EU: the choice of Mark Gitenstein as US Ambassador signals a rapprochement
Mark Gitenstein, new US Ambassador to the European Union.
Photo taken in 2012. DANIEL MIHAILESCU AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
US President Joe Biden has decided to appoint Mark Gitenstein as the future US Ambassador to the European Union.
A new sign of rapprochement between American and European diplomacy.
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With our correspondent in Brussels
,
Pierre Benazet
The announcement was made by the White House on Tuesday, July 27 and this Wednesday, it was positively received.
The appointment of Mark Gitenstein will not be effective until he has passed under the caudine forks of confirmation by the Senate.
The European institutions are already publicly welcoming his appointment and are waiting for him firmly.
The President of the European Council Charles Michel welcomes the appointment of Mark Gitenstein and hopes that he will be dubbed by the Senate.
The Europeans see in this announcement from the White House a new manifestation of the rapprochement with the European Union wanted by the new president. Mark Gitenstein has been close to Joe Biden for a long time and for Europeans it is a kind of guarantee that he will have the President's ear to push forward the many transatlantic issues, especially for the trade disputes that still remain. after the Boeing-Airbus deal.
This is all the more a renewal given that the post of United States ambassador to the European Union was no longer occupied by a charge d'affaires and previously by interim by the American ambassador to the kingdom of Belgium.
A situation that reflected Donald Trump's lack of interest in Europe.
It had lasted since the departure in early 2020 of the last ambassador, Gordon Sondland, entangled in accusations of sexual harassment in the United States.
He had above all been accused of having carried out parallel diplomacy for the benefit of Donald Trump to try to obtain in Ukraine an investigation against the company of Joe Biden's son.
►Also read: Merkel in the United States: "
Germany must always give guarantees to ensure American friendship
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European Union
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