Koen Vervaeke in charge of the Great Lakes at the Diplomatic Service
(BRUSSELS2) The Belgian Koen Vervaeke has been appointed coordinator for the Great Lakes region (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi). A post specially created to compensate for the provision of the special representative of the EU in this region. Belgium, in particular, a former tutelary power, had warned of the risk of losing the possibility of a unique contact in a more than troubled region.
Koen Vervaeke, was recently appointed Director for Eastern and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean in the EU's diplomatic service (EEAS), after having served for several years as the EU's special representative to the African Union. He is an “old man” of Africa but was also close to power for having worked for several years in the cabinet of Louis Michel when the latter was Minister of Foreign Affairs (government of Guy Verhofstadt).
He will perform his duties as coordinator in addition to his position as director. The objective for the EU is to ensure peace and reconciliation in an area marked by conflict recent and bloody, and still smoldering under the ashes. He will have a mandate to make contact and coordinate the action of the EU " with regional organizations, international and non-governmental actors”. It will act as EU representative in the Great Lakes Contact Group and report to member states through the Africa Working Group and the Political and Security Committee (PSC).
Its mandate covers the range of (EU) operations and instruments to address issues that pose a threat to the stability of the region, including the illegal exploitation of natural resources, security sector reform and sexual violence ". He should thus be the No. 1 referent at the EEAS for the EUPOL and EUSEC missions, deployed in Congo DRC and responsible respectively for assistance to the Congolese police and security sector.
The EU's diplomatic service is thus inaugurating a new kind of post: the "special coordinator", which makes it possible to designate a principal EEAS manager for a conflict zone, without resorting to the process of the special representative - a little more cumbersome to implement and which requires the agreement of the Member States - and preserving the unity of the structure of the service, without adding an additional level of hierarchy. Pretty smart at first glance. To be seen in use, if a "director" finds enough time and energy to be in the field.
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