EU leaders pick new top officials
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has congratulated the Polish Prime Minister on his election as the next President of the European Council.
Donald Tusk will replace the outgoing President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
Enda Kenny said he looks forward to working closely with Donald in driving forward the agenda of growth, jobs and investment and referred to the particularly strong ties between Ireland and Poland, including the many Polish people who have come to live in Ireland since their entry to the EU.
The Taoiseach also congratulated Federica Mogherini on her appointment as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Mogherini replaces Catherine Ashton who has held the position for five years.
The decision comes as the crisis at the EU’s eastern border pitting Ukraine against Russia poses one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for the bloc in decades.
Ms Mogherini, a 41-year-old centre-left politician, has been Italy’s foreign minister only since February, drawing criticism that she lacks experience.
Ms Mogherini ``will be the new face of the European Union in our day-to-day dealings with our partners in the world,'' Mr van Rompuy said.
The highly visible job as EU foreign policy chief entails flying across the world and meeting 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 guard foreign policy as a national matter, leaving the foreign policy chief the role to hammer out compromise positions.
Ms Mogherini said 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.
