Brussels, 03/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Federica Mogherini, who is due to replace Catherine Ashton in the post of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, will have her hearing before the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Monday 6 October. “The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will be Europe's foreign affairs minister”, the European Commission states in its presentation. Mogherini will steer the EU's external policy as well as its representations in third countries and in international organisations. She will also be in charge of the project for a stronger Europe on the international scene. Juncker wants Mogherini to ask the relevant commissioners to stand in for her when she believes this necessary, so that she can focus her efforts more on the real geopolitical challenges. At least once a month she will chair the group of commissioners linked to External Action, in order to develop a common approach. This group will meet in various thematic and/or geographical formats.
Mogherini, who is currently Italy's Minister for Foreign Affairs, will have to prove that she has not obtained the post of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy simply because she is a woman and a Socialist. She will also have to prove that she is not just a second Catherine Ashton. Although leading Italy's foreign affairs for only seven months, Mogherini has made multiple trips abroad - over 60. With some MEPs having had their fingers burned by Ashton, they are expected to question Mogherini at length on her knowledge of foreign affairs. “I don't know her. No one knows her - and that's not a good thing”, said one influential MEP. In her answers to the MEPs' written questions, Mogherini wanted to put an end to this issue of being unknown, saying that she had dealt with foreign policy for the last 20 years - be it through civil society, in her own political party, in the Italian institutions, and now as a minister.
Criticised for travelling to Moscow when she had been in Kiev the previous day, Mogherini will have to prove that her position towards Russia will be firm, at a time when the Ukrainian issue will be one of the central elements at the beginning - at least - of her mandate. Mogherini wrote her political philosophy thesis on the relationship between religion and politics in Islam, and it is expected that she will be questioned on the EU's Middle East and Arab Spring policies.
While the hearings could focus on detailed questions on one or other country, the written questions from MEPs to Mogherini are more general. They thus want to know how she intends to implement the conclusions of the December 2013 European Council on the review of the EU's strategic priorities for foreign and security policy. There are also questions on progress in European cooperation on defence.
Mogherini, who has been a member of the defence committee in the Italian Chamber of Deputies and of the Italian delegation to NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, will have to show that she is high representative of the EU for foreign affairs AND security policy, as Ashton has often forsaken the defence aspect. In her written replies, the 41 year-old Mogherini speaks at length about defence.
MEPs are also likely to be interested in how Mogherini intends to ensure the coordination, coherence and effectiveness of the EU's external action, and the concrete measures that she intends to take to improve the coordination between the external policies and the international dimension of the domestic policies. Mogherini has also underlined “indispensable” cooperation with the EU member states, recalling that her areas for action remain “largely intergovernmental”. “And in the face of more and more international challenges, the EU can only be effective with the collective action of all the national and European actors”, she said.
“How are you going to make better use of your 'three hats' position to develop a long-term strategy for an effective and relevant EU foreign policy, and to take institutional and political initiatives in this regard?”, MEPs also wanted to know. In addition, Juncker wants Mogherini to be more involved than Ashton in her role as vice-president of the Commission. Mogherini's office will therefore be in the Commission's Berlaymont building, and not in the building where the European External Action Service (EEAS) has its offices. Another point distinguishing Mogherini from Ashton is that Mogherini has committed to being “present in the European Parliament as often as possible” (our translation throughout). (CG)