But the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, still had to circulate a warning for British missions to be on guard against the EU's "mission creep". And other Western diplomats have complained that the EEAS just duplicates their own work at huge extra cost to taxpayers.

There remain profound questions over the point of this profligate creation. Despite a network of EEAS offices with nearly 2,000 officials dotted around the globe, Ashton's swollen empire appears to have made little impact on the ground. In Brazil, for example, the EU stages free festivals, sports events, concerts and film shows. It funds an annual Europe Day regatta in Brasilia, seen as one of the capital's social highlights, with free drinks and paella at a cocktail party afterwards. But the British ambassador there confessed to a parliamentary inquiry earlier this year that he did not see the EEAS "as being central to my daily life" despite its 17 staff in the country.

Now Ashton wants to beef up her empire with a consular role for her "embassies", extra security officials and more control over the EU's notoriously wasteful aid projects. Yet her service was recently savaged for lax control of ¤1 billion of aid frittered away in Egypt.

MEPs have criticised her inconsistent leadership. But they also want the post to have more sway over European foreign policy and to see even more money squandered on staff specialising on issues such as women's rights.

Smaller European nations without such an extensive network of embassies are also keen to expand EEAS's remit, although the likes of Britain and France are hostile to such stealthy encroachment. Ashton, who admits she has found the job exhausting, steps down next year. She will be handed a £400,000 pay-off over three years — which only underscores her failure to keep costs down and ensure her fledgling diplomatic service is "budget neutral".

Despite that dawn meeting with Morsi, she has failed to placate critics. "Can you point to anything achieved by EEAS?" said Douglas Carswell, the Eurosceptic Tory MP, whose first act of rebellion under the coalition was to vote against Ashton's appointment. "I don't like to attack individuals but Europe's foreign policy has been handed to third-rate people running a third-rate organisation that has now got a third-rate track record. It's a tragedy for a continent that once led the way on such issues." It is hard to disagree with this verdict on one of Europe's most spectacular vanity projects.