The European Parliament has approved the appointment of Baroness Catherine Ashton as the new trade commissioner.

Each of the 27 member states of the European Union nominates a commissioner and it fell to the United Kingdom to appoint a new representative to cover the area of trade when Peter Mandelson left Brussels on October 3—immediately after announcing a review of the anti-dumping measures in place for imports of leather shoes from Vietnam and China—to return to a UK government role.

Catherine Ashton is an economist who had been the government’s lead representative in the second tier of the UK parliament, the House of Lords.

Before her appointment received approval, she had to face a series of questions on trade matters from members of the European Parliament on October 20.

A UK member of the European Parliament asked her if she would have preferred another role in the commission, given her lack of direct experience in international trade. She answered: “I have hundreds of technical experts who have been working on the trade portfolio for years. And I do have the experience to go and negotiate on behalf of the European Union because I am a negotiator—it’s what I do.”

At the end of the question-and-answer session, 538 members of the European Parliament voted in favour of her appointment, 40 voted against and 63 abstained.