Senior EU official talks foreign policy, economics

Catherine Ashton, vice president of the European Commission and high representative for foreign affairs and security policy for the European Union, discussed the foreign and economic policy issues binding the 27 EU member states in a talk at Robertson Hall on Monday.

In her introduction of Ashton, Wilson School professor Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 drew attention to Ashton’s work as founder of the European External Action Service, a department that serves as the central foreign ministry and diplomatic corps for the EU.

The organization was the first of its kind in the EU and has diverse tasks ranging from coordinating disaster responses to crafting policy for advancing developing economies.

“She was appointed to represent the European Union without a budget, and really without a staff ... being told to get her budget through the European Parliament and to create the European Action Service, which I predict in 10 or 20 years will mean that the EU has the equivalent of the U.S. foreign service around the world with thousands of very talented diplomats who will represent the EU,” Slaughter said.

“Catherine set it up herself, on no budget essentially.”

Ashton grounded her discussion of foreign policy with a brief account of the creation of the EU.

She noted that the underlying economic and trade issues behind the EU’s formation eventually evolved into broader concerns for issues such as freedom and rule of law that penetrate society as a whole.

“[The EU] began with economic issues — iron, steel — but developed through to the point where you have trade as a European competence, something I dealt with as trade commissioner,” she said.

“As countries began to gather around this idea, there was the growing realization that it could be something much, much more.”

Drawing on her experience as the former trade commissioner of the EU and her recent work with the EAS, she also outlined the interrelated nature of advances in development policy.

“When you work on development policy, you’re in foreign policy — you’re in the relationship between you and those countries,” she explained.

“We know it’s important to see development in the context of building the economy, but also [that] building the economy is directly linked to building the kind of society that people want.”

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Democracy, human rights and the rule of law are fundamental and core to work in foreign policy and development, Ashton said, discussing examples from contemporary politics including the European unease about the instability in Middle East and North African countries such as Egypt and Libya.

Students attending the event said that while they appreciated hearing Ashton speak, the brevity of her discussion, which occurred over about 40 minutes, prevented her from engaging the topics with the depth they deserved.

“It was a definitely a privilege being here,” Stephen Turner ’12 said, “but I would’ve liked her to delve more into the details of specific trade deals and policy, and she seemed oddly silent on the current European economic crisis.”