From Andrew Rettman, the EUobserver:  The EU’s new ambassador to the US, Joao Vale de Almeida, has underlined the new powers conferred on EU envoys by the Lisbon Treaty while taking up his post in Washington.

In a series of interviews to US-based press on Tuesday (10 August), the ambassador noted that he is empowered to speak on behalf of EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and EU member states.

"I do not wish or will impose myself on the member states’ ambassadors … Where we have a common position, I am the one leading the show. Bilateral matters are the mandate of the 27 [EU member state] ambassadors," he told the Washington Times.

"In this area code, you call me," he added, on the apocryphal tale of former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger once asking whom he should telephone if he wants to speak to the EU.

"I’m the first new type of ambassador for the European Union anywhere in the world," he told Agence France Presse. …

Mr Vale de Almeida’s appointment, decided in Brussels earlier this year, saw allegations of cronyism against the EU commission. Mr Barroso, a fellow Portuguese countryman of Mr Vale de Almeida, reportedly pushed through the nomination over Ms Ashton’s head.

EU diplomats at the time also complained the new ambassador – a former journalist who served as an EU commission press spokesman, an advisor to Mr Barroso and, briefly, as head of the commission’s external relations department, but who has no diplomatic experience – is not up to the job.  (photo: Diario de Noticias)

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