B2 Brussels2 The Blog

Political and defence Europe (by Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Blog AnalysisEEAS High Representative

Who represents the European Union in North Korea?

(B2) The European Union does not have any representation as such in North Korea, unlike some 140 countries where it has its own embassy and can thus establish links with the national authorities.

The German (British and Swedish) embassy in Pyongyang (credit: wikipedia / Jakob Steinrücken)

A presidential relay

We therefore resort to the good old system of rotating presidencies: the ambassadors of one of the EU countries present in Pyongyang take turns every six months, on a calendar modeled in part on the agenda of the rotating presidencies of the EU . If the country not holding the presidency is not present, another country takes over, according to a series of cascading rules (1).

Seven countries represented

In North Korea, seven countries are currently represented, particularly Eastern countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic). Germany is represented, having inherited the former East German embassy; it houses the Swedish embassy as well as more recently the United Kingdom. It is normally Germany, and its ambassador Thomas Schäfer... who today represents the EU in the country.

(NGV)

(1) If neither the Presidency nor the succeeding Presidency has an accredited resident representative, the European Union will be represented in rotation, for a period of six months, by another Member State. following the order in which the Member States are called upon to hold the Presidency of the Council. This rotation shall continue until the arrangements provided for in 'A' or 'B' become applicable again. Once they are no longer applicable the same rotation shall resume where it left off." Read our fact sheet on EU delegations

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).