Vervaeke started his career in September 1983 in
Brussels at the Cultural and
Public relations department of the
ASLK. In October 1987, he started working for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Koen Vervaeke worked for the Belgian
Embassies in
Tunis as First Secretary and in
Bujumbura as Political Counsellor. From September 1995 until June 1999, he worked for the Belgian Permanent Representation to the
United Nations in
Geneva. He was the Belgian Foreign Ministry Spokesman under
Louis Michel, during Belgium's
EU Presidency in 2001 and Belgium's
Special Envoy to the
African Great Lakes Region, where he became involved in the Congo peace negotiations and the resulting
Sun City Agreement. From September 2003 until the end of 2007, Vervaeke was advisor to
Javier Solana on
African affairs and Head of the Africa Unit in the
Council's General Secretariat. and from 2007 to 2011 he was the first European Union's ambassador as
Special Representative and Head of the European Commission delegation to the
African Union in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia). During his time as Special Representative, Vervaeke was also a member of the Commission on Effective Development Cooperation with Africa which was set up by the
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and held meetings between April and October 2008. In 2011,
Catherine Ashton appointed Vervaeke to the European External Action Service where he became the Director for the Horn of Africa, East and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. In 2015, Vervaeke was appointed by
Federica Mogherini as Managing Director in charge of Africa. == See also ==