European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini stated that she will not seek reappointment after her term ends next year, AFP reported on Monday.
Mogherini, 45, addressed a congregation of EU ambassadors along with Helga Schmid, Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, stating she would work hard to leave her "house in order" for her replacement. Her term will end in October next year, along with other members of the European Commission.
In her 2018 EU Ambassador's Conference speech, she urged diplomats to focus on global instability and to remain united and firm on European principles and values, citing the challenges to developing a unified multipolar order.
"There is a return to the logic of bilateral transactions between powers — if not between individual leaders, where ‘might makes right', and the world is split into spheres of influence", she said, insinuating US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. "This is not our logic and many others in the world do not want to go this way".
READ MORE: EU to Block US Anti-Iran Sanctions Starting August 7 to Defend Business
"[The] idea that the great powers take decisions over everyone else's heads does not work. It is simply not realistic," she reminded later in her speech.
Mogherini also mentioned successes in reducing migrant flows into Europe, noting her trilateral cooperation with the African Union and United Nations.
"I will work with the Commission to launch a new framework for EU-Africa cooperation that will promote a range of concrete initiatives in the area of investments, education and skills and also economic cooperation", she highlighted.
"We have a lot to do this year. First of all to preserve what we have achieved so far, that has been a lot but fragile," she continued. "We have a lot to do to complete the job and to leave to the one that will have the honour, the pleasure, to do this job after me next year, the house in order".
Mogherini was appointed EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security policy in 2014 at just 41 years old. She is credited with brokering the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran deal, in 2015 after twenty months of negotiations.
US President Donald Trump withdrew from the international agreement on May 8. Mogherini responded by creating a Blocking Statue alongside foreign ministers from the UK, France, and Germany August 6.
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She also inked the European Union's Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) agreement within the EU Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) framework, which is set to reduce dependency on US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) funding and control in the future.
Mogherini also proposed the European Peace Facility in order to provide funding for missions and offer support to "partners in the field of security and defence," she stated.
"Member States have committed to join forces on a regular basis, to do things together, spend together, invest together, buy together, act together," she said in a December 2017 statement. "The possibilities of the Permanent Structured Cooperation are immense".
