Jean de Ruyt

Ambassador Jean De Ruyt (born 14 September 1947) retired from the Belgian diplomatic service in March 2012 after some 40 years.

He was then appointed to advise the European Union's High Representative / Vice-President Catherine Ashton on specific foreign policy issues.

He was previously Ambassador to Italy, covering also, from Rome, the FAO (UN Food and Agricultural Organization), Albania and the Republic of San Marino.

During the 1990s, his diplomatic career allowed him to participate closely in the shaping of the new European Security Architecture emerging after the end of the cold war.

Since his return to Brussels in 2007, he is a regular visiting professor at Louvain University (UCL) and in the College of Europe in Poland (Natolin).