THE EU's new foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini took up the role in the face of considerable doubt that she was up to the job. The attractive and charming former Italian foreign minister was deemed to be too inexperienced and insufficiently hard-headed for what is inevitably a tough EU portfolio. In the end, at hearings late last year, Mogherini was given the benefit of the doubt by members of the European parliament, who signed off on her selection. Unfortunately, she has already given grounds for people to regret their endorsement. Russian aggression in the Ukraine is clear for all the world to see. In Crimea, ethnic Russian activists supposedly took up arms against the Ukrainian authorities and seized much of the region. Russian peacekeepers moved in “to restore order” and in no time at all the people of Crimea had voted overwhelmingly to become part of Russia. That the original rebels were Russian troops who had merely removed identification flashes from their uniforms and markings from their vehicles was clear from the outset. The selfsame tactic has been employed in the “rebellion” among ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine. From the outset rebel leaders and a handful of armed supporters have been a mere front for ever-larger formations of Moscow's troops. In the face of this aggression, the European Union member states have joined Washington in taking a resolute stand. Economic and financial sanctions have been imposed, the effect of which has been increased markedly by the collapse in the international oil price. The failure of Russia's key foreign currency earner has plunged its economy into disarray. Now is therefore the time for continued firmness and determination by Europe in pressing for the end of Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine and its evacuation of Crimea. Yet, almost unbelievably, Mogherini has been circulating a discussion paper among the union's 28 foreign ministers, suggesting that the EU should moderate its punitive stance towards Moscow. It is hard to think of anything more inept or stupid. At the very time when Putin needs to be seeing a united front against his bullying tactics, Mogherini has offered a split. There is no way of course that foreign ministers are going to back her plan. But that is not the point. By even raising the issue at a critical time when fighting in eastern Ukraine has flared up again, is to give encouragement to Putin and his foreign policy advisers that a wedge can be driven into the united EU front. At a purely tactical level, Mogherini has committed a serious blunder. When EU foreign ministers met on Monday, she could have floated the idea in talks. Instead she chose to produce a discussion paper which was sure to go public. One of the concerns that arose among MEPs during her confirmation hearing was Mogherini's expressed view, as Italian foreign minister, that a less confrontational approach to Russia was necessary. Quizzed by MEPs she seemed to row back from this position, though insisting that it was an option that should remain on the table. Alarmingly, she has hardly begun her EU job and she is already picking up that option. If she is seeking to build a stronger role for the EU foreign policy supremo, she has chosen the wrong issue. The risk is rather that she is undermining the job by behaving without the care and diplomacy that is essential for the role.
