EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has called off plans for EU ambassadors to hold hearings in the European Parliament in a serious rift with MEPs over the set-up of the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Ms Ashton announced the move late on Monday (4 October) on the eve of the first hearing with the new EU envoy to Japan, Austrian diplomat Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, which was due to have taken place in the parliament's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday morning.
The decision comes after MEPs opted to hold the hearings in public and before the nominees have been formally installed in their posts, raising the risk that if one of them tripped up in questioning it could cost them their new job.