EU ambassador to Washington defends appointment

The EU's next ambassador to Washington has defended the controversial manner in which his appointment was made.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday (9 March) at an event organised by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a German think tank, Joao Vale de Almeida said his surprise nomination for the post was due to the "need to appoint" somebody to head up the EU's most important delegation as soon as possible.

"It was a political signal of the importance of the EU-US relationship. The importa...