The Diplomat
The European Diplomatic Academy, an institution created at the end of August 2022, concluded its first course last week, graduating a total of 42 young diplomats from EU member states, who were selected by their own countries.
The graduation ceremony, which was held in Brussels, was presided over by the Academy’s director and former EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini, who recalled in her speech that the first idea for the initiative was the work of the Spanish MEP, Ignacio Sánchez Amor, and that his successor as head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, decided to promote it. The Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Stefano Sannino, also spoke.
At the formal opening ceremony held in October, Borrell said that the aim of the Academy is to “foster a true diplomatic core of the EU in a challenging world and to show that it is possible to reconcile national and EU interests”.
The course has been held over two academic semesters at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium), directed by Mogherini, who is also Rector of this institution. A total of 42 young diplomats from EU countries took part in the pilot programme, although it was also open to diplomats from other European countries not yet members of the EU, such as Ukraine, the Western Balkan countries, Georgia, Moldova and Turkey.
The EEAS warned, however, that graduating from the Academy does not guarantee a post in the EU institutions or in any of its 140 delegations, although it does “significantly increase the chances of success” when it comes to applying for vacancies.
