Ambassador in London, this career diplomat, who has accumulated positions and missions since 1995, succeeds Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Le Monde With AFP
It is ultimately the current ambassador of France to London, Catherine Colonna, who replaces Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. Aged 66, this long career diplomat has the reputation of being a rigorous professional, accustomed to crisis management, monitoring war in Iraq in 2003 until the management of the Brexit file in recent years.
Entry to the Quai d’Orsay when he left the National School of Administration (ENA), M Me colonna was one of the faces of French diplomacy during the Chirac years. She was also the spokesperson for the Presidency from 1995 to 2004, a longevity record. During the Iraqi crisis, which led in the early 2000s a serious deterioration in Franco-American relations, she also forcefully defended the French refusal to take part in the war launched in 2003 by the United States.
After the Elysée, the diplomat made a brief stint in 2004 at the head of the National Cinematography Center (CNC), regulatory and financing organization of French cinema, before returning to public affairs in 2005, while ‘She is appointed Minister for European Affairs of the Villepin Government, until 2007. She then joined UNESCO before working in the private sector.
a particularly delicate position on the background of Brexit
French ambassador to Rome from 2014 to 2014 to 2017, where she was at the forefront of the migration crisis, Catherine Colonna was appointed to London in mid-2019, just before the signing of the Brexit Treaty between the United Kingdom and ‘European Union. This position has proven to be particularly delicate, relations between London and Paris having stopped deteriorating after the arrival of Boris Johnson at Downing Street.
France and the United Kingdom have opposed fishing, but especially on migration, the British government accusing France for not sufficiently monitoring its ratings or preventing crossing of the English Channel. The two years of pandemic did not help to weave links with a conservative government also prompt to instrumentalize its dissensions with Paris for pure domestic politics.
The tension culminated in September 2021 after the announcement of the defense alliance Aukus, between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Aukus has deprived France of a very substantial delivery contract of submarines in Canberra and was experienced as a humiliation at the Quai d’Orsay. M colonna officially focused on the positive aspects of the Franco-British, cultural and historical relationship, avoiding antagonistic positions on social networks.
Friday, the interested party has soberly reacted to her appointment First of its foreign counterparts to react , Annalena Baerbock, the head of German diplomacy, of the arrival of “an enthusiastic partner for a strong Europe in the world”.
His appointment comes at a time when the Quai d’Orsay is plagued by “discomfort”, where a call for strike was launched for June 2 by six unions and a collective of 400 young diplomats. They protest against an accumulation of reforms, particularly that acting the progressive “extinction” by 2023 of the prestigious diplomatic corps.