European of the week
Catherine Colonna, a seasoned diplomat in Foreign Affairs
Audio 03:34
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna (right) with her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin, May 24, 2022. Photothek via Getty Images - Thomas Imo
By: Juliette Gheerbrant Follow
7 mins
Catherine Colonna is not - yet - known to the general public, but she has led a career that would make more than one diplomat green with envy.
Recently posted to London, she takes up her duties in a world in crisis whose bearings are blurred, and must face a ministry in revolt.
At 66, she has solid assets for this.
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Grand State Clerk: if the name still has a meaning, it applies well to Catherine Colonna.
The new minister, who once said she was too left-wing to be right-wing and too right-wing to be left-wing, has served the general interest for more than 40 years.
After a traditional career - law studies, Sciences Po, ENA - she directly embraced the diplomatic "career", with a first post in Washington, in 1983. Many management positions followed at the Quai d'Orsay, embassies at the Unesco at the OECD in Italy and the United Kingdom.
It was in Washington that she worked for the first time with Dominique de Villepin, where she would be years later, between 2005 and 2007, Minister Delegate for European Affairs.
Catherine Colonna was someone "very important", "complementary" for the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jacques Chirac, who is full of praise: "
She has a temperament that favors the search for a consensus, extremely affable, positive and she is someone who knows how to value her interlocutors, who likes to share.
In the mission that will be his, he will have to create unity, initiative, and his sense of the collective is extremely important.
She has never "played individually", has a lot of humility, and at the same time ambition.
This freedom, this know-how which are his, in a collective spirit, can today bring a lot to French diplomacy
”.
Renowned for her rigor and her discretion, she also marked the MEP of the presidential majority Sandro Gozzi by her direct, pedagogical and effective side in communication.
He remembers his years at the French Embassy in Rome, between 2014 and 2017. “
Catherine Colonna was highly appreciated, and she knew how to think outside the box of diplomacy by investing herself in particular in social issues.
But I think I can also say that she did a great job in London.
In a United Kingdom in the midst of Brexit and post-Brexit, in a context that has undermined the Euro-British relationship and the Franco-British relationship, she very well represented and defended the interests of her country.
".
It was during her embassy in London that the consecration comes: Catherine Colonna receives the honorary title of Ambassador of France, in 2020. Only three women wear it.
Convinced European
Catherine Colonna has never ceased to push the European Union forward.
Minister delegate, she already pleaded in 2006 to reconsider the rule of unanimity, correct the disparity of representation between States, proposes a European minimum wage, calls for a jump, because it is about the survival of the EU.
"
It is probably not essential to define the size of the clams in the Arcachon basin, but it is more useful to take responsibility in Lebanon
", she explained at the back-to-school conference of Ambassadors.
Six years later, she co-signed a column in Le Monde with the president of Europiens sans frontières, Philippe Cayla, in favor of the full right to vote for all EU nationals in their country of residence, whatever whether.
The initiator of the “Let me vote” campaign welcomes his nomination.
“
She is a convinced European and a very talented diplomat.
Today her spectrum of action is much broader, but in her job title she has kept Europe, like her predecessor, and even if she has an excellent minister delegate, Clément Beaune, she will keep an eye on Europe, that's for sure... and she will, I have no doubt, be faithful to her convictions in her European diplomatic action.
" It is also with the film enthusiast, who was once president of the CNC, that Philippe Cayla worked "
she loves the artistic world, and she encouraged us when she was in our association to diversify and to developing short animated films on European affairs - an activity that continues - and his inventive critical eye helped us a lot at the time.
»
A ministry in crisis
Before her short stint at the CNC, Catherine Colonna was spokesperson for President Jacques Chirac for nine years, a record longevity in this function.
Here again "
she learned from contact with Jacques Chirac the importance of principles for French diplomacy, the principles of peace, independence, balance, which are at the heart of the French diplomatic tradition
", underlines Dominique de Villepin.
These principles, no doubt, will be useful to him to face a world in crisis: Ukraine, Sahel, Climate to name but a few emergencies.
But anger is also brewing internally.
The reform of the diplomatic corps wanted by the President of the Republic has put diplomacy in turmoil.
Dominique de Villepin cannot bring himself to see the specificity of "the career" disappear: "
It seems to me literally unthinkable, it is a risk of collapse for France, a risk of loss of skills, a risk of loss of the attractiveness, credibility and strength of our network, so I believe that there is a major challenge here"
.
A young executive from the Quai d'Orsay who wishes to remain anonymous also denounces a misunderstanding of the profession
“not only are we still being asked to do more with less resources, but we are also denied that we have a specific profession which is learned over time, forged in the field with experience, which requires skills that we don't necessarily have in other jurisdictions.
To deny this is deeply violent
.
So violent that on June 2 diplomats went on strike, a first in 20 years.
“Managing this transition to a new era that the president and the government are asking the diplomatic corps will not be easy,
confirms Sandro Gozzi.
As a former Italian diplomat and having '
practiced
' the French diplomatic corps, I think she is going to have a rather difficult job
”.
At the Quai d'Orsay discretion is a must and the duty of reserve an obligation.
Few executives agree to speak, even anonymously.
Some that we have contacted say they are reassured by the appointment of a woman from the seraglio as head of the ministry, but others point to a very bad reputation in terms of management.
Opponents of the reform are calling for the opening of a consultation
"We must clearly come back to this reform, it's obvious,
believes this same executive from the Quai d'Orsay,
she herself will be sensitive to it, she has gone through all these stages she has had an absolutely brilliant career.
And what we are also asking for, and this is very important, is the opening of a large meeting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a debate that is as open and public as possible
”.
Dominique de Villepin also wants to believe that Catherine Colonna will be able to defend the diplomats.
“
We are at a time like in all difficult times diplomacy must be able to rely on principles, and it knows these principles.
She worked with a man who truly carried a vision and an extremely strong diplomatic requirement that was Jacques Chirac.
So it is well placed to measure the extent to which the diplomatic tool, the diplomatic corps, is essential.
»
Indispensable, for example, to defend Europe's place in a world in turmoil.
Barely installed in her office at the Quai d'Orsay, Catherine Colonna set off again for Berlin, Warsaw, kyiv and Boucha, in Ukraine.
► To read also:
Catherine Colonna, a professional diplomat at the head of the Quai d'Orsay
War in Ukraine: the head of French diplomacy visits kyiv, a first
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