Peter Sørensen, a Dane, has been appointed the European Union’s new ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The appointment was announced by Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, today (30 May), almost a year after the departure of the previous ambassador.
He is now expected to be appointed EU Special Representative in Bosnia, in line with a decision by member states’ foreign ministers in March to separate the EUSR position from that of international high representative. Currently, Valentin Inzko, an Austrian diplomat, serves in both functions. The re-arrangement is supposed to upgrade the EU’s presence in Bosnia at a time of political stalemate, in the expectation that the Office of the High Representative will close later this year or in 2012.