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.