In less than a week, representatives from Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, the U.S. plus Germany) will convene in Vienna to discuss ways for Iran to give verifiable guarantees of the solely peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

After the recent deal on Iran's nuclear program was concluded, Catherine Ashton, who is in charge of EU's foreign policy, was commended for her constructive role as coordinator and moderator of the tough negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. According to many observers, Ashton's performance had kept Brussels in the game and that is quite an achievement for someone who has to conduct policy on behalf of 28 EU member states with often fundamentally different objectives.