Catherine Colonna

**Catherine Colonna** (born 16 April 1956) is a French politician. Colonna was the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs from 2022 to 2024. She was the Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022. Before this, she was the Ambassador of France to Italy between 2014 and 2017.

## Biography

Colonna learnt about law as a child.

In 1983, she chose to become a diplomat instead of doing a job associated with law. She decided to work at the French embassy in the USA. Colonna started working in the political unit. She would move to the press and information unit.
After she went back to Paris, she would work in the legal part of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She did this from 1986 to 1988.

In 1993, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alain Juppé and Cabinet Director Dominique de Villepin named Catherine Colonna deputy spokesperson. This meant she helped represent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In May 1995, President Jacques Chirac made her the speaker for the Élysée Palace. Colonna would stop her work in diplomacy for a bit after this.

After the European Constitution referendum, she started working on diplomacy again. Colonna was made Minister Delegate for European Affairs on 2 June 2005. She was the Minister for two years, until 15 May 2007.

On 26 March 2008, Catherine Colonna was made the French ambassador to UNESCO.

She also is in-charge the board of leaders of the École du Louvre. She became in-charge in May 2010.

She was made the French ambassador to Italy on 14 August 2014. She would work as the ambassador until 2017. In 2019, she became the French ambassador to the United Kingdom.

### National awards

- : Officer of the Legion of Honour
- : Officer of the National Order of Merit
- : Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

### Foreign awards

- : Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (1997)
- : Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy (2 June 2018)

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Catherine Colonna
- **image**: Catherine Colonna - 2023 (cropped).jpg
- **office**: Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (France), Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
- **primeminister**: Élisabeth Borne
- **term start**: 20 May 2022
- **term end**: 11 January 2024
- **predecessor**: Jean-Yves Le Drian
- **successor**: Stéphane Séjourné
- **office1**: List of ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom, Ambassador of France to the
- **term start1**: 2 September 2019
- **term end1**: 20 May 2022
- **president1**: Emmanuel Macron
- **predecessor1**: Jean-Pierre Jouyet
- **successor1**: Hélène Tréheux-Duchêne
- **office2**: Permanent Representative of France to OECD
- **term start2**: 4 October 2017
- **term end2**: 2 September 2019
- **president2**: Emmanuel Macron
- **predecessor2**: Pierre Duquesne
- **successor2**: Jean-Pierre Jouyet
- **office3**: List of ambassadors of France to Italy, Ambassador of France to Italy
- **term start3**: 1 September 2014
- **term end3**: 21 September 2017
- **president3**: François Hollande
Emmanuel Macron
- **predecessor3**: Alain Le Roy
- **successor3**: :fr:Christian Masset, Christian Masset
- **office4**: Permanent Representative of France to UNESCO
- **term start4**: 26 March 2008
- **term end4**: 22 December 2010
- **president4**: Nicolas Sarkozy
- **predecessor4**: Joëlle Bourgois
- **successor4**: Rama Yade
- **office5**: Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (France), Minister for European Affairs
- **term start5**: 2 June 2005
- **term end5**: 15 May 2007
- **primeminister5**: Dominique de Villepin
- **predecessor5**: Claudie Haigneré
- **successor5**: Jean-Pierre Jouyet
- **birth place**: Tours, France
- **alma mater**: University of Tours
Sciences Po
École nationale d'administration, ENA
- **caption**: Colonna in 2023