Pierre Morel

Ambassador Pierre Morel was born on 27 June 1944 in Romans (France). He is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Sciences (1965), of the Paris Faculty of Law at Assas (1966), and of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (1971)

He began his diplomatic career at the Quai d'Orsay in 1971. He started at the Soviet desk, moved on to political-military affairs and participated in the creation of the Planning Staff in 1974. He then served at the French Embassy in Moscow (1976-1979).

He served twice at the Office of the President of the Republic. From 1981 to 1985 as a Counsellor (European affairs and multilateral summits) and in 1991-1992, as Diplomatic Advisor. He participated in the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty.

Political Director at the Quai d'Orsay in 1985-1986, he was then appointed Ambassador at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (1986-1990), where he chaired the working group on the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (CWC) in 1989.

He served as Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996. He was also accredited, while in residence in Moscow, to Georgia (1992-1993), Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan (1992-1996), and to Kyrgyzstan (1993-1996).

He served as Ambassador in the People's Republic of China (1996-2002) and then to the Holy See (2002-2005).

From December 2005 to September 2006 he worked in Paris as advisor to the Policy Planning centre in the French foreign ministry and on specific assignments.

Ambassador Morel was appointed EU Special Representative for Central Asia on 5 October 2006 by the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, and then also for the Crisis in Georgia from September 2008 to August 2011. Since July 2012, he is the director of the Pharos Observatory of cultural and religious pluralism."