Brussels, 29/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday evening 28 July, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, announced the adoption of a new organisational chart for the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Therefore, from the middle of September, the current Secretary General, from France, Alain Le Roy will now have three Deputy Secretary Generals to assist him and not two. In addition to Helga Schmid from Germany, the Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs and the Deputy Secretary General for Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and Crisis Response, a post of Deputy Secretary General for Economic and Global Affairs will be created. This will be occupied by Christian Leffler from Sweden. He is currently Director General for the Americas at the EEAS. The vacancy for the post of Deputy Secretary General for CSDP and Crisis Response, currently occupied by Maciej Popowski from Poland, has just been published. Popowski's next post is not yet known.
The six Managing Directors (whose roles are distributed on a geographical and thematic basis) will work with the Deputy Directors General in charge of political affairs and economic and global questions. The Directors General will also be the key interlocutors for relations with countries and international relations related to their respective remits. The vacancy announcements for the positions of Directors General for Africa, the Americas and Asia have just been published.
The post of an EEAS gender adviser has also been created.
According to a source from the EEAS, changes will take place between the middle of September and November 2015. This new organisational chart is the outcome of a broad consultation, which took into account the recommendations put forward in the 2013 EEAS review and the results from the recent staff survey, which sought to clarify responsibilities and the hierarchical links, explained the EEAS in its press release. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)