What an excellent idea.
Gordon Brown used what may be his last European summit to explore the idea of establishing a new European "peace corps" of thousands of volunteers performing charity and aid work across the developing world.
Under the Lisbon treaty, which came into force in December, Lady Ashton, the Labour peer and former leader of the House of Lords, is the recently appointed head of European foreign policy at the helm of a new European diplomatic service involving up to 8,000 staff at 137 embassies across the world.
