The EU’s response to the earthquake in Haiti has given a first glimpse into how the bloc’s new foreign relations set-up is to work in practice.

The union’s new foreign minister, Catherine Ashton, is currently awaiting the EU parliament’s formal approval for her appointment and is to put forward proposals for the structure of her future diplomatic corps, as mandated by the Lisbon Treaty, by April.

But Ms Ashton’s office already leapt into action on Wednesday (13 January) as news emerged of the scale of what looks like the worst natural disaster since the Asian tsunami in 2004.

The earthquake on Tuesday is thought to have claimed tens of thousands of lives and left millions homeless.

Ms Ashton chaired a meeting in Brussels of European Commission officials from the foreign relations, development and environment departments as well as experts from the EU Council and the Situation Centre, the EU member states’ intelligence-gathering hub.

The meeting agreed to trigger €3 million in emergency aid, signed off by development commissioner Karel de Gucht, and to look into further financial assistance, such as advance payments from the commission’s €28 million annual development budget for Haiti.

It also decided to send officials from the commission’s environment department to the earthquake zone to assess damage and to task an environment department unit to co-ordinate pledges from Belgium, Sweden, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Norway, Iceland and Luxembourg to send personnel and equipment.