EUROPEAN UNION: Entering the 15th month without Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Situation still frozen 426 days after the end of the mandate of last EU Special Rapporteur and 20 months after the last elections of the EU Parliament (June 2024)
By Willy Fautré, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (03.02.2026) – We are entering the 15th month after the end of the mandate of the last EU Special Rapporteur on FoRB and Ursula von der Leyen goes on turning a deaf ear to insistent and increasingly louder calls from MEPs and civil society associations, religious and humanist associations.
Ursula von der Leyen has still not filled in the vacant position despite growing impatience inside the European Union and in countries outside the EU where believers of all faiths and non-believers are persecuted.
Moreover, there was no public call for candidacies and therefore any appointment will fail to meet one of the most basic principles of democracy that EU citizens can expect from an EU institution: transparency.
In China, Egypt, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria… believers of all faiths and non-believers are in urgent need of concrete actions of an EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Several European States have appointed their own Special Envoy on FORB
A number of EU countries have appointed their own Special Envoy on FORB because they are deeply concerned about religious persecution around the world. Ursula von der Leyen is not.
Here is a list of Special Envoys that does not claim to be exhaustive:
AUSTRIA: Ambassador Alexander Rieger
Ambassador to Jakarta (December 2025)
Head of Task Force for Intercultural and Inter-religious Dialogue (MFA, Vienna)
CZECH REPUBLIC: Ambassador Robert Rehak
Special Envoy for Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue and Freedom of Religion (Czech Republic) – Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Combating Antisemitism, and Freedom of Religion or Belief at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
DENMARK: Ambassador Nathalia Feinberg
Special Representative for Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Protection of Religious or Belief Minorities
HUNGARY: Márk Aurél Érszegi
Special Advisor for Religion and Diplomacy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
Tristan Azbej
State Secretary, Head of the Office for Aid to Persecuted Christians (MFA in Budapest)
ITALY: Davide Dionisi
Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion and the Protection of Religious Minorities in the World, especially Christian minorities (MFA)
NETHERLANDS: Ambassador Paulus Beckers
Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief
Former Ambassador, à Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN and WTO and other international organizations in Geneva
NORWAY: Fernanda San Martin Carrasco
Director of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB)
UNITED KINGDOM: David Smith
Member of the UK Parliament for North Northumberland (Labour Party)
EU Special Envoy on FoRB (2016 – 2025): 5 years out of 10 without activity
In a February 2016 resolution on Daesh atrocities, the European Parliament “called for the EU to establish a permanent Special Representative for Freedom of Religion and Belief” outside the EU. In response to this resolution, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker swiftly created the function of the Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union (in short, EU Special Envoy on FoRB).
Three months later, in May 2016, the first Special Envoy on FoRB was appointed. It was Jan Figel, former EU Commissioner (2004-2009) and former Slovak Minister of Transport (2010-2012). His mandate was first limited to 12 months and afterwards extended until it expired with the end of term of Juncker Commission on 30 November 2019. During those three years, Jan Figel was very active as it can be seen from his 13-page report of activities, in particular his country visits in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It was the golden age of the function.
Elections at the European Parliament took place in May 2019 and in the process new EU Commissioners were appointed. For 1 year 1/2, the position of EU Special Envoy on FORB remained empty.
On May 5, 2021, the European Commission appointed Christos Stylianides as EU Special Envoy on FoRB). Christos Stylianides had previously served as the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management between 2014 and 2019 and as the European Union’s Ebola Coordinator.
He left the European Commission after four months for a more attractive and prestigious position of Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece’s government in which he was sworn in on 10 September 2021. Needless to say that due to the poor conditions of his mandate he could not achieve anything during those summer months.
For one more year and three months, the position of EU Special Envoy on FoRB remained empty. In fact from 1 December 2019 to December 2022 when a new EU Special Envoy was appointed, 3 years passed without any activity under the mandate of the EU Special Envoy for freedom of religion or belief in the world!
On 7 December 2022, three years and a half after the previous EU parliamentary elections and one year and half before the next ones, Baron Frans van Daele (75), a Belgian retired diplomat and former King Filip’s chief of staff, was appointed as the new EU Special Envoy on FORB. After such a long delay, it cannot be said that the EU had rushed to promote freedom of religion or belief in the world.
This last mandate only lasted for two years and came to an end six months after the EU parliamentary elections of June 2024 which were to be followed by the appointment of new EU Commissioners. During the second part of his mandate, only limited political follow up of the EU Special Envoy’s initiatives and activities was therefore to be expected due to the political transition.
In conclusion, during the 10 years of the existence of the post of EU Special Envoy for freedom of religion or belief in the world, the mandate has only been carried out for 5 years. This is the reality of the facts.
Lack of transparency
Again, there has obviously been no political will since the end of the mandate of Baron Frans van Daele to swiftly appoint a successor.
Noteworthy is that there is never any public call for candidates and appointments are opaque.
President von der Leyen would be well advised to follow the good practice of the United Nations in its appointment of Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Another source of inspiration in terms of transparency for President von der Leyen is the appointment procedure of the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In the meantime, several EU member states (Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia…) and the UK have appointed their own Special Envoys on FoRB…
Last but not least, opacity also prevails concerning the financial management of the function of EU Special Envoy and the report of activities of the last EU Special Envoy on FoRB is at least not publicly available, if it exists. Only EU Special Envoy Jan Figel provided a report of activities with recommendations which was made public a few days before the the end of his mandate.
No report of activities has been published by the last Special Envoy before the end of his term.
