Although there’s a diplomatic reshuffle every year, this time was more complicated than usual because of the EU election, officials said.
By the fall, the EU will (hopefully) have decided who will lead the European Commission, Council, Parliament, and European External Action Service (EEAS).
But first, this week the Commission is set to sign off on its yearly rotation of top diplomats, with 43 new European ambassadors and 11 deputy ambassadors to be named. After some haggling between EU foreign policy chief Josep Borell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the nominations are set to get the green light on Wednesday, according to a senior EU official who, like others in this piece, could not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic.
Some big names within the Brussels bubble will be getting new business cards printed soon, including top advisers to Michel, whose term as Council president comes to an end in November.
Frédéric Bernard, Michel’s chief of staff, is poised to become the EU’s ambassador to Canada, according to three other senior EU officials. Simon Mordue, Michel’s top foreign policy adviser, is set to join the EEAS as deputy secretary general. And then there’s Martin Selmayr — the former chief civil servant of the Commission and a man once dubbed the ‘Monster of the Berlaymont’ by his colleagues — who is set to be EU ambassador to the Vatican, the Order of Malta and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Officials mentioned above dismissed rumors that von der Leyen — who has had a difficult working relationship with Michel — was blocking future jobs for his current top aides. The bigger challenge, the officials said, was finding the right balance between genders, geographical balance, and institutions.
