to our strength of acting as a union."
"This is how we can best make a difference on the ground, and over time enhance global security and stability.
The value of the EAS will lie in its being able to bring together the many levers of influence that the EU has, economic and political, plus civil and military crisis management tools, in support of a single political strategy.
Ashton said, "This is not, as some critics say, a grab for power; but it is, unashamedly, a grab for effectiveness. The EAS can make a positive difference, and I am determined that it will."
