Brussels, 17/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - To ensure continuity in the EU's ongoing trade talks on the bilateral and multilateral fronts, the European Parliament has decided to speed up the approval process for the new EU trade commissioner, Catherine Ashton, put forward by the EU Council of Ministers on 6 October 2008 to take over from fellow British national, Peter Mandelson, who has returned to the cabinet in the UK government as Business Minister. Under the procedure set out in Article 215 of the EC Treaty, Baroness Ashton of Upholland will be interviewed in Strasbourg on Monday 20 October 2008 by the EP's trade committee, chaired by Helmut Markov (GUE/NGL, Germany) before the EP plenary gives its endorsements to her appointment on 22 October. Baroness Ashton's hearing at the European Parliament had initially been scheduled for mid-November, six weeks after her appointment on 3 October. She is already working on EU trade issues but was unable to sign an EPA with the Caribbean on 15 October (see EUROPE 9763) and will not be able to attend the summits with Canada, ASEM and South Korea during the course of October. After an informal meeting with the Baroness, several members of the trade committee criticised her lack of experience in this domain but the EP is unlikely to vote against her because that would be equivalent to voting against Jose Manuel Barroso's entire Commission. If the EP gives its go-ahead, Baroness Ashton's term of office would run until 31 October 2009. (E.H./trans.fl)