Ashton names three diplomatic directors

Appointments fill gaps in senior management of EU’s diplomatic service.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, today (4 August) appointed three national diplomats to director posts in the European External Action Service (EEAS).

Frans Jacob Potuyt, a Dutch national, has been appointed director for security. Koen Vervaeke, a Belgian national, has been named director for the Horn of Africa, east and southern Africa and the Indian Ocean region. Fernando Gentilini, an Italian, is to be director for western Europe, the western Balkans and Turkey.

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All three are to take up their new posts in the coming weeks, according to the EEAS.

Vervaeke and Gentilini are currently serving as EU special representatives (EUSRs).

Vervaeke, a Belgian former ambassador to Africa’s Great Lakes, is currently EUSR and head of delegation to the African Union in Addis Ababa. He will be replaced as head of delegation by Gary Quince, a Briton and a senior European Commission official, who was appointed to the new post yesterday.

Gentilini, previously NATO’s special envoy to Afghanistan, is currently EUSR in Kosovo, a post to which he was appointed in May.

Potuyt is currently Dutch ambassador to Kazakhstan and previously served as director of security at the Dutch foreign ministry.

Ashton yesterday announced the appointment of 25 new EU ambassadors, part of the annual diplomatic rotation.

Ashton makes senior EEAS delegation appointments