Swiss Diplomats

Unlike local staff, diplomats rarely stay in the same place for more than a couple of years in order to prevent them from becoming part of their host country’s society and loosing their outsider’s view.

This is why the team working at the Permanent Representation of Switzerland to the Council of Europe changes every now and then. At present, Switzerland is represent in Strassburg by the following diplomats:

 

Ambassador Claude Wild

Claude Wild has been Switzerland’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe since spring 2023. The political scientist has a postgraduate degree in security policy and held posts in Nigeria, Moscow and Brussels.

After his appointment as ambassador, he first headed the Human Security Division in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and then became familiar with multilateral diplomacy as Switzerland’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. Immediately prior to his assignment in Strasbourg, Claude Wild was Ambassador to Kiev, where he experienced a turbulent time due to the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine.

 
David Best

His work as a diplomat has so far taken David Best to Harare, Moscow, Bogotà, Vienna, Washington and Hanoi. Since the political scientist supported the team in Strasbourg in the Foreign Ministry in Bern – first as a special advisor during Switzerland’s chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers and later as head of the relevant department – his ties to Council of Europe reach as far back as 2009. Today, he’s responsible on the ground for the political and cultural dossiers as well as all questions concerning the budget and the work programme of the Council of Europe. As deputy to the Ambassador, he also heads the Permanent Representation during the latter’s absence as Chargé d’Affaires.

 
Sophie Heegaard Schroeter

Sophie Heegaard Schroeter holds a doctorate in law and worked in the Directorate for International Law of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, where she was responsible for human rights and international humanitarian law. In 2022, she was posted to Strassburg where she is responsible for all legal matters the Council of Europe deals with, including the quarterly meetings of the Committee of Ministers where the Deputies oversee the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

 
 

 
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Photo Claude Wild © EDA

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