E pluribus plures

Official makes the move from Washington to Brussels.

Angelos Pangratis, the deputy head of the EU’s delegation in Washington, DC, is coming back to base – at least for the moment – to what remains of the European Commission’s external relations department. 

Pangratis had held the fort in Washington for eight months, as acting head of the delegation to the US, since the departure of John Bruton and until the arrival of his successor, João Vale de Almeida. Vale de Almeida, sometime head of the private office of Commission President José Manuel Barroso, arrived this month, but was nominated back in February, without having to jump through the hoops that now accompany the appointment of a head of delegation.

Under the new way of doing business, with the Commission’s delegations turned into embassies of all EU institutions and due to become part of the European External Action Service, Pangratis’s successor appears likely to be a member state diplomat rather than a Commission official. He or she will be picked in the coming weeks.