Special Envoy for the Mediterranean of the European External Action Service
Patrick Simonnet is the EU’s Special Envoy for the Mediterranean. He has a long diplomatic career, serving as EU Ambassador to KSA, Bahrain and Oman (2020-2023) and EU Ambassador to Iraq (2015-2017). Between 2017 and 2020 he was Head of the Horn of Africa/East Africa Department in the European External Action Service (EEAS). Mr Simonnet also worked for the European Commission in various functions. He has a degree in Economics and served as an officer in the French Army and UN peacekeeper (Somalia) before joining the EU.
In this panel, speakers will reflect on the ten years that have passed since the first edition of the International Democracy Day Brussels conference, a decade of democratic recession, receding civic space and media freedom, yet also of mass protest. They will reflect on EU international democracy support during this decade and on the role democracy support will play during the next Commission.