Brussels Sends New EU Envoy to Macedonia

Aivo Orav | Photo by: Estonian Foreign Ministry

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton appointed Orav on Wednesday.
 
The 46-year-old career diplomat should arrive in Macedonia in late January. He comes from Ankara where he currently serves as Estonian ambassador to Turkey.

From this post he also covers Macedonia and other three Middle Eastern countries.

The EU post in Skopje has remained vacant since late August.

The previous head of mission, Denmark's Peter Sorensen, served only three months in Macedonia before being appointed head of the EU delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Orav has been working in the diplomatic field since 1992.
 
Among other things, he previously served as Estonia's Permanent Representation in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, in Vienna, and was Estonian ambassador to Poland.