Borrell nominates six Spanish diplomats as EU ambassadors in Africa and Latin America

BRUSSELS, April 16 () –

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, announced this Tuesday the nomination of 44 new EU diplomatic positions, including heads of Delegation, Office or chargé d'affaires, including six for Spanish diplomats.

Within the framework of the last major renewal under Borrell's mandate of the diplomatic positions of the Foreign Action Service (EEAS), the High Representative has nominated Antonia Calvo Puerta as chargé d'affaires in Venezuela, after having served as an advisor to the EEAS for the Latin American area and previously being EU ambassador in Costa Rica.

Diego Mellado has been appointed as European ambassador in Algeria, a position he will reach after being head of protocol at the EEAS and EU ambassador in Peru. While Jaume Segura has been nominated as EU ambassador to Bolivia, he currently holds that same position in Honduras, and Diego Escalona has been nominated as European ambassador to the Central African Republic.

For the position of head of the EU Delegation in Honduras, Borrell appoints Spain's current chargé d'affaires for Belarus and Turkmenistan, Gonzalo Fournier, while the current EU ambassador to Togo, Joaquín Tasso, has been nominated for Mauritania.

For the position of EU ambassador to the United Nations institutions in Geneva, the High Representative appoints Belén Martínez, who until now had held various positions in the EEAS as director of Global Agenda and Multilateral Relations or director of Human Resources.

CABINET MEMBERS

This latest distribution of diplomatic positions coincides with the last months of the mandate of the current European Commission, a context in which people who are part of the commissioners' cabinets have been appointed to new tasks that they will begin to perform from September.

This is the case of Simon Mordue, elected as the new Deputy Secretary General for Economic Affairs of the EEAS after serving in recent years as senior advisor on Foreign Affairs for the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

In addition, Genevieve Tuts, chief of staff to Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, has been nominated as EU ambassador to Canada, while Aleska Simkic, chief of staff to Janez Lenarcic, Commissioner for Crisis Management, will be the next European ambassador. in Kazakhstan.

Likewise, two members of Borrell's cabinet have been appointed to two diplomatic positions. This is the case of Rafael Daerr, who will be the EU ambassador in Malaysia, and Nereo Peñalver, the next deputy head of the EU delegation for the Pacific.

Also noteworthy is the appointment of Miroslav Lajcak as European ambassador to Switzerland, after occupying the position of special representative of the EU for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina in recent years, a newly created position that Borrell entrusted to the then foreign minister of Slovakia.

For his part, another relevant appointment is that of Martin Selmayr, known for being the director general of the European Commission and right-hand man of Jean Claude Juncker during his time at the head of the Community Executive, as the new EU ambassador to the Holy See.