Sir Paul Lever KCMG (born 31 March 1944) is a retired British ambassador.
After a year at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) he was sent to Finland to learn Finnish and served at the embassy in Helsinki 1967–71.
He later served as chef de cabinet to Christopher Tugendhat, then vice-president of the EEC, and as head successively of the UN, Defence, and Security Policy departments in the FCO.
He was head of the UK delegation to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, with the rank of Ambassador, 1990–92; assistant Under-Secretary at the FCO 1992–94; chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee 1994–96; Director for EU and Economic Affairs at the FCO 1996–97; and Ambassador to Germany 1997–2003.
[3] In Berlin Rules Lever points to the problems that are obvious in the vision for the EU's future that is advanced by Joschka Fischer and Wolfgang Schäuble.