Note from the editors: The 2009 Lisbon Treaty sought to restructure European Union institutions and transform the organization into a cohesive and robust global player. For Brussels, implementing this mandate has proven challenging. Acute internal and external pressures have slowed the EU’s transformation and brought doubts about its continued relevance on the international scene. The [...]
Baroness Catherine Aston and Ambassador João Vale de Almeida
Catherine Ashton was elected national treasurer of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1982, and became vice-chair shortly thereafter. From 1979 to 1981 Ashton worked as Business Manager of the Coverdale Organization. She was director of Business in the Community from 1983-1989, in which time she founded the Employers’ Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship. She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001 and later became vice president of the National Council for One Parent Families. From 2001 to 2006 Ashton was minister of the Department for Education and Skills, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the Ministry of Justice. In 2006, she became a privy councilor and was elected lord president of the Council in 2007, as well as leader of the House of Lords. Ashton became the UK’s European commissioner in Brussels in 2008, before her election as vice president in 2009. She was appointed the EU’s first high representative of the Union for foreign affairs and security policy in 2009. Ambassador João Vale de Almeida is the head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States. In this capacity, he represents European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, under the authority of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. Prior to his appointment in Washington in August 2010, he served as the director general for external relations at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body; in this capacity, he helped formulate and execute the EU's foreign policy and played a key role in preparing for the new European External Action Service (EEAS) introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. Mr. Vale de Almeida joined the European Commission in 1982 at the European Commission Delegation in Lisbon, after spending seven years as a journalist.
Fletcher Forum articles by Baroness Catherine Aston and Ambassador João Vale de Almeida: