Controversial EU foreign policy chief visits Warsaw

Baroness Catherine Ashton, much criticised as chief of the EU’s foreign policy, will be spending half a day in Warsaw on Monday.

This will be the first visit to Poland by Baroness Ashton since her surprise selection as High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union on December 1. She is to meet with Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski and Defence Minister Bogdan Klich.

"We are to have talks on the Eastern Partnership, as we have some proposals for Baroness Aashton,” Minister Sikorski said. “We will also discuss priorities for Poland’s six-month [rotating] presidency of the EU next year, energy security and strengthening European defence policy,” he added.
Sikorski and Ashton will also discuss possible Polish candidates for deputy head of EU diplomacy, which could include European Minister Mikołaj Dowgielewicz or MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.
Ashton will stop off in Warsaw on her way to a two-day EU-Russia summit in Rostov-on-Don, western Russia.

On May 1, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that Baroness Ashton - whose selection as EU High Representative of Foreign Policy last year made many in Brussels scratch their heads in disbelief - such was her inexperience at this level - will leave her post this year, forced out after heavy criticism.

Karel Lannoo at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels told Polish Radio that the news is only to be expected. In his opinion, Ashton has repeatedly shown to be unable to present one common voice for the European Union to the world. "For example, after the earthquake in Haiti, EU aid was not at all coordinated," he said.

source: Thenews.pl (pg)