Addressed to the outgoing Italian Foreign Minister Mogherini by the EPDP Foreign Relations head, Mr. Woldeyesus Ammar, the message pledged to continue close contact with the office of EU High Representative and keep it abreast the situation in Eritrea, as was the case with Lady Catherine Ashton. The message stressed that “Eritrea and its people are in a very bad shape” and that the EU need stop the futile endeavor of re-engaging the regime in Asmara, and instead take measures that include the following:
- The EU member states, the EU Commission and the EU Parliament to kindly make pressure bear on the regime in Eritrea to stop all the cruelties it is meting out against its own people, and release political prisoners held without charges.
- The concerned EU institutions to take measures towards empowering Eritrean pro-democracy non-state actors in the diaspora so that they could help in mobilizing their compatriots for an alternative system of governance.
- And in the meantime, the EU to kindly initiate an extensive package programme for Eritrean refugees in the Horn of Africa. The proposed package programme can be financed by resources acquired from technical assistance funds suspended from reaching the regime, and provide academic education and skill training in order to prepare young Eritreans for a better future in their post-dictatorship country.
The post of EU High Representative entitles the holder to act as Vice-President of the Commission which is executive organ of the union. More details on the election of Ms Mogherini as reported by the Associated Press:
BRUSSELS (AP) - European Union leaders on Saturday picked Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, to become the 28-nation bloc's top diplomat for the next five years.
"Federica Mogherini will be the new face of the European Union in our day-today dealings with our partners in the world," outgoing EU summit chairman Herman Van Rompuy said. Incumbent EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, whose term ends in October, has been a frequent interlocutor for U.S. secretaries of state and chairs the negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
Mogherini, a 41-year-old center-left politician, has been Italy's foreign minister only since February, drawing criticism that she lacks experience. A first attempt to secure Mogherini's nomination in June failed amid resistance from eastern European leaders.
Addressing the criticism, Mogherini said she will draw on her experience as foreign minister of a Group of Seven country and her past experience as lawmaker.
"I think the institutional experience is very important - I have some - but I also think that the experience that one gains through the work in political life and civil society is also of value," she told reporters.
The EU leaders, Van Rompuy said, are "convinced that she will prove a skillful and steadfast mediator, negotiator and defender of Europeans place in the world."
The highly visible job as EU foreign policy chief entails flying across the world and hobnobbing with the great and powerful to deal with anything from the fighting in eastern Ukraine to the crises in the Middle East.
However, the EU's top diplomat often has had little leeway because the bloc's member nations jealously guarded foreign policy as a national matter, leaving the foreign policy chief the role to hammer out compromise positions.
Jan Techau, director of the Carnegie Europe think-tank in Brussels, said earlier this week the new EU foreign policy chief "has neither the battalions nor the budget to single-handedly make foreign policy," but must do a better job than Ashton at coordinating the EU's different departments and mustering the courage to oppose powerful member states when necessary.
"The EU needs a unified foreign policy," he said.
Mogherini vowed she will work relentlessly to promote European projects on the international stage, while fighting off crises or seeds of discord that could undermine the bloc's success.
"We are a dream come true, having to be careful that the dream doesn't turn into a nightmare," she said.
The EU leaders also elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to succeed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in December as EU summit chairman and behind-the-scenes broker of compromises among national leaders.
