Mogherini faces MEPs after nomination

Too inexperienced and too soft on Russia.

Just some of the criticisms that MEPs levelled at Federica Mogherini, the next EU foreign policy chief.

Mogherini was in the European Parliament to discuss her government’s foreign policy.

She said Rome is working with the European Commission on new sanctions for Russia.

“I said the strategic partnership ( with Russia) is over, clearly is over. This was a choice of Moscow first of all, and the consequence of things on the ground,” added Mogherini.

The outgoing Italian foreign minister, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party, failed to win over her conservative critics.

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a Polish centre-right MEP, said: “On Russia and Ukraine, Miss Mogherini is changing rhetoric, I was not convinced.”

But Ana Gomes, a centre-left Portuguese MEP, said she was “positively impressed” by Mogherini’s “detailed knowledge” of the different issues.

Italy’s top diplomat replaces Britain’s Catherine Ashton on November 1st.