Britain’s Catherine Ashton spent two hours on Wednesday answering questions from European Parliament members on how she plans to represent the EU on the global stage. Ashton responded to questions during an informal session of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee which was attended by hundreds of EU parliamentarians, diplomats and the media.
Ashton ducked a series of policy-specific questions, including where she stands on the issue of Turkey joining the EU although Turkey’s eventual EU accession is a stated aim of the bloc, news reports said “On Turkey, last time I looked there were 33 chapters [in the accession talks] of which Turkey has closed one. There are different views in the European Council on the whole view of enlargement and how best to progress with Turkey. We will have to discuss that, but it has been a long time and only one chapter, so we will have to discuss that,” Ashton, was, however, quoted as saying in the same news reports.
The EU’s outgoing trade commissioner, who has little foreign affairs experience, also ignored a question about the recognition of East Jerusalem as the Palestinians’ capital, an issue EU foreign ministers may discuss next week.
