Helga and Maciej come to join Pierre and David

(BRUSSELS2) Cathy Ashton today confirmed the appointment of the two Deputy Secretaries General of the new diplomatic service, who thus complete the duo team formed by Pierre Vimont and David O'Sullivan (1). They are indeed - as we had announced (*) - the German Helga Schmid who will be in charge of Political Affairs (2), and Maciej Popowski (3), who will be in charge of inter-institutional affairs (otherwise said in particular of relations with the European Parliament or the European Commission, quite logical for a former member of these institutions). " (Their) experience and expertise will help us build the External Action Service that Europe can be proud of commented the High Representative.

Other nominations to follow... and a few names

Other appointments should follow to finalize the top management of the diplomatic service. In particular at the level of the six geographical or thematic directors, the director of the European defense agency, the director of the SitCen (intelligence center), the director of strategic planning as well as that of public diplomacy, without forgetting the president of the COPS (political and security committee. This will be done in "the weeks to come up. Weeks with an S", I was told at the Diplomatic Service.

For the directors, we could find the Frenchman Hughes Mingarelli and the Swede Christian Leffler who both come from the European Commission. Also candidates are the Slovak Miroslav Lajcak (former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former special envoy to Bosnia, who could deal with the Balkans) and the Czech Jiri Sedivy (career diplomat, current adviser to the Czech Ministry of Defence, former Minister of Defense himself, and former number 3 in NATO, son of a former Minister of Foreign Affairs). As for the Briton Robert Cooper, a Council official, he could be approached to take over the post of "policy planning".

SitCen & Defense Agency

At SitCen, the director of Finnish security services seems to be the favorite (4). As for the European Defense Agency, the thick fog could clear up quickly. Until a few days ago there were three "official" candidates: an Italian (Carlo Magrassi), a Frenchwoman (Hélène Duchenne), a Finn (Arto Koski). But apparently the High Representative wanted to "broaden her field of vision", as those around her say, and audition a new candidate drawn from the seraglio. Hearing done apparently this week. A candidate "last minute" who, if he accepts, could become the next director of the European Defense Agency. But shhh... To be continued!

Please note, however, that some of the names mentioned could be found elsewhere due to the effect... of rotating chairs.

Read also

• (1) The Head of the Diplomatic Service officially appointed
• (2) the first names of the “Top ten” of the diplomatic service
• (3) Polish hiccup in the diplomatic service quartet…
• (4) Will a Finn take over the SitCen?

(*) If my information is correct, this blog was one of the first if not the first to announce the exact names of the leading quartet. Come on, once is not custom, a little self-promotion 🙂