The European Commission denied today that the European Union's foreign policy chief, Britain's Catherine Ashton, is planning to resign a few months into her job, dpa reported. British media last week picked up on long-standing rumours in Brussels, with the Daily Telegraph reporting Ashton would quit "within months," being unable to face the pressure involved with her position. Britain's current Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, thought to have refused the job last autumn, was suggested as a possible replacement. But the commission's chief spokeswoman, Pia Ahrenkilde, said the reports were "pure imagination" and stressed that the EU's foreign policy supremo "is 200 per cent concentrated on her task and is determined to complete (it)." Speculation over Ashton's future was fuelled by Britain's general election on May 6, which could bring a euro-sceptical conservative government into office. Ashton served in the outgoing British Labour government, and according to some observers she would have an uneasy relation with a conservative-led administration. But one of her aides told the German Press Agency dpa that she would "work positively and constructively with whoever the next British foreign secretary is," and stressed she already has "a regular interaction" with William Hague, thought to be the conservative's candidate for the job. Ashton, who took office in December, was a surprise choice for a job created by the EU's Lisbon Treaty. She has faced constant criticism since her appointment and was caught in the middle of an institutional turf war as she struggled to create the European Action Service (EAS), the EU's first-ever diplomatic service. But she has also scored some successes, winning support from EU foreign ministers for her EAS draft plans last month, despite expectations that the process would take much longer.
