From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belgian diplomat
Koen Vervaeke
(born 22 April 1959 in
Wilrijk
) is a
Belgian
diplomat
who has been serving as Managing Director for Africa at the
European External Action Service
(EEAS) since December 2015. He was previously the Director for Horn of Africa, East & Southern Africa, Indian Ocean, and the Senior EU Coordinator for the Great Lakes region. He also served in the past as Head of the
European Union Delegation
to the
African Union
in
Addis Abeba
, (
Ethiopia
).
Early life and education
[
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Vervaeke obtained a
Bachelor's degree
in
art history
and a
Master's degree
in
modern history
at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
,
Belgium
.
Career
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]
Vervaeke started his career in September 1983 in
Brussels
at the Cultural and
Public relations
department of the
ASLK
. In October 1987, he started working for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Koen Vervaeke worked for the Belgian
Embassies
in
Tunis
as First Secretary and in
Bujumbura
as Political Counsellor. From September 1995 until June 1999, he worked for the Belgian Permanent Representation to the
United Nations
in
Geneva
. He was the Belgian Foreign Ministry Spokesman under
Louis Michel
, during Belgium's
EU Presidency
in 2001 and Belgium's
Special Envoy
to the
African Great Lakes
Region, where he became involved in the Congo peace negotiations and the resulting
Sun City Agreement
.
[1]
From September 2003 until the end of 2007, Vervaeke was advisor to
Javier Solana
on
African
affairs and Head of the Africa Unit in the
Council
's General Secretariat.
[2]
and from 2007 to 2011 he was the first European Union's ambassador as
Special Representative
and Head of the European Commission delegation to the
African Union
in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia). During his time as Special Representative, Vervaeke was also a member of the Commission on Effective Development Cooperation with Africa which was set up by the
Danish Prime Minister
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
and held meetings between April and October 2008.
[3]
In 2011,
Catherine Ashton
appointed Vervaeke to the European External Action Service
[4]
where he became the Director for the Horn of Africa, East and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. In 2015, Vervaeke was appointed by
Federica Mogherini
as Managing Director in charge of Africa.
See also
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Sources
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References
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External links
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