The governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation have decided to reorganize their network of joint delegations abroad. "While maintaining the framework of 21 diplomats - 14 delegates and seven councillors - the network of new-generation Wallonia-Brussels delegations will have increased effectiveness and visibility,” Prime Minister Rudy Demotte of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation explained. “It will be sustainably anchored in geographical zones that we have jointly defined as strategic so as to safeguard community and regional interests in the best possible way.”
The reorganization will include closing two delegations – those in Algiers and Prague – creating a multi-services delegation in Kigali and opening up two posts of counsellor in Buenos Aires and Bogota.
Moreover, the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Beijing will be replaced by a multi-services representation, according to a joint press release from the two governments.
The reorganization also entails changes to the administrative and pecuniary status of staff in these delegations, including scrapping the post of High Representative.
"With the elimination of this post, there will be greater transparency since future diplomats will now have to sit an examination organized by the Selor (Public Service Selection Centre, editor’s note),” Wallonia’s Prime Minister, Willy Borsus, said. “This is therefore an added step towards the principles of good governance.”
The changes are aimed at better guaranteeing the multi-dimensional role and the synergy of the Wallonia-Brussels delegations “in a convergent approach by geographical zone,” and the synergy between all actors of the network abroad, namely the Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency, Wallonia-Brussels International, Visit Brussels, etc, the two governments said.
The Brussels Times
