From the Times (London): Simmering discontent across the European Union with Baroness Ashton of Upholland’s performance as its first foreign minister turned into outright criticism yesterday as several senior politicians from member states attacked her for missing a key defence meeting.
The sniping at Lady Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs — who attended the inauguration of President Yanukovych in Ukraine, rather than the European defence ministers’ meeting with the Nato SecretaryGeneral in Majorca — was led by the French…
“Isn’t it rich that this morning, to display the ties between Nato and the EU, we have the Nato SecretaryGeneral [Anders Fogh Rasmussen] here but not the High Representative for the first meeting since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect,” Hervé Morin, the French Defence Minister, said.
His Dutch counterpart, Jack de Vries, chimed in on Twitter: “Madame Ashton was notable by her absence.” He noted that Javier Solana, her pr