Union Minister for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Although the Constitution failed to be ratified, its replacement, the Treaty of Lisbon, retained the change under a different name. The new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy would still merge the External Relations Commissioner with the High Representative and, like the Constitution, would have it backed up by an External Action Service. The new role also took over other foreign affairs roles, such as chairing the Foreign Affairs Council and representing the EU in international fora, roles which were previously exercised by the foreign minister of the country holding the presidency of the European Union (along with the foreign minister of the country previously holding the presidency and the one to take it next). Despite the name change, many parts of the media still referred to it as a foreign minister and in negotiations it was decided that the High Representative would no longer also be the Council's Secretary-General but would be a Vice-President of the European Commission, filling the now merged Commission post. The merger of the two posts has been seen as furthering the answer to Kissinger's question: Appointments The High Representative is appointed by the European Council acting by qualified majority. However, in order to take up their role in the Commission, in particular as a vice-president, the High Representative has to appear before Parliament for questioning and then be subject to Parliament's vote of approval on the proposed Commission. The basic monthly salary of the High Representative is fixed at 130% (higher than a vice-president but less than the Commission President) of the highest grade of the EU civil service (grade 16, step 3), which works out at €23,006.98. There are other allowances on top of that as all other conditions of employment for the High Representative are aligned to that of the Commission. Javier Solana Madariaga (1999–2009) The Amsterdam Treaty introduced the post of High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy to represent the EU on the world stage. It was decided that the Secretary-General of the Council would be the High Representative. This meant that the Secretary-General at the time, Jürgen Trumpf, was the first High Representative, although he only served for a few months. The first permanent High Representative was Javier Solana Madariaga, former Secretary General of NATO. He was appointed on 4 July 1999 at the