Barroso aide named EU’s ambassador to US

João Vale de Almeida is to become the European Union’s new ambassador to the US, making him the bloc’s public face in Washington at a time when transatlantic relations have been patchy.

Mr Vale de Almeida, a Portuguese native, is a longtime aide to José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president. He has spent the past five years as Mr Barroso’s head of cabinet, and has recently been helping to establish the EU’s new diplomatic corps, the External Action Service.

He will be filling a post left vacant since the end of October, when John Bruton finished his five-year term as head of the EU’s US delegation.

Mr Barroso called EU-US relations “a top priority” and said that Mr Vale de Almeida’s selection – taken during the first meeting of the new Commission on Wednesday – “testifies to our political commitment to enhance and deepen the transatlantic relationship in a crucial moment for bilateral relations”.

The policy differences between the partners have been highlighted recently on issues such as climate change and bank data sharing related to possible terrorist financing. In addition, the decision by Barack Obama, US president, to skip an European Union-US summit scheduled for May has provoked consternation in some European capitals.

Commission officials acknowledge the need to dedicate greater attention to international relations after months of institutional introspection in Brussels as a new Commission was assembled and the Lisbon treaty came into force.

Mr Vale de Almeida lacks the international profile of Mr Bruton, the former Irish prime minister. But he is said to have good US contacts as a result of his experience serving as Mr Barroso’s personal representative to the G8 and G20 summits.

In a speech in December, Mr Bruton offered some advice to his still unnamed successor, calling for a more “hard-headed” engagement with the US, and noting that Washington did not much care for “long declarations” or new institutions.

“Nor is the US impressed by EU member states competing with one another to show which of them has the more special relationship with it, who can get the earliest meeting with new US office holders, and who gets the longest meetings in the White House,” he added.