DIPLOMACY ДИПЛОМАЦИЯ

THE EUROPEAN UNION IS A WEALTH THAT HAS TO BE SAFEGUARDED
The new information and communication technologies are more widespread in this ministry
than any other type of technologies due to the fact that we maintain contacts with all parts
of the world. These technologies help us to “manage” time and space and are, therefore,
indispensable for all French diplomats across the world. In order to further develop public
diplomacy, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs shares an awful lot of information about its
own activity, as well as about all kinds of international issues, on its web site Francediplomatie.
In addition, in order to be able to keep an ongoing dialogue with the world, the ministry also
uses intensively the social networks.
How has “twiplomacy” changed the operations of the diplomats and of the other
foreign ministry staff?
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the most active administrations in Paris,
which also applies to the French embassies and consular services around the world. We do
encourage our ambassadors to communicate in Twitter. So, they are followed in the social
networks from New York to Berlin and from Beijing to Sofia, because they always have
something to share and to tell the others.
What was the most difficult time in your career?
My most difficult time has been in the periods of refugee crises. These crises are more
often than not dramatic situations – with very strong emotional charge and intense media
pressure, on one hand. On the other hand, however, discretion is a conditio sine qua non for
any successful action on the part of any administration.
Tell us a story from your experience as a spokesperson or an ambassador.
In the period 2012-2015, I was an ambassador to Belgium when we had to commemorate
the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. In August, 2014, I had
to accompany the French President to Liege where he was supposed to participate in a big
parade that had to mark the 100 th anniversary of the invasion of Belgium. Throughout the whole
day, I was thinking about the transmutation of fortune. Because one hundred years previously
my grandfather had served in the French army when it was in Belgium and, on that particular
day, the grandson of this particular soldier was in Belgium as an ambassador. A grandfather
and a grandson – with one hundred years between them! That is to say, one hundred years of
history during which the European peoples have gone through all kinds of misfortunes before
they finally managed to build the European Union, which is a real treasure. A treasure that is
shared by all of us and has to be safeguarded by all of us together.
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ДИПЛОМАЦИЯ 18/2016