BIO/5300*

New Head of European Union Delegation Presents Letter of Appointment

(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service)

Olof Skoog, the new Head of the European Union delegation to the United Nations, presented his letter of appointment to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Before his latest appointment, Mr. Skoog served as the Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations from 2015 to 2019.  He was previously the European Union’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 2013 to 2015, overseeing development cooperation.

Prior to that posting, Mr. Skoog was the first Permanent Chair of the European Union Political and Security Committee from 2011 until 2013.  He served as his country’s Permanent Representative to the European Union between 2007 and 2011, having previously been Director-General for Political Affairs in Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004 until 2007.

Mr. Skoog’s foreign postings also included service as Ambassador to Colombia from 2001 until 2004, accredited concurrently to Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador.  Beginning his diplomatic career in 1989 as Second Secretary at his country’s embassy in Cuba, he was responsible for political reporting, human rights, press and information, and held the position until 1992, when he joined Sweden’s Permanent Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the same capacity.

The holder of a Master of Laws degree from Lund University Institute of Law in Sweden, Mr. Skoog previously studied at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for International Law and undertook advanced studies at the European Commission on Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

He is married and has three children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/4705 of 10 March 2015.

For information media. Not an official record.