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Just after returning from the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, having opened the EU delegation there, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton is to face a “grilling over 'incompetent' EU policy,” reports the Daily Telegraph. Accused of being surrounded by “yes” men and of having “adopted a bunker mentality rather than deal with problems", Baroness Ashton will be charged at a “stocktaking” lunch of EU foreign ministers of pursuing an “incoherent” foreign policy. “France, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands will be among countries suggesting that she has failed to stamp her authority on the EEAS, a diplomatic service created by the Lisbon Treaty to make EU foreign policy more unified,” the London daily explains. It adds that, “Diplomats and officials accuse Lady Ashton of being too slow to respond to events, such as the Arab Spring.” Some countries even suspect that “Lady Ashton remains in the job only because the Tories [Britain’s ruling party], who tried to block the Lisbon Treaty, are happy to have an "incompetent" as foreign minister.”
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