Britain to appoint new chief diplomat to the EU

LONDON — Britain’s former ambassador to China is set to lead London’s mission to the EU after a changing of the guard next year.

Caroline Wilson is expected to take over the top job at the U.K. Mission to the European Union in Brussels from fall 2026, according to three people familiar with the arrangements.

She is expected to succeed Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby, who has been in post in the EU capital since 2021.

Wilson has already worked extensively on EU issues, having been the Foreign Office’s Europe director from 2016 to 2019 during the first phase of Brexit talks.

Her new role leading the U.K.’s embassy to the EU will be a return to the Belgian capital, where she worked from 2000 until 2004 at the body’s predecessor, the U.K. Representation to the EU.

Wilson also spent time in the city while studying at the francophone Université libre de Bruxelles, where she obtained a masters degree in European community law. She was later seconded to the Cabinet Office’s Europe secretariat from 2006 to 2008.

The career mandarin had been ambassador to China since 2020, departing last month with an announcement that she “will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment.”

She is fluent in Mandarin and also speaks Russian, French and German.

The Foreign Office declined to comment on the moves and officials said diplomatic appointments would be confirmed in the usual way.

Brexit veteran

Outgoing head of mission Croisdale-Appleby was intimately involved in Brexit talks, working as U.K. chief negotiator David Frost’s deputy in Downing Street’s Europe taskforce throughout 2020.

Prior to that he was a director general in the Foreign Office from 2017 to 2020, working on European Union and other issues. Before taking up that role he was the British foreign affairs department’s Europe director from 2015 to 2017.

Four people familiar with the situation, including those cited above, said Croisdale-Appleby was due to depart late summer or early autumn 2026.

Earlier this month he was tipped as a possible successor to Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador. Planning for the diplomat’s departure, however, pre-dates a vacancy in Washington and his next job is not yet clear.

The UK Mission to the EU, known as UKMis, replaced the UK Permanent Representation to the EU when Britain left the European Union.

Based in offices on Avenue d’Auderghem just off the Schuman roundabout in Brussels, the body no longer has a formal seat at the table in EU institutions — but does its best to explain and promote British interests to Brussels while feeding back diplomatic intelligence to London.

The politically sensitive nature of discussions around Britain’s relationship with the EU has led successive British prime ministers to bring much work on the topic in house to Downing Street and its government department, the Cabinet Office.

This means that despite being part of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UKMis works closely with the Cabinet Office, where EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds is based. It also works with FCDO Europe Minister Stephen Doughty.