Talks with Ms Sophie De Smedt, Director General for Personnel and Organization at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with Mr Koen Jongbloet, Director of the Diplomatic Academy of the Flemish Government, gave an opportunity to learn more about solutions in the functioning of the Belgian foreign service and mutual relations between the administration of federal and regional level. It was agreed that such mutual visits provide the best opportunity to learn about both countries’ foreign policy priorities.

An important aspect of Minister Rzegocki's visit to Belgium were talks on staffing issues in the European Union and the increasing of the number of Polish citizens in the EU diplomacy. These topics were discussed with Mr Stefano Sannino, Secretary General of the European External Action Service.

In a meeting with Mr Fernando Gentilini, EEAS Special Representative for the European Diplomatic Academy, Poland once again expressed its support for this new EU programme, which aims to increase the competences of the diplomatic personnel of the Member States with regards to the functioning of the EU in the field of external policy. Minister Rzegocki emphasized the added value of keeping the programme open to representatives of the EU candidate countries.

During the meeting with Mr Gianmarco Di Vita, EEAS Director General for Resource Management, and Ms Kristin De Peyron, EEAS Human Resource Director, the parties discussed the timetable for the current recruitment to the European diplomatic service and the EU delegations in third countries.

The third component of the visit of the Head of the Foreign Service to Belgium were talks at the NATO International Secretariat. Much attention was paid to the challenge to the international community posed by the Russian aggression to Ukraine.

During a meeting with Ms Nathalie Matthijs, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Human Resources, and with Ms Carmen Romero, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, Minister Rzegocki pointed to the need to intensify training of diplomatic services in counteracting disinformation and other aspects of hybrid threats. He informed NATO partners of the programmes in this field led by the Polish Diplomatic Academy and expressed his hope for intensification of training cooperation with NATO structures in this area. Mr Rzegocki also pointed out that Polish experts of broadly understood security policy may constitute a significant substantive support of civilian staff in NATO structures.

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Press Spokesperson