Catherine Ashton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Baroness Ashton in 2014
First Vice President of the European Commission
In office 9 February 2010 – 1 November 2014
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Margot Wallström
Succeeded by	Frans Timmermans
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
In office 1 December 2009 – 1 November 2014
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Javier Solana
Succeeded by	Federica Mogherini
European Commissioner for Trade
In office 3 October 2008 – 1 December 2009
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Peter Mandelson
Succeeded by	Benita Ferrero-Waldner
Leader of the House of Lords Lord President of the Council
In office 27 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	The Baroness Amos
Succeeded by	The Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Personal details
Born	Catherine Margaret Ashton 20 March 1956 (1956-03-20) Upholland, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Peter Kellner (1988–present)
Alma mater	University of London

Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, GCMG, PC (born 20 March 1956 at Upholland, Lancashire) is a British Labour politician who served as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and First Vice President of the European Commission in the Barroso Commission from 2009 to 2014.

Her political career began in 1999 when she was created a Life Peer as Baroness Ashton of Upholland, of St Albans, in the County of Hertfordshire by Tony Blair's Labour Government. She became the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001 and subsequently in the Ministry of Justice in 2004. She was appointed a Privy Councillor in May 2006.

Ashton became Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in Gordon Brown’s first Cabinet in June 2007. She was instrumental in steering the EU's Treaty of Lisbon through the UK Parliament's second chamber. In 2008, she was appointed as the British European Commissioner and became the Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission.

In December 2009, she became the inaugural High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy that was created by the Treaty of Lisbon. As High Representative, Ashton served as the EU's foreign policy chief. Despite being criticised by some, particularly at the time of her appointment and in the early stages of her term of office, for her limited previous experience of international diplomacy, Ashton subsequently won praise for her work as a negotiator in difficult international situations, in particular for her role in bringing Serbia and Kosovo to an agreement in April 2013 that normalised their ties, and in the P5+1 talks with Iran which led to the November 2013 Geneva interim agreement on Iranian nuclear program.

In January 2017, Ashton became Chancellor of the University of Warwick , succeeding Sir Richard Lambert and becoming Warwick's first female Chancellor.

Images for kids

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  Ashton with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

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  Ashton and Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, the first round of Comprehensive agreement on Iranian nuclear program, Feb 2014

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  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Ashton, Munich, 1 February 2014

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  Ashton (far right) with the rest of the Quartet on the Middle East (2010)

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  Lady Ashton and Russian President Vladimir Putin, 3 June 2013