Continuing dialogue with Russia is crucial, the European Commission’s new foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in the European Parliament, replying to a question by a Bulgarian MEP.
 
Kristian Vigenin, a Bulgarian socialist MEP, asked Ashton at a meeting of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee about her stance on Russia, specifically regarding energy disputes and human rights.
 
Ashton, whose job came into effect when the Lisbon Treaty came into force on December 1 2009, met the committee the following day.
 
According to a media statement on proceedings, Ashton assured MEPs that she had the qualities needed to do the job.
 
Ashton said that she believed in "quiet diplomacy" and "building confidence", and she wanted to "keep the traffic moving" rather than stopping it. She added however that when needed, "we must be out at the forefront with a loud voice".
 
"We have a strong reputation in the world," Ashton said, emphasising that the EU's foreign policy is based on values, and the EU is the biggest provider of humanitarian and development aid in the world.
 
Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, a liberal MEP from Belgium, warned against institutional turf wars between the European Council and the European Commission over foreign policy management.
 
Neyts-Uyttebroeck said that the European External Action Service (EEAS) would be "the opportunity to build a new form of diplomacy".
 
Ashton emphasised the importance of "using the energy of rotating presidencies wisely and clearly".
 
Ulrike Lunacek, an Austrian MEP for the Greens, said that "Europe needs a strong, united voice, a single face, a clear and transparent foreign and security policy". 
 
Ashton tolds MEPs that she would not be "an extended arm of the UK government". She said that she was proud to be known as a pro-European in Britain and elsewhere.
 
Charles Tannock, a UK MEP for the European Conservatives and Reformists - an eurosceptic, anti-federalist group - expressed concern about Ashton's lack of experience in foreign affairs and wondered why she was selected over others "better qualified for this job". 
 
Ashton said she had been the choice of 27 heads of state or government: "The skills I have are appropriate for this work", she added.
 
David Campbell-Bannerman, an MEP from the UK for the right-wing Eurosceptic group Europe of Freedom and Democracy referred to Ashton’s past as treasurer of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the early 1980s.
 
Campbell-Bannerman asked if Ashton "did or did not take money from any Soviet bloc country" or from any other communist source.
 
Ashton insisted she had not taken any "direct money from communist countries". Much of the organisation’s funds had been "collected in buckets" at marches and demonstrations, she said, adding that she was the first to order an audit of CND’s finances.