When Catherine Ashton was appointed to the job of high representative for foreign and security policy, there was some surprise that someone who had little more than a year’s international experience had got the EU’s top foreign affairs job. Ashton was new to trade policy negotiations when she replaced Peter Mandelson in October 2008, her supporters pointed out, but she had achieved some notable results in her 13 months in the post. Give her a chance and she will prove herself in her new role, they urged. 

After just over two months in office, Ashton is not making much headway in winning over her doubters.

True, she has faced a wave of unjustified criticism and hostility since being appointed. Some of her decisions were correct, whatever the sniping by foreign ministers. She was right not to travel to Haiti when another VIP plane would have blocked emergency supplies.

Just as dubious has been criticism of her desire to maintain a semblance of family life with her young family. Some of this was just prejudice against a woman in a high-profile diplomatic job from the more macho members of the foreign ministers’ club.

But even discounting these cheap shots, there are still areas where she looks to be off the pace.

Last week’s decision by the Commission to appoint João Vale de Almeida as head of the EU delegation in Washington, DC has left her looking like Barroso’s poodle. It has certainly not boosted her credibility with foreign ministers, as Sweden’s Carl Bildt and Pierre Lellouche, France’s European affairs minister, made clear this week.

Ashton’s decision not to attend this week’s informal meeting of the EU’s defence ministers in La Palma is also gauche. It reinforces the impression that she is ill at ease with the hard-security aspects of EU foreign policy. It highlights a contrast between her and her predecessor, Javier Solana. The former secretary-general of NATO took a strong interest in boosting the EU’s military capabilities. Ashton, a former treasurer of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is unwise to offer her critics such an open goal.

But these were not the first occasions when Ashton was left looking inept.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos has been running rings round her as he competes for the international limelight. The Spanish government blew the chances of US President Barack Obama attending a EU-US summit with inept diplomacy, but knowing where the blame lies does not help Ashton either.

One of Ashton’s problems seems to be that she is getting very little support from any of the structures that are supposed to be helping her get her new office up and running.

The Commission, of which she is a part, is suspicious of her intentions and is intent on protecting its own interests. The Council regards her as part of the Commission. The first day she went to the Council’s Justus Lipsius building, she was confronted with an empty office with no phones. She needs to make allies. But to do that, she needs to command respect and goodwill, which is lacking in some quarters.

Her vision paper on the European External Action Service is short on vision and is unlikely to bring allies running to her side.

The contrast with Herman Van Rompuy, the new president of the European Council, is instructive. He has a stronger, more experienced team around him. He is using his allies, both in and outside Brussels.

There is too much at stake for Ashton to be allowed to fail. The creation of the EEAS involves an extensive shake-up of the EU institutions. The dual role of the EU foreign policy chief who is also a member of the European Commission is still evolving. Ashton risks discrediting the concepts. Europe’s security and role in the world will suffer as a consequence.

Ashton should be given thinking-time at a moment of major upheaval, transition and change. But she still needs to move quickly to take charge of her portfolio and strengthen her team.

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