Catherine Ashton
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(Redirected from Lady Ashton)
For the lady-in-waiting, married name Catherine Ashton, see Lady Catherine Gordon.
| Catherine Ashton | |
|---|---|
| File:Catherine Ashton HRVP.jpg | |
| High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1 December 2009 | |
| President | Herman Van Rompuy |
| Preceded by | Javier Solana (High Representative for CFSP) Benita Ferrero-Waldner(Commissioner for External Relations) |
| First Vice President of the European Commission | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 9 February 2010 | |
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Margot Wallström |
| European Commissioner for Trade | |
| In office 3 October 2008 – 1 December 2009 | |
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Peter Mandelson |
| Succeeded by | Benita Ferrero-Waldner |
| Leader of the House of Lords Lord President of the Council | |
| In office 27 June 2007 – 3 October 2008 | |
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | The Baroness Amos |
| Succeeded by | The Baroness Royall of Blaisdon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 20 March 1956 Upholland, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Peter Kellner (1988–present) |
| Residence | St Albans, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Bedford College |
Catherine Ashton, PC (born 20 March 1956), is a British Labour politician who in 2009 became the European Union High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Under the Lisbon Treaty this post is combined with the post of Vice-President of the European Commission.
Her political career began in 2009 when she was created a Life Peer by the Labour Government under which she took on a ministerial position (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001, and subsequently in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and Ministry of Justice. She became a Privy Councillor in May 2006. Catherine Ashton was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Queen's Privy Council in Gordon Brown’s first Cabinet in June 2007. As well as Leader of the Lords, she held responsibility in the House of Lords for equalities issues. She also steered the Lisbon Treaty through the UK's upper chamber.
In 2008, she succeeded Peter Mandelson as Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission. In December 2009 she became the first person to take on the newly enlarged High Representative role for the EU as created by the Treaty of Lisbon.[1]
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Early life
Catherine Ashton was born in Upholland, Lancashire on 20 March 1956.[2][3] Her father, Harold, was a civil engineer and came from a working class family, with a background in coal mining going back generations.[4][5][6] She attended Upholland Grammar School in Billinge Higher End, Lancashire, then Wigan Mining and Technical College in Wigan.[7] Ashton graduated with a BSc in sociology in 1977 from Bedford College, London (now part of Royal Holloway, University of London). She was the first woman in her family to attend a university.[8][9][10][5]
Early Career in the United Kingdom
Between 1977 and 1983 Ashton worked for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) as an administrator and in 1982 was elected as its national treasurer and subsequently as one of its vice-chairs. From 1979 to 1981 she was Business Manager of The Coverdale Organisation, a management consultancy.[11][12] As of 1983 she worked for the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work.[13] From 1983 to 1989 she was Director of Business in the Community working with business to tackle inequality, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship.[citation needed] For most of the 1990s, she worked as a freelance policy adviser.[9][14] She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001, and her children's school governing body, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families.
She was made a Labour life peer as Baroness Ashton of Upholland in 1999, at the advice of Tony Blair.[citation needed] In June 2001 she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills. In 2002 she was appointed minister forSure Start in the same department. In September 2004, she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, with responsibilities including the National Archives and the Public Guardianship Office. Ashton was sworn of the Privy Council in 2006, and became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the new Ministry of Justice in May 2007.
In 2005 she was voted "Minister of the Year" by The House Magazine and "Peer of the Year" by Channel 4. In 2006 she won the "Politician of the Year" award at the annual Stonewall Awards, awarded to those that have made a positive impact on the lives of British LGBT people.[15]
On 28 June 2007 the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, appointed her to the Cabinet as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council.[16] As Leader of the House, she was responsible for passing the Lisbon Treaty through the House of Lords.[17]
EU Trade Commissioner
On 3 October 2008, she was nominated to replace Peter Mandelson as the UK's European Commissioner in Brussels. European Commissioners may not engage in any other occupation during their term of office, whether gainful or not[18] so, in order to take up her position, she used the procedural device previously used in 1984 by Lord Cockfield[19] and took a leave of absence from the House of Lords on 14 October 2008,[20] retaining her peerage but not her seat.[21]
Her appointment as Trade Commissioner was scrutinised by the European Parliament. She was criticised by Daniel Hannan, a British Conservative MEP, saying that she had "no background in trade issues at a time when the EU is engaged in critical negotiations with Canada, Korea and the WTO".[22] However, following her public confirmation hearing by the Trade Committee of the European Parliament, Ashton was approved by the Parliament on 22 October 2008 with 538 to 40 votes, and 63 abstentions.[23] She has since finished negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement with Korea and initialled it in October 2009.[24]
High Representative
Further information: High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy#Ashton
On 19 November 2009, Ashton was appointed the EU's first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Her appointment was agreed by a summit of 27 European Union leaders in Brussels. After actively pushing for former British Prime MinisterTony Blair to become President of the European Council, Gordon Brown eventually relented on the condition that the High Representative position was awarded to a Briton.[25][26]
Ashton's position also presides over several European institutions, including the European Union Institute for Security Studies as the Chair of its Board.
Ashton's relative obscurity caused considerable comment in the media with The Guardian newspaper reporting that her appointment as High Representative had received a 'cautious welcome as EU foreign minister from international relations experts'.[27] The Economistdescribed her as being a virtual unknown with paltry political experience, having no foreign-policy background and having never beenelected to anything. The magazine did however credit her with having piloted the Lisbon Treaty through the House of Lords, having handled the European Commission's trade portfolio without falling out with her colleagues, and being suited to consensus-building.[28]
Former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke said: "Cathy is a bit surprised and so is everyone else. I have seen Cathy in action. I have great respect for her. She is excellent at building good relations with people and a good negotiator."[citation needed]On the other hand, critics say she is likely to be out of her depth. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of a pressure group calledLiberty, who became friends with Ashton when she was a minister at the Department of Constitutional Affairs, said her critics were wrong: "People underestimate Cathy at their peril. She is not a great big bruiser. She is a persuader and a charmer. That is the secret of her success."[3] Her friend, Ian McCartney, MP, said on her appointment: "She is a Wigan girl who has really made good... She is supportive of working people and has never forgotten her roots."[29] The morning after her appointment, Ashton told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Over the next few months and years I aim to show that I am the best person for the job. I hope that my particular set of skills will show that in the end I am the best choice."[3]
In February 2010, it emerged that Ashton had been heavily criticised within the EU community for a number of actions, including her failure to visit Haiti in the wake of the earthquake. She was also criticised for allegedly lacking leadership abilities during ministerial meetings and policy briefing. Senior officials within her team complained that she speaks only in "generalities". She drew criticism, for the fact that she cannot speak any foreign languages.Britain’s High Representative is letting Europe down badly. Lady Ashton does not cut la moutarde. Ashton has been angered by the criticism, which, according to aides, she argues is a result of the "latent sexism" within the EU community. Ashton came under further criticism, including explicit criticism from national defence ministers Hervé Morin, Carme Chacón, Jack de Vries, and EU minister Pierre Lellouche, for her failure to attend the European Defence Summit in Majorca.[30]
In February 2011 Baroness Ashton has come bottom of the class in a survey rating the performance of European Commissioners. Sixty nine per cent of 324 Brussels "policy-makers", with EU and national officials constituting the largest group, ranked Europe's first foreign minister as "disappointing" or "below average". The survey, carried out by Burson-Marsteller, a lobbying and PR company, asked respondents to rate European Commissioners on a report card grading of A to E.
Secretary General Pierre Vimont joined those defending Ashton from criticism; praising her work in opening the EEAS office in Benghazi,Libya as making the EEAs very popular in Libya. He also supported her over Syria and has asked her to stand for a second term. Polish Minister for Europe, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, also stated criticism against Ashton was "a lot of hot air" and that "she has an impossible job to do and she is doing it well. At the end of her time in office, people will be more positive about what she has done. She will leave a real legacy."[31]
Personal life
She lives in London with her husband, Peter Kellner, the President of online polling organisation, YouGov.[32] She has two children, and three stepchildren.
She was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of East London in 2005.[33]
Besides her mother tongue English, Ashton had some knowledge of French[34] but was not fluent in any foreign language at the time of her inauguration.
Controversies
Ashton faced questions in the European Parliament over her role as national treasurer in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s, amid claims by its opponents that it may have had financial links to the Soviet Union.
The eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party has written to Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, asking him to investigate whether Ashton was party to payments that he alleged were made to CND from the Soviet regime in Moscow.
Ashton’s office refused to discuss CND’s funding in detail. It merely said that she “left CND in 1983 and had no involvement after that”.
References
- ^ "Baroness Ashton appointed as EU's foreign policy chief". BBC News. 19 November 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
- ^ EU Trade Commisioner Catherine Ashton EU Commission (official website)
- ^ a b c Lady Ashton: Principled, charming ... or just plain lucky Nicholas Watt, Brussels, guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 November 2009 19.58 GMT
- ^ La discréte Lady Europe, Le Monde, Marion Van Renterghem, Jeudi 10 décembre
- ^ a b PROFILE: Catherine AshtonThe Sunday Times, 14 March 2010
- ^ PROFILE: Catherine AshtonThe Sunday Times, 14 March 2010
- ^ Who's Who
- ^ Davie, Edward; Catherine Ashton (15 October 2007). "Baroness of the barricades". The House Magazine (Archived). Retrieved 22 November 2009.
- ^ a b Dept of Politics & International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London, "Movers and Shakers among the Department's former students" Accessed 19 November 2009 (archived by WebCite at WebCitation)
- ^ Development & Alumni Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London, "Alumni in the Media" Accessed: 19 November 2009 (archived by WebCite at WebCitation)
- ^ The Baroness Ashton of Upholland, PC Debretts entry
- ^ Brunsden, Jim (3 October 2008). "New EU Commissioner Named". EuropeanVoice.com. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
- ^ John Minnion and Philip Bolsover (eds.) The CND Story, Alison and Busby, 1983, ISBN 0-85031-487-9
- ^ "Profile: EU foreign minister Baroness Ashton". BBC News. 6 December 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
- ^ "Gay rights advocate Cathy Ashton is new EU foreign affairs chief". PinkNews.co.uk. 20 November 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
- ^ "New Cabinet appointments". 28 June 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ Profile: Baroness Ashton, EU's new foreign minister, Daily Telegraph, Bruno Waterfield in Brussels, 20 November 2009
- ^ Under Article 213 of the Treaty establishing the European Community as amended:Rome Treaty (TEC): PART IV Title I Chapter 1 Section 3: The Commission, Articles 211 to 219
- ^ Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, House of Common Debates volume 69 column 493W (12 December 1984) HANSARD
- ^ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Lords, Westminster. "Lords Hansard text for 14 Oct 2008 (pt 13)". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
- ^ "European Parliament Focus briefing "Ashton backs Doha rescue in Q&A with MEPs"". Europarl.europa.eu. 21 October 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
- ^ Hannan, Daniel (10 October 2008). "Why I shall be voting against Peter Mandelson's replacement". The Daily Telegraph (UK). Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ "European Parliament approves new EU trade chief". People's Daily Online. 22 October 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ Castle, Stephen (10 October 2008). "Europe and South Korea Sign Trade Pact". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- ^ "Belgian PM named as EU president". BBC News. 19 October 2009.
- ^ "UK drops Blair, picks Ashton for EU role". Yahoo News. 19 October 2009.
- ^ Catherine Ashton: 'As trade commissioner she had a good reputation': British peer receives cautious welcome as EU foreign minister from international relations experts –The Guardian Friday 20 November 2009 15.04 GMT
- ^ page12 The Economist 28 November-4 December 2009
- ^ Wigan Evening Post Baroness Cathy's key role on world stage Wigan Today, 24 November 2009
- ^ Baroness Ashton under fire for missing European defence summitThe Times, 26 February 2010, David Charter and Graham Keeley
- ^ Carroll, Dean (6 September 2011) Catherine Ashton for a second term at the EEAS?, Public Service Europe, accessed 20 September 2011
- ^ "Person Page – 12633". thepeerage.com. 9 May 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ "UEL Alumni Newsletter".
- ^ Claus Hecking (25 March 2010). "Sprachkenntnisse der Spitzenpolitiker: Französisch: mangelhaft". FTD.de. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Catherine Ashton |
- EU Vice President Catherine Ashton, Official Media Gallery
- HR website as Vice President of the European Commission for External Relations
- HR website in the Council of the European Union
- Biography from the Department for Constitutional Affairs
- Announcement of her introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 10 October 1999
- BBC News (19 November 2009): A profile of EU Foreign Minister Cathy Ashton
Offices held
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Baroness Amos | Leader of the House of Lords 2007–2008 | Succeeded by The Baroness Royall of Blaisdon |
| Lord President of the Council 2007–2008 | ||
| Preceded by Peter Mandelson | European Commissioner for Trade 2008–2009 | Succeeded by Benita Ferrero-Waldner |
| European Commissioner from the United Kingdom 2008–present | Incumbent | |
| Preceded by Javier Solana as High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy | High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy 2009–present | |
| Preceded by Benita Ferrero-Waldner as European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy | ||
| Preceded by Margot Wallström | First Vice President of the European Commission 2010–present | |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by The Baroness Amos | Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords 2007–2008 | Succeeded by The Baroness Royall of Blaisdon |
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