{"id":734,"date":"2014-08-30T12:14:42","date_gmt":"2014-08-30T10:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexandrabosbeer.com\/blog\/?p=734"},"modified":"2015-06-19T12:17:04","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T10:17:04","slug":"euro-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alexandrabosbeer.com\/blog\/euro-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Euro Top"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Originally published on the blog of the Quaker Council for European Affairs, qceablog.wordpress.com]<\/p>\n

Update 30 August:<\/em>\u00a0The European Council meeting has ended with\u00a0the announcement<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0Poland\u2019s Donald Tusk<\/a>\u00a0has been named the President of the European Council and\u00a0Italy\u2019s Frederica Mogherini<\/a>\u00a0as the new EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Frederica Mogherini has been Italy\u2019s national Foreign Affairs minister for just over six months. We might be pleased to see a fresh face, \u2013 but Mogherini has a reputation for being overly friendly to Russia. (One profiler interprets this as \u2018just following orders\u2019<\/a>, but this is of even greater concern!)<\/p>\n

As a\u00a0Brookings Institute commentator has recently written<\/a>\u00a0:<\/p>\n

No one claims that Mogherini is the best person to deal with Russia but asking who is is not seen as a relevant question\u2026.Appointing the right person could serve the purpose of rallying the member states, pressuring them to stick to their previous declarations, and being a powerful voice for Europe\u2019s values and its interests in a peaceful and free continent.<\/p>\n

The Heads of Government are, as I write, meeting with Poroshenko, the president on Ukraine\u00a0who yesterday announced a desire to join NATO<\/a>. The crisis in Ukraine is a real threat to peace in Europe, andone which is escalating<\/a>. It is the\u00a0External Action Service<\/a>\u00a0-the agency of this the High Representative of Foreign Affairs is the head \u2013 which is said to be tasked with providing confirmation to the EU as to changes, such as confirmation of recent claims of increased incursion by Russian troops into eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

I was a young women working with Russians organising citizen exchanges in the exciting time of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and I got to know Russian culture very well. (Visits back more than 15 years later were shocking in how little things had changed, since the country had change so very much in form.) Having someone with a naive approach to Russia overseeing EU foreign policy a step in the wrong direction. Conflict and violence are often choices of the last resort: we will be enabled to resolve this issue peacefully with a strong foreign affairs chief who is able to find -and stand firmly for- peace in Europe.<\/p>\n

Mogherini and the rest of the Commissioners must be\u00a0confirmed by the European Parliament\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 there is still time to write to\u00a0your MEP<\/a>\u00a0and outline the need for a focus on courage, openness, and consensus-building in the new foreign affairs and security policy chief.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>Tomorrow,\u00a030 August, there will be a special meeting<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0European Council<\/a>. This is a gathering of Heads of Government of the European Union Member States, a summit. (I rather like the phrase often used in Dutch, as brief and descriptive: \u2018Euro Top\u2019.)<\/p>\n

One of the main items on the agenda is attempting to\u00a0make decisions regarding the candidates for the top positions in the European Union<\/a>, especially\u00a0the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy,responsible for all aspects of the EU\u2019s foreign and security policy<\/a>, and the person who must ensure that the EU\u2019s foreign policy furthers the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights and peace. The same meeting is expected to\u00a0review the developments in Ukraine<\/a>, which makes it directly relevant to peace on the European continent.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment,\u00a0the slate of Commission candidates\u00a0<\/a>is made up of nominees by the different Member States. The High Representative position is decided directly by the Council, and the others, after being nominated by their countries and agreed by the European Council, are given a portfolio by\u00a0the Commission president<\/a>, Jean-Claude Juncker. Each nominee will then be subject to vetting by the\u00a0European Parliament<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the\u00a0Parliament has notified Juncker<\/a>\u00a0that a Commission without a gender balance will be rejected. And yet\u00a0the Member States have nominated<\/a>\u00a0many more men than women. The\u00a0Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN)<\/a>\u00a0of which QCEA is a member, has published\u00a0a job description for the position of High Representative for Foreign Affairs<\/a>. QCEA summarises the skills under three headings:<\/p>\n