“The most suitable candidate” – Corriere.it

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BRUSSELS – It’s official. The former foreign minister Louis DiMaio «after careful consideration» was referred to as “The Most Suitable Candidate” in charge of EU special envoy for the Gulf by the EU High Representative Josep Borrell (the EU foreign minister) in one letter of 21 April last addressed to the ambassadors of the Political and Security Committee of the Member States, e viewed by Courier
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Borrell proposes to name it «for an initial period of 21 monthsstarting from 1 June 2023 until 28 February 2025″.

The appointment of an EU envoy for the Gulf was long overdue but the outbreak of Qatargate on 9 December had slowed down the selection process.

Borrell recalls in the letter that on 28 July 2022 he proposed “the establishment of an EU special representative for the Gulf” and that he “invited the member states to propose candidates for this new role”.

After collapse of energy supplies from Russiathe European Union had to look for alternative suppliers and it has realized that it does not have a dedicated diplomatic figure in the Gulf to hold the strings of relations with the Arab world, to negotiate on gas and oil. Borrell in his letter to the ambassadors explains that «as former Italian Foreign MinisterDi Maio has the necessary international political profile for this role. His extensive contacts with the Gulf countries they will enable him to engage with stakeholders at the appropriate level.’

Di Maio’s candidacy was allegedly launched by the EU High Representative Josep Borrell at the end of September, after having asked then Prime Minister Draghi for an opinion on the Foreign Minister, which was appreciative. The excellent personal understanding that has built up over time between Borrell and Di Maio when he was Foreign Minister is well known.

The current governmentalthough the former leader of the M5S is not his proposal as Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had specified in November, did not oppose the selection.

The other candidates they were the former Cypriot foreign minister Markos Kyprianou, the former UN envoy to Libya Jan Kubis (Slovakian), and the former Foreign Minister and EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulosstrongly supported by Athens but whose name has been talked about because he was part of the board of Antonio Panzeri’s NGO Fight Impunity, a position from which he resigned but for which he had received compensation of 60 thousand euros between February 2021 and February 2022.

Already in November Di Maio was Borrell’s favorite candidate, selected by an independent group of technicians who had received a mandate from the EU to identify the most suitable profile and had indicated the former head of the Farnesina as the best candidate on the short list.