On February 15th 2017, the European Academy of the Regions had the pleasure of receiving Mr. Gilbert Monod de Froideville, director Protocol International, as speaker to the “EAR-AER Platform on Knowledge Exchange”
Mr. Monod has an almost twenty years’ experience as Chief of Royal Protocol at the Court of H.M. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and one and a half year experience as consultant at a Royal Court in the Middle East. A specialist in protocol on national and international level, he wrote a book about his experience: ” An Expert’s Guide to International Protocol”, published by Amsterdam University Press in March 2016.
A passionate speaker, who could entertain an audience for hours about the subject, he focused during his lecture on the protocol of the European Union, on the order EU prominentes have to appear, be seated at tables, on the order of the country flags to be exposed, etc. In our very informal world of today, he revealed that even in Europe there are a lot of national sensitivities to be taken into account and to address by finding sometimes creative solutions.
The EAR-AER will set up a training course in international protocol.