With a hard no, the Federal Foreign Office buried the job wish of a former diplomat. The former top official wanted to become the head of the supervisory board at a Nord Stream 2 subsidiary. With her rejection, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was just able to prevent new irritations being triggered among friends and opponents alike in the charged situation surrounding the Ukraine crisis and dealings with Russia.
The former German ambassador Dieter Haller had already informed the ministry in December that he wanted to become chairman of the supervisory board of a new company. Haller was obliged to report this. Baerbock has now stopped all his ambitions on the grounds that an internal review has shown “that the start of the activity is to be prohibited because it impairs official interests”.
What is still left open in diplomatic German: what this impairment would have looked like. In fact, with this step, the Greens politician prevented the sensitive personnel from causing additional trouble among European partners and American allies. Some in Washington, Brussels and Kiev are already looking with great skepticism at Berlin’s indecisive stance. With Haller’s official appointment, that would have increased. If, of all people, a former top German diplomat had officially fought to get the pipeline project through the final hurdles until it was finally approved, the reputation of German diplomacy would have been seriously damaged.
However, the connection to Nord Stream 2 was initially not apparent from Haller’s message in December. And it was probably also left open when Haller would start the job. The whole thing only became explosive when it became known this Wednesday that the company “Gas for Europe” had been registered as a subsidiary of Nord Stream 2 AG in Rostock. Her official task: Owner and operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in German territorial waters and on German soil. Their actual goal: to meet all the conditions to ensure the pending certification of the project by the Federal Network Agency in Bonn. T-Online was the first to report on Gas for Europe.
Haller used to be head of the economics department
When the Federal Foreign Office found out about the connection between Gas for Europe and Nord Stream 2, Baerbock’s ministry immediately informed Haller on Thursday that it would prohibit him from taking on the supervisory board position. Haller himself has not yet commented on the development.
Before leaving the diplomatic service in 2018, the 68-year-old worked for almost 40 years as an ambassador and senior official for the Federal Foreign Office. Among other things, he was German ambassador to South Africa and Saudi Arabia. He also headed the economics department for a number of years. Haller was considered a jovial and self-confident diplomat who – especially in Saudi Arabia – was primarily concerned with good economic relations. He was not known in the diplomatic ranks as a particular champion of human rights.
From the Foreign Minister’s point of view, the fact that, as head of the Economics Department, he may have been involved in talks about the Baltic Sea pipeline, could have been even more sensitive than this image. So far, there has been no official confirmation from the ministry. But the possibility alone made it impossible for the Federal Foreign Office to say yes to the job.