Too many Brits – not enough Europeans

Baroness Ashton is in over her head and she is set to  appoint a large number of Brits to EAS. Read my theory as to what could really be going on with the EU’s new foreign policy institution. The Lisbon Treaty is to bring an External Actions Service (EAS), which is slated to be the diplomatic arm of the European Union and its foreign policy. Even as there are indications that Catherine Ashton is in over her head as far as being its Foreign Policy minister, her frequent trips home to the UK could have her under the influence of London. It will interesting to read her upcoming report on what her EAS will look like, but we can bet that it will be connected – some how and some way – to the old Atlantic order. We need to watch who she appoints and their connections to NATO, the so-called “Euro-Atlantic Community,” and to the US.There are accusations by especially Germany that Baroness Ashton is appointing too many Brits to important posts. Her cabinet is headed by James Morrison, a UK diplomat. This could also include Robert Cooper, who is director general of foreign policy in the European Council, is in some quarters seen as an obvious contender for job of the EAS director general. A leaked German paper argues that the UK “has assumed an “excessive” and “over-proportionate” role in EU foreign policy.According to EUobserver:

“Meanwhile, another series of Brits is waiting in the wings to take over key elements of the EAS architecture: the EU commission’s existing head of foreign delegations, Patrick Child; the chief of the EU Council’s military committee, David Leakey; and the head of its intelligence-sharing bureau, William Shapcott.”

My hypothesis is that these first oddball moves in the creation of the  EAS architecture were to … first …  appoint someone who is actually incompetent to be in this position (Baroness Ashton), and … second …  to steer this incompetent person with “advisers” from her home country to keep an independent EU chained to the US-led “Euro-Atlantic Community.”Well – there could be someone (or are someones) out there that does (do)  not want the European Union to go too far off its  “Euro-Atlantic Community” leash. Those that failed to defeat the Lisbon Treaty now get the token prize of the appointment of someone to the new EU Foreign Minister post who is very deep in over her head. To help her along, her home government, the United Kingdom (which we should recall how it is joined at the hip with Washington) “provides advisers.”Again from EUobserver:

“But her relative inexperience and her regular trips to the UK, where she has her family home, have aggravated fears that she is open to manipulation by London.While the over-arching proposal on the diplomatic corps has yet to be submitted to member states, Ms Ashton’s team last week began circulating “vision papers” for the service.”

We can readily suspect that a  UK inspired “vision”  of a European diplomatic corps could be damaging to the real European vision of the EU’s independent action in the world.  We can see that a UK “vision” of the EAS could be placed as subservient to American geopolitical interests and serve Washington’s desire to keep Europe chained up to the old, Cold War paradigms of NATO and US “leadership.” The UK “vision” probably is to render the  EAS architecture to the level of yet another “Euro-Atlantic institution,” which is the last thing this world and Europe wants or needs.Ashton makes the claim that she would like to “defend our interests or others will do it for us.” This is smelly rubbish given this kind of fishy developments surrounding the EU’s new foreign policy institutions.What Europeans should be calling for – especially France and Germany – are  appointments to the new EAS that have some proportional limits to the number of nationals from a single Member State.  So far, there is the danger of too many Atlanticists,  Americanists,  militant-NATO supporters, and the like, who want to maintain the old Cold War order, as it is,  while hamstringing the EU’s foreign policy from becoming a potential rival to the US on the world stage. What we could get is the continuation of an EU that serves US interests – and not allowed to develop to its rightful place in the world with a fully independent foreign and security policy.Articles: