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Catherine Ashton

 
Wikipedia: Catherine Ashton


The Right Honourable
 The Baroness Ashton of Upholland 
PC


Incumbent
Assumed office 
1 December 2009
Preceded by Javier Solana (High Representative for CFSP)
Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Commissioner for External Relations)

In office
3 October 2008 – 1 December 2009
President José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by Peter Mandelson
Succeeded by Benita Ferrero-Waldner

In office
27 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by The Baroness Amos
Succeeded by The Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Born 20 March 1956 (1956-03-20) (age 53)
Upholland, United Kingdom
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Peter Kellner (1988–present)
Residence St Albans, United Kingdom
Alma mater Bedford College
Wigan Mining and Technical College
Upholland Grammar School

Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, PC (born 20 March 1956) is the first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU), a post she assumed when the Lisbon Treaty took effect on 1 December 2009.[1] She was appointed to this post at a summit of the 27 European Council leaders in Brussels on 19 November 2009, which also nominated Belgium's prime minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first permanent President of the European Council.[2] Concurrent with Ashton's appointment as High Representative, she becomes the first vice-president of the European Commission which is subject to confirmation by the European Parliament.[3]

A British Labour politician, Ashton was made a life peer in 1999 by the Labour government and held junior ministerial appointments in three government departments. She was later appointed Leader of the House of Lords and, in that role, was instrumental in steering the Lisbon Treaty through Britain's Upper House.[4] In 2008, she succeeded Peter Mandelson as Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission.

Contents

Early life

Catherine Ashton was born in Upholland, Lancashire on 20 March 1956 (on being awarded a Labour life-peerage in 1999, she chose her title as a tribute to her home-town).[5][6] She attended Upholland Grammar School in Billinge Higher End, Lancashire, then Wigan Mining and Technical College in Wigan.[7] Ashton went on to undertake (in her own words) "a broad degree in economics" at Bedford College (now part of Royal Holloway), University of London; she graduated with a BSc in sociology in 1977.[8][9][10]

Career

In the United Kingdom

Between 1977 and 1983 Ashton worked for the the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as an administrator and in 1982 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.

Catherine Ashton, as Leader of the House of Lords, in 2007

She was made a life peer as Baroness Ashton of Upholland in 1999, at the request 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 for Sure 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]

In the European institutions

European Commission

On 3 October 2008, she was nominated to replace Peter Mandelson as the UK's European Commissioner in Brussels. Under Article 213 of the Treaty establishing the European Community as amended, Commissioners must not engage in any other occupation during their term of office, whether gainful or not.[18] To enable Ashton to take up her position legally, she used the procedural device used in 1984 for Lord Cockfield[19] and took a leave of absence from the House of Lords on 14 October 2008,[20] retaining the 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, on the basis that she "has 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]

Ashton's appointment as European Commissioner was subject to Council approval by qualified majority under Article 215 of the Treaty establishing the European Community as amended.[18]

EU High Representative

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 Minister Tony 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 relative obscurity caused considerable comment in the media with The Guardian newspaper reporting that her appointment as High Representative had astonished friends and provoked criticism from others. 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, never having been elected to any office. For example, on her appointment, the associate editor of The Spectator, and former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Rod Liddle, wrote: "Never elected by anyone, anywhere, totally unqualified for almost every job she has done, she has risen to her current position presumably through a combination of down-the-line Stalinist political correctness and the fact that she has the charisma of a caravan site on the Isle of Sheppey."[27] According to one Whitehall source[who?]: "Cathy just got lucky...The appointment of her and Herman Van Rompuy [as European Council president] was a complete disgrace. They are no more than garden gnomes."[citation needed] On the other hand, Shami Chakrabarti, the director of a pressure group called Liberty, 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."[citation needed] 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."[28]

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."[6]

Personal life

She lives in St Albans with her husband, Peter Kellner, (whom she married in 1988 in Westminster, London), the President of online polling organisation, YouGov.[29] She has two children, both born in Cambridge: Robert Peter Kellner (born 1989) and Rebecca Clare Kellner (born late 1991 / early 1992)[30] and three stepchildren.[14]

She was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of East London in 2005.[31]

She has a full-sized Dalek in her sitting room (a present from her husband).[32]

Allegations of covert Soviet support for CND

Ashton is facing questions in the Europen Parliament over her role as national treasurer in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s, amid claims that it may have had financial links to the Soviet Union.

The 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. UKIP claims that it has obtained documents that show that the first audited accounts of CND, for 1982-83, found that 38 per cent of its income for that year, or £176,197, could not be traced back to the original donors. The person responsible for this part of CND fund-raising, from anonymous donors, they allege, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.” The letter, based on allegations made by Vladimir Bukovsky, a former Soviet dissident, claimed that it is “very likely” that CND received “unidentified income” from Moscow in the 1980s. [33][34]

Ashton’s office declined to discuss CND’s funding in detail. It said that she “left CND in 1983 and had no involvement after that”.

Nigel Farage, the UK Independence Party’s then leader and Member of the European Parliament, was reprimanded by the President of the Parliament for the tone of his speech in the European Parliament in which he asked whether Mr Barroso would to investigate whether Ashton had received money “from enemies of the West” [35].

The same allegations against the same allegations of 'funds from Moscow' were made in in the late 1970s.[36] Despite intelligence service penetration of CND,[37][original research?] no evidence was ever produced to support the illicit funding claim. Speaking to the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (where she was questioned on the 'funds from Moscow' story), Ashton noted that she had been responsible for arranging (for the fisrt time) an audit of CND's accounts. In her recollection (after nearly 30 years), the money that could not be attributed was from thousands of small individual donations to collecting buckets.[38] Her recollection was supported by a colleague at the time.[39]

References

  1. ^ "Baroness Ashton appointed as EU's foreign policy chief". BBC News. 19 November 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8369477.stm. Retrieved 25 November 2009. 
  2. ^ "Herman Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton chosen to lead EU". The Guardian. 20 November 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/20/van-rompuy-lady-ashton-eu. 
  3. ^ Geoff Meade (19 November 2009). "Baroness Ashton's EU role 'gives Britain a powerful voice'". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/baroness-ashtons-eu-role-gives-britain-a-powerful-voice-1823742.html. Retrieved 25 November 2009. 
  4. ^ Profile: Baroness Ashton, EU's new foreign ministerDaily Telegraph, Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Published: 6:30AM GMT 20 Nov 2009
  5. ^ EU Trade Commisioner Catherine Ashton EU Commission (official website)
  6. ^ a b Lady Ashton: Principled, charming ... or just plain lucky Nicholas Watt, Brussels, guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 November 2009 19.58 GMT
  7. ^ Who's Who
  8. ^ Davie, Edward; Catherine Ashton (2007-10-15). "Baroness of the barricades". The House Magazine (Archived). http://www.webcitation.org/5lPUvRO7N. Retrieved 2009-11-22. 
  9. ^ a b Dept of Politics & International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London, "Movers and Shakers among the Department's former students" Accessed 2009-11-19 (archived by WebCite® at [1])
  10. ^ Development & Alumni Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London, "Alumni in the Media" Accessed: 2009-11-19 (archived by WebCite® at [2])
  11. ^ [3] Debretts entry
  12. ^ Brunsden, Jim (2008-10-03). "New EU Commissioner Named". EuropeanVoice.com. http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2008/10/new-uk-commissioner-named/62560.aspx. Retrieved 2009-11-22. 
  13. ^ John Minnion and Philip Bolsover (eds.) The CND Story, Alison and Busby, 1983, ISBN 0 85031 487 9
  14. ^ a b BBC News profile, updated 19 Nov 2009
  15. ^ "Gay rights advocate Cathy Ashton is new EU foreign affairs chief". PinkNews.co.uk. 2009-11-20. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/11/20/gay-rights-advocate-cathy-ashton-is-new-eu-foreign-affairs-chief/. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
  16. ^ "New Cabinet appointments". 2007-06-28. http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12165.asp. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  17. ^ Profile: Baroness Ashton, EU's new foreign minister, Daily Telegraph, Bruno Waterfield in Brussels, 20 November 2009
  18. ^ a b Rome Treaty (TEC): PART IV Title I Chapter 1 Section 3: The Commission, Articles 211 to 219
  19. ^ HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1980s → 1984 → December 1984 → 12 December 1984 → Written Answers (Commons) → PRIME MINISTER, from HC Deb 12 December 1984 vol 69 c493W
  20. ^ Lords Hansard text for 14 Oct 2008 (pt 13)
  21. ^ European Parliament Focus briefing "Ashton backs Doha rescue in Q&A with MEPs"
  22. ^ Hannan, Daniel (2008-10-10). "Why I shall be voting against Peter Mandelson's replacement". The Daily Telegraph. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/10/10/why_i_shall_be_voting_against_peter_mandelsons_replacement. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  23. ^ "European Parliament approves new EU trade chief". People's Daily Online. 2008-10-22. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6519663.html. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  24. ^ Castle, Stephen (2008-10-10). "Europe and South Korea Sign Trade Pact". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/business/global/16trade.html. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 
  25. ^ "Belgian PM named as EU president". BBC News. 2009-10-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8367589.stm. 
  26. ^ "UK drops Blair, picks Ashton for EU role". Yahoo News. 2009-10-19. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091119/tuk-uk-drops-blair-picks-ashton-for-eu-r-a7ad41d_1.html. 
  27. ^ A charisma free zone, The Spectator Rod Liddle, Saturday, 21st November 2009
  28. ^ Wigan Evening Post (2009-11-24). Baroness Cathy's key role on world stage. Wigan Today, 24 November 2009. Retrieved from http://www.wigantoday.net/women/Baroness-Cathy39s-key-role-on.5853008.jp.
  29. ^ "Person Page – 12633". thepeerage.com. 2006-05-09. http://www.thepeerage.com/p12633.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  30. ^ Marriages and Births England and Wales 1984-2006
  31. ^ "UEL Alumni Newsletter". http://www.uel.ac.uk/alumni/newsletter/december2005.htm. 
  32. ^ "FT Article". http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2009/11/cathy-ashton-10-things-you-may-not-need-to-know/. 
  33. ^ "Baroness Ashton questioned over CND and Soviet money", The Daily Telegraph, 25-11-2009
  34. ^ "Better red than dead?" The Economist, 26-11-09
  35. ^ "Nigel Farage reprimanded for criticising Baroness Ashton", Youtube 25 November 2009
  36. ^ Ashton faces accusations ahead of Parliament hearing. UKIP accusations 'laughable', says former colleague - EurActiv. "Smith [a colleague of Ashton's at the time] noted that he was involved in a legal case over this same issue when the British Federation of Conservative Students made serious enough allegations about Soviet funding of the CND for him to sue for libel."
  37. ^ Business of the House (of Commons) Hansard HC Deb 24 July 1986 vol 102 cc693-712 Dale Campbell-Savours, in a reply to a question, acknowleges that MI5 officer Catherine Massiter had been assigned to gather intelligence in CND
  38. ^ EU's new High Representative Catherine Ashton Says That She Would Help Europe “Punch Its Weight” Politically eGov Monitor
  39. ^ Ashton faces accusations ahead of Parliament hearing. UKIP accusations 'laughable', says former colleague - EurActiv. 'Speaking to EurActiv from London, Smith said UKIP's accusation that the CND was "notoriously secretive about its sources of funding" is misguided, given that a large proportion of the NGO's revenue came from small donations at outdoor demonstrations across Europe in the 1980s. The accumulation of such small cash donations is impossible to trace, he said.' (EurActiv)

External links

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 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
Vice President of the European Commission
2009–present
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Javier Solana
Secretary General of the Western European Union
2009–present
Incumbent

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