Swedish diplomat Johan Borgstam is to become the European Union’s new Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region. A written procedure to approve his appointment was launched on Wednesday 24 July by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (‘Coreper’), a source close to the matter told Agence Europe.
Mr Borgstam has been head of the EU delegation to Ethiopia and Sweden’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The choice of Mr Borgstam comes after the appointment of Belgian diplomat Bernard Quintin was blocked by Rwanda at the end of May, according to African media reports. This situation drew criticism from several European sources, who deplored the fact that the European External Action Service had allowed a third country to influence a sovereign decision of the Union.
The appointment of an EU Special Representative comes against a backdrop of rising tensions in the east of the DRC, on the border with Rwanda, and the risk of destabilisation throughout the Great Lakes region. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)