LONDON — The U.K. has appointed Caroline Wilson as its new chief diplomat to the EU institutions in Brussels.
POLITICO reported last September that the former ambassador to China was set to lead London’s mission to the EU from late summer 2026.
The Foreign Office confirmed on Tuesday that she will succeed Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby, who has been in post in the EU capital since 2021.
Wilson, who will take the reins from August, has already worked extensively on EU issues, having been the Foreign Office’s Europe director from 2016 to 2019 during the first phase of Brexit talks.
Her new role leading the U.K.’s embassy to the EU will be a return to the Belgian capital, where she worked from 2000 until 2004 at the body’s predecessor, the U.K. Representation to the EU.
Wilson also spent time in the city while studying at the francophone Université libre de Bruxelles, where she obtained a masters degree in European community law. She was later seconded to the Cabinet Office’s Europe secretariat from 2006 to 2008.
The career mandarin had been ambassador to China since 2020, departing in August with an announcement that she “will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment.”
She is fluent in Mandarin and also speaks Russian, French and German.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said: “Dame Caroline Wilson DCMG has been appointed Ambassador to the European Union in succession to Mr Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby CMG, who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Dame Caroline will take up her appointment during August 2026.”
Outgoing head of mission Croisdale-Appleby was intimately involved in Brexit talks, working as U.K. chief negotiator David Frost’s deputy in Downing Street’s Europe taskforce throughout 2020.
Prior to that he was a director general in the Foreign Office from 2017 to 2020, working on EU and other issues. Before taking up that role he was the British foreign affairs department’s Europe director from 2015 to 2017.