Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has published an organisation chart for the diplomatic service that is to be launched on 1 January.


The chart makes public the units that will make up the six departments and associated parts of the European External Action Service. It names the directors and most of the heads of unit, though some posts are listed as vacant.


Publication came just one working day before the EEAS’s launch, since the EU institutions are closed from 23 December to 2 January. With effect from 1 January, 1,643 permanent officials will be transferred into the EEAS from the European Commission and the secretariat of the Council of Ministers. Most of them have until now have been kept in the dark as to who their managers will be.


In all, 21 of the 99 management positions listed on the organisation chart – or around one-fifth – are still vacant. This total does not include the new permanent chairs of working groups or of associated bodies such as the European Defence Agency, the EU Satellite Centre or the EU Institute for Security Studies. The Asia department is the only EEAS department that is fully staffed from the level of head of unit upwards. 


In publishing the organisation chart, Ashton’s office said that it was provisional and would be implemented “progressively” from January.
Claude-France Arnould is listed as head of the Crisis Management and Planning Directorate, but Ashton has proposed her as chief executive of the European Defence Agency. That proposal requires the backing of the member states. A written procedure is coming to an end this week and her appointment is expected to be finalised by next week.


Two of the six managing directors on the chart have yet to be named, although the appointment of Nicholas Westcott, the British ambassador to Ghana, as managing director for Africa appears to be a question of days. The position of managing director for global and multilateral issues is expected to be re-advertised. The appointment of the other managing directors – Viorel Isticioaia Budura for Asia, Miroslav Lajčák, for Russia, eastern Europe and the Balkans, Christian Leffler for the Americas, and Hugues Mingarelli for the Middle East and north Africa – were announced over the past ten days.


Of the directors named (see panel, right), all are currently directors in the European Commission, except Annalisa Giannella, from the Council secretariat, and Ilkka Salmi, currently head of Finland’s intelligence service, who will head the Situation Centre, which is currently attached to the Council.

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Directors in the EEAS

Audit, inspection and ex-post control – Gerhard Sabathil
Finance and corporate support – vacant
Human resources – Patrick Child
Asia – James Moran
Horn of Africa, East and Southern Africa, Indian Ocean – Roger Moore
West and Central Africa – Manuel Lopez Blanco
Russia, Eastern Neighbourhood and Western Balkans – Gunnar Wiegand
North Africa, Regional Policies – Tomas Dupla del Moral
Middle East, Gulf States, Iran, Iraq – vacant
Americas – Gustavo Martin Prada
Multilateral Relations and Global Governance – vacant
Human Rights and Democracy – Véronique Arnault
Conflict Prevention and Security Policy – Richard Wright
Non-Proliferation and Disarmament – Annalisa Giannella
Situation Centre – Ilkka Salmi