The Practice of Appointing the Heads of EU Delegations in the Wake of Council Decision on European External Action Service

The objective of this paper is to analyse the present management profile and the prevailing practice in appointing the Heads of EU Delegations (HoDs) throughout the world. This examination takes into account the guidelines on personnel selection as adopted during negotiations over the future shape of the European External Action Service (EEAS). According to Council Decision guidelines, the future staff composition should be based on merit and ensure the geographical and gender balance of the service. Hence the study focuses on the following key variables: nationality, sex and the declared language skills of the current HoDs. Based on the data collected, an attempt has been made to capture the regularities in the appointment practice of the Commission.