New EU ambassador to Ukraine
The Portuguese Teixeira will be replaced by the Pole Tombinski. What does it mean?
The European Union’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton appointed the Pole Jan Tombinski Head of EU Delegation to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the current EU ambassador to Ukraine Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira was appointed head of EU Delegation to Cape Verde. Jan Tombinski has been the Polish ambassador to EU since 2007. Before that he headed Polish embassies in France, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry immediately reacted to appointment of the new EU ambassador to Ukraine. “Certainly, we have very positive expectations related to the new EU representative in Ukraine who represents Poland, the country that has done a lot for the European integration of Ukraine,” director of the Department for Information Policy at the Foreign Ministry Oleh Voloshyn informed. “As for Teixeira, we are going to constructively cooperate with him until he leaves Ukraine and wish him success in his work at other priority directions of the European foreign policy,” the Foreign Ministry representative emphasized.
Meanwhile, some of the Ukrainian media commented the change of the EU ambassador in Kyiv with negative headlines such as “Teixeira sent to Africa” (or to have rest). Head of the EU Delegation, just like the former French ambassador Jacques Fort were inconvenient to Kyiv. Both of them took the developments in Ukraine very emotionally. In particular, Teixeira declared that it was too early to speak about progress on the way towards signing the Association Agreement and also said that President Yanukovych did not live up to the hopes of Europe. Besides, Teixeira insisted that the Ukrainian authorities felt “isolated,” especially the visits of the European politicians to Kyiv concerned.
Unfortunately, none of the media tried to assess the new appointments: the one of Jan Tombinski to Kyiv and the appointment of Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira to Cape Verde. As The Day was explained by one of the European diplomats, the Portuguese Teixeira participated in the competition for the position of ambassador to Cape Verde. This country became independent from Portugal in 1975. “That is why it cannot be called an exile as some of the pro-presidential Ukrainian media wrote. Vice versa, after three years of work in Ukraine it can be considered a reward for his merits,” our interlocutor remarked.
At the same time the European diplomat said that two things about the appointment of the Pole the EU ambassador to Ukraine should be considered. Firstly, it means that the representatives of the new EU members are appointed EU ambassadors since previously the diplomatic delegations were headed by the representatives of the old EU members.
Secondly, the fact that the EU ambassador to Ukraine will be a representative of a neighboring country means that Brussels will better understand Ukrainian issues and processes happening here. However, our interlocutor remarked that Tombinski, as EU ambassador has no right to represent Polish interests in Ukraine.
In general, Ashton has appointed 15 new heads of delegations and 2 deputies. Besides, five out of seven newly appointed people represent the countries that have joined the EU after 2003. This is how Ashton assessed the appointments she made: “I was amazed by the level of candidates who pretended for the leading positions in the European External Action Service whose activity depends on people’s professionalism and ability to involve the best and most talented diplomats.”
The Day’s FACT FILE
Jan Tombinski was born in October 1958 in Krakow. In 1985 he received a degree in the German language and history at the Jagiellonian University. In 1990 he started a meteoric career in the Prague embassy and in 1995 headed the diplomatic mission to Ljubljana as a plenipotentiary ambassador. A year later he became the Polish ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1998 to 2001 was the councilor of Foreign Minister for European countries and director of the European department in the government headed by Jerzy Buzek. For six years (from 2001 to 2007) he headed the Polish embassy in France. After that he was appointed the Permanent Representative of Poland in the EU. He is the author of several historical books such as Hitler and the Swiss Neutrality 1933-35, Debate on the Project of the European Union in the League of Nations, Austria and European Integration 1926-32, and others. Tombinski is married and has 10 children.
