A second Bulgarian diplomat – Ambassador Yuri Sterk – has been appointed as an Ambassador of the European Union.

In a special statement, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Catherine Ashton has announced the appointment of Ambassador Yuri Sterk as Head of the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan, as part of the European External Action Service (EEAS).

"We are delighted by Baroness Catherine Ashton's decision to appoint Yuri Sterk to this post, which is key to European policy in Central Asia. This is the second Bulgarian diplomat to head an EU delegation after Mr. Philip Dimitrov, EU Head of Mission in Tbilisi," Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov commented, as cited by the press service of the Foreign Ministry in Sofia.

Sterk has thus begun the second Bulgarian to hold the post of EU Ambassador, after former Bulgarian Prime Minister Filip Dimitrov (PM in 1991-1992) was appointed EU Ambassador to Georgia more than a year ago.

Ambassador Yuri Sterk, a career diplomat from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, has a degree in Public International Law from the Moscow Institute of International Relations; he has been a trainee in the Diplomatic Training Program at Stanford University, California; he also has a DEA in Political Science, profile "Construction Europ?enne" from the Institute of Political Science, Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg, France.

Sterk has served as an adviser, as head of the Public International Law unit, director of the NATO directorate and as Director-General for Political Affairs and Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria.

He was Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and currently is Bulgaria's Ambassador to Israel.