Member states’ foreign ministers today (20 June) welcomed a plan by Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, to appoint a special representative for the southern Mediterranean. Ashton told reporters after the meeting in Luxembourg that she hoped the appointment would be made “very soon”.

Foreign ministers discussed both the personality of the new envoy and the new post’s remit, which is likely to focus on supporting democratic transitions in north Africa and the Middle East rather than on the Arab-Israeli peace process. The EU had a special envoy for the peace process until earlier this year, but a diplomat said it would be “premature” to replace that envoy “as long as there is no peace process”.

The new special representative is expected to chair a taskforce of senior officials from the European External Action Service, the European Commission, EU member states, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The taskforce is supposed to steer the Union’s response to the democratic uprisings that have swept through the region, from Tunisia in the west to Yemen in the south-east, although the envoy’s exact geographic mandate remains to be decided.

EU leaders are to discuss the southern Mediterranean during their summit in Brussels later this week (23-24 June).

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The foreign ministers today tightened sanctions against the Libyan regime of Muammar Qaddafi and deplored the ongoing security crackdown by Syria’s regime, describing it as a “threat to internal and regional stability”. The EU is planning to impose asset freezes and travel bans on more people associated with the Syrian regime.

Christian Berger, an Austrian national, has been appointed director for north Africa and the Middle East in the European External Action Service. Berger is to replace Tomás Duplá del Moral, who has been appointed director for the Americas in the EEAS. Berger, a former European Commission official, currently heads the EU’s office in Palestine.