The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, has welcomed Ambassador Dr. Martin Ney, who today took up his post as Senior Deputy High Representative.
Ambassador Ney’s portfolio as SDHR will include Defence and Intelligence reform, efforts to strengthen BiH’s institutions and reform the public administration, media reform and the establishment of a Public Broadcasting System in line with EU standards, the development of civil society in BiH, and issues related to children and young people.
Ambassador Ney has been a member of the German Foreign Office since 1986. Until his arrival in Sarajevo he was responsible for coordinating German input on the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, which included policy on the Western Balkans.
Ambassador Ney studied law at the universities of Würzburg and Geneva , as well as politics and economics at Oxford . He has a law degree from the University of Würzburg and an M.A. from Oxford , where he was as a Rhodes scholar. From 1983 until 1986 he taught constitutional and public international law at Würzburg University , where he received his Doctorate in international law in 1985.
He started his diplomatic career in the Legal Department of the German Foreign Office, going on to head the Cultural and Press Section of the German Embassy in Bangkok , from 1988 to 1990. During the negotiations on the external aspects of German unification, Ambassador Ney acted as legal advisor and chaired the legal committee in the final round. He then served as Executive Assistant to the State Secretary of the Foreign Office, from 1991 till 1993. In 1993 he was posted to Washington as Counsellor for Politico-Military Affairs, before moving to Tokyo in 1997. After a year as Deputy Head of the Embassy’s Economic Section he became Head of its Political Department, in which capacity he served from 1998 to 2001.
Ambassador Ney is married to Dr Gabriele Ney. They have two sons.
Ambassador Ney was co-principle flautist in the First German Airforce Band during his military service, from 1974 to 1976.