Fathallah Sijilmassi, the first Director General of the AU Commission

Fathallah Sijilmassi becomes the first Director General of the African Union Commission, following a selection process led by the African Union (AU) from a vast panel of high-level candidates and based on transparency, merit, and skills criteria.

This new position was created as part of the AU Commission’s institutional restructuring after the 11th Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government in November 2018.
As a result, Sijilmassi has risen to the top of the African Union Commission’s non-elective structure. It stems from Sijilmassi’s international obligations as Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

He will be in charge of directing the transversal governance of the African Union Commission’s (AUC) institutions, as well as guaranteeing operational coordination between the AUC’s many departments and Member States, as well as ensuring the optimal performance of the Pan-African technostructure.

The selection of Sijilmassi comes in the context of Morocco’s ongoing commitment, since its return to the Pan-African organization in January 2017, to the implementation of the AU’s global reform and the construction of solid administrative and financial governance within the Organization.

Fathallah Sijilmassi is a career diplomat who has held significant national and international posts. Mr. Sijilmassi served as Ambassador of Morocco in Paris and Brussels in addition to being Secretary General of the UfM.