mr president i welcome the vote on the external action service but now we have taken this vote i think it is important that we move away from procedure and structures to actually getting on with the work of the service
it is important that catherine ashton now that she has a team puts the core european values into action
human rights have to be her top concern
in particular she has promised that there is going to be a human rights desk officer in every external office
she needs to deliver on that but there also has to be a structure for that desk officer to report back to the centre to make sure we get some joined-up government in terms of the way the european union deals with human rights
at the moment with many countries not least china we have a human rights dialogue that is totally meaningless
the external action service if it is to be worth the money and effort we are putting into it has to start delivering on european values and human rights in particular
