On Thursday 30 January, the College of Commissioners appointed Elisabetta Belloni as Special Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The former director of Italy’s Department of Information for Security will not be a member of Ms von der Leyen’s cabinet, but will be attached to the Idea (Inspire, Debate, Engage and Accelerate Action) advisory service. This service, which reports directly to the President of the Commission, aims to provide Community policies with “innovative ideas and a space for interdisciplinary research and collaboration on core Commission priorities”.
The day before, the European Commission had announced that it had appointed its Deputy Chief Spokesman, Stefan de Keersmaecker (Belgian), to the post of Director of Strategy and Institutional Communication in the Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM).
The appointment of four new heads of Commission representations was also announced. Peter Power (Irish) has been appointed as head of the Dublin office. Claudio Casini is to become head of the Representation in Rome. From 16 February, the new head of the Representation in Vienna will be Patrick Lobis (Austro-Italian). Finally, Joanna Sterzyńska Lindberg (Polish) has been appointed as head of the Regional Representation in Wrocław, Poland. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)