French nationals dominate senior EEAS appointments
Appointments include a new EU special representative (EUSR) for the south Caucasus and Georgia and three directors in the EEAS’s Brussels headquarters.
French diplomats dominated new appointments to senior positions within the European External Action Service announced in August.
Of the 29 senior appointments, eight went to French nationals. Diplomats from Italy, the UK and Greece were appointed to two each of the 29 posts.
The 29 appointments included a new EU special representative (EUSR) for the south Caucasus and Georgia, three directors in the EEAS’s Brussels headquarters and 25 heads and deputy heads of delegation.
The eight French appointments included Philippe Lefort as the EUSR for the south Caucasus and Georgia. Lefort was France’s ambassador to Georgia from 2004-07.
French diplomats were appointed as head of the EU delegations in Turkey, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia, Fiji, Burkina Faso and Kazakhstan – as well as the EU delegation to the Food and Agriculture Organization and other UN bodies in Rome.
The two appointments of Italian diplomats were Fernando Gentilini as
the EEAS’s director for western Europe, the western Balkans and Turkey, and Paola Amadei as head of the EU delegation in Jamaica.
Gary Quince, a British national and a director in the Commission, will head the EU’s delegation to the African Union in Ethiopia, and Richard Jones, a British diplomat, is to head the delegation in Bern, Switzerland.
Fact File
Name | Nationality | Previous position | Title | Delegation location
Thomas Mayr-Harting (Austrian, member state), head of delegation, New York, USA
Gary Quince (British, European Commission, director for ACP countries, DG Devco), head of delegation to the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
João Cravinho (Portuguese, member state), head of delegation, New Dehli, India
Francisco Sandomingo (Spanish ambassador to Peru, member state), head of delegation, Managua, Nicaragua
Jean-Maurice Ripert (French, member state), head of delegation, Ankara, Turkey
Margit Zanathyne Martin (Hungarian, member state), head of delegation to UN agencies in Vienna, Austria
Maria Van Gool (Dutch ambassador to Romania), head of delegation, Bógota, Colombia
Jean-Michel Dumond (French ambassador to Nigeria), head of delegation, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Paola Amadei (Italian, head of EEAS delegation in Eritrea), head of delegation, Kingston, Jamaica
Maeve Collins (Irish ambassador to Vietnam), deputy head of delegation, Tokyo, Japan
Richard Jones (British, member state), head of delegation, Bern, Switzerland
Detlev Brauns (German, member state), deputy head of delegation, World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi (Italian, head of division for west Africa, EEAS), head of delegation, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tomáš Uličný (Czech, member state), head of delegation, Khartoum, Sudan
Franz Jessen (Danish, head of division for China, EEAS), head of delegation, Hanoi, Vietnam
Traian Hristea (Romanian ambassador to Ukraine), head of delegation, Yerevan, Armenia
Jean-Francois Cautain (French, EEAS), head of delegation, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Abdoul M’Baye (French, EEAS), head of delegation, Suva, Fiji
Maria Spatolisano (Italian, DG Trade, European Commission), head of delegation, Paris, France
Stella Zervoudaki (Greek, EEAS), head of delegation, Guatemala
Robert Kopecký (Czech ambassador to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), head of delegation, Georgetown, Guyana
Laurence Argimon-Pistre (French, head of EEAS delegation to OECD and UNESCO), head of delegation, Rome, Italy
Aurelia Bouchez (French, member state), head of delegation, Astana, Kazakhstan
Ioannis Vrailas (Greek, member state), deputy head of delegation, New York, USA
Alain Holleville (French ambassador to Niger), head of delegation, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
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Stella Zervoudaki, a Greek diplomat at the EEAS, moves to head of
the EU’s delegation in Guatemala. Ioannis Vrailas, from the Greek foreign office, will be deputy head of delegation to the United Nations in New York. Thomas Mayr-Harting, currently Austria’s ambassador to the UN, will now head the EU delegation.
Frans Jacob Potuyt, a Dutch diplomat, will be director for security in the EEAS. Koen Vervaeke, a Belgian diplomat, currently special representative and head of the EU delegation to the African Union, has been appointed the EEAS’s director for the Horn of Africa, east and southern Africa.
Of the 25 appointments of heads and deputy heads of delegation, 16 are from member states’ diplomatic services, seven from the EEAS and two from the European Commission.