BRUSSELS, September 4. /TASS/: The European Union changed its ambassador to Moscow on a scheduled basis and German diplomat Markus Ederer, who has already left Moscow, will be succeeded by Roland Galharague of France, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS on Sunday.
"The rotation of the head of the EU delegation to Russia is carried out on a schedule basis. Markus Ederer has left Russia and this post will soon be taken by France’s former Ambassador to Malaysia Roland Galharague. His appointment was endorsed by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in June," the source said.
The diplomat noted that despite the unprecedented crisis in relations with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, "the European Union upholds the position that diplomatic channels of communication with Moscow should be kept open."
In an interview with RTVI recorded on August 31 and released on Friday, Ederer said that August 31 was his last working day as the EU Ambassador to Russia.
Ederer was born in 1957 in Germany. In 1988, he started his career in the German Foreign Ministry; between 1990 and 1993 he served in the economic department of the German Embassy in Moscow. After a number of diplomatic offices, he served in the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), where he headed the department of political and economic analysis. Later, he continued his service in the Foreign Ministry. On May 16, 2017, he was appointed the EU Ambassador to Moscow, succeeding Lithuania’s Vigaudas Usackas.
