SWEDISH FOREIGN minister Carl Bildt has taken a sideswipe at EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton over the appointment of a new EU ambassador to the US in succession to former Taoiseach John Bruton.
The European Commission last week handed the post to Vale de Almeida, a Portuguese EU official who is close to commission chief José Manuel Barroso, a former Portuguese prime minister.
Mr de Almeida was head of Mr Barroso’s private office during his first five-year term and was his personal representative for G8 and G20 summits since 2004. Last June he became EU director general for external relations.
In a letter to Baroness Ashton, Mr Bildt took issue with the manner of his appointment and questioned whether the job should have gone to a political figure.
The development marks the first public criticism of Baroness Ashton, a newcomer to international relations, from a senior figure in Europe’s diplomatic establishment.
Mr Bildt, a figure of vast experience on the European stage, questioned whether Mr de Almeida should have been appointed under new diplomatic structures being developed under the Lisbon Treaty.
Given that the ambassadorship was previously held by a former prime minister, he also questioned why the post was now reverting to the ranks of officialdom.
Mr Bildt’s intervention is seen to reflect unhappiness with Mr de Almeida’s appointment in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland.
These countries would have preferred an opportunity to make nominations for the job and would have an opportunity to do so within the diplomatic system being developed under Lisbon.
However, the appointment was under rules predating Lisbon as the vacancy opened before the treaty was enacted last December.
“In terms of the decision to send a very talented, able person to Washington, it was my decision to do so,” Baroness Ashton told reporters in Brussels.
“There are one or two member states who’d have liked to have been more involved in it . . . It should have been filled some time ago when John Bruton left in October. It wasn’t filled because we were looking to see the right candidate. We’ve now filled.
“So the procedure that I’ve followed is exactly the right procedure. Understandably, member states want to be as involved from now on as much as possible . . . We’ve dealt with it. It’s done.”