Participation of Ambassador Natalia Uzunova as a keynote speaker at a conference hosted by the Comité Diplomatique of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on the important subject of “Women’s Roles in International Affairs”
09 March 2026 News
In celebration of International Women's Day, on March 5 Ambassador Natalia Uzunova participated as a keynote speaker at a conference hosted by the Comité Diplomatique of the Université Libre de Bruxelles - ULB, on the important subject of “Women’s roles in International Affairs. Among the other keynote speakers, were Ambassador Aiga Liepina, Ambassador of Latvia to Belgium, Ms Véronique Joosten, Director of the Human Rights and Democracy Department at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ms Christina Kattami, Head of the MFF team of the Permanent Representation of Cyprus to the European Union.
The Conference brought together diplomats, experts and students in exchanging ideas and experiences on the current and future role of women in the field of diplomacy and international affairs, particularly considering their evolving contributions to conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and the shaping of the European Union’s external action on the global stage. In her intervention, Ms. Uzunova focused her intervention on the gradual shift in the EU’s decision-making culture, resulting from the evolution in women’s representation. She noted that today more women serve as Permanent Representatives and Antici Diplomats than at any point in the Union’s history. In her view, the increased presence of women in the EU’s decision-making has led to an evolution, rather than revolution at this point. The real cultural transformation will depend not only on gender parity, but also on broader shifts, for e.g. greater transparency, generational turnover, and perhaps even a rethinking of how authority is performed in multilateral settings.
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