Dr. Riina Kionka

Early life and background

Kionka was born in the United States and grew up in Michigan, in the Great Lakes area not far from Chicago. Her mother and her family fled Estonia after the Second World War and came to the United States. Her mother lived for six years in a refugee camp. [1]

Kionka's household was a three-generation family in which Estonian was spoken at home. Her father was an English speaker, not an Estonian. As a child, she translated into Estonian for her grandmother, who lived with the family. She learned Estonian as a child. [1]

Kionka's mother was a pharmacist and her father was a dentist. The family is full of doctors and dentists. Her sister became a doctor, and Kionka was the only one in the family who went in a different direction. [1]

From the start, Kionka was interested in international affairs. She first wanted to become a lawyer, and dropped the idea after learning what lawyers do. While at school, she wanted to become a musician. [1]

Education

Kionka studied German at school and at university. She started learning Russian and was already speaking German. She earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University, where she studied in a small college focused on policy studies. [1]

Kionka did a PhD at Columbia University in New York City. Her PhD field was political science and international relations. She began at Columbia in 1984 to study to become a Soviet specialist, and her research began with Soviet foreign policy and Soviet nationality policy. She took 13 years to finish the PhD because she went off to engage in real life. [1]

Early work

Kionka could not find a job in 1983. She worked four different jobs in the city where she had attended university and saved money for graduate school. [1]

One of those jobs was selling coffee beans in a coffee shop. Another was as a personal assistant to a quadriplegic man who was a student at the university. She also translated legal documents from German into English. The fourth of those jobs was in a pizza shop. [1]

Radio Free Europe

Kionka worked as a research analyst at Radio Free Europe in Munich. There she wrote short analytical articles for use on air. She left because it had suddenly become boring to sit in Munich, far away, and write analysis when she could join a newly established state. [1]

Estonian diplomacy

After quitting her job, Kionka joined the new Foreign Ministry of Estonia. Her first task there was setting up a policy planning group within the ministry. She also did speech writing. [1]

Kionka served as Estonian ambassador to Germany. She was undersecretary for European affairs, a post she compared to deputy minister. In all, she was an Estonian diplomat for about 12 years. She says her main interest has always been foreign policy rather than administration, and that there was no place else to go. She says she was interested in a bigger pond. [1]

Brussels and the European Union

Kionka left for Brussels in 2005. In Brussels, at headquarters, she first worked on transatlantic affairs. She worked on EU human rights policy as the representative for human rights of High Representative Javier Solana. She later worked on Central Asia for a few years. [1]

For five years, Kionka was diplomatic adviser to European Council President Donald Tusk. She had a front-row view of the Syrian migration crisis while working for Tusk. Before Pakistan, she served in South Africa. [1]

EU Ambassador to Pakistan

Kionka is the EU Ambassador to Pakistan. She was in Sindh while most of the areas were still very much affected, and says she saw this with her own eyes. [1]

Kionka says Pakistani exports to the EU have grown by two-thirds since GSP Plus began in 2013. She says Pakistan exports about a third of its exports to the European single market. She says the CBAM takes effect in October, with a five-year transition period. She describes a new directive, similar in aim to CBAM, called the corporate sustainability due diligence directive. [1]

Kionka says the European Union never gives money directly to governments and instead gives it to an implementing partner. She says EU and member state humanitarian emergency assistance came to very close to 200 million. She says the projects are part of an overall programme agreed together with the government of Pakistan, based on Pakistan's own defined national development goals. She says a section of the EU delegation in Islamabad is devoted to making sure money is used as agreed. She says the EU delegation does not give visas, because visa policy is kept by the member states. [1]

Views

Kionka has said the Pakistan floods were one of the worst floods in the world's history. She says Pakistan emits very little but was hit hard by the floods. She says the EU has resolved to be carbon neutral by 2050 and describes the Green Deal as an economic growth strategy. She says Europe produces about 9% of global emissions. [1]

Kionka describes Russia's invasion of Ukraine as unjustified, illegal under international law and unprovoked. She says EU member states agreed to use the EU budget for military aid to Ukraine, twice so far. She rejects the argument that NATO is expanding. [1]

Kionka says the EU is founded on human rights and respect. She says the European Union is a peace project. She says the European Parliament has to take a stand as co-legislator on 95% of all the legislation. [1]

Kionka says Europe has an aging population and needs young workers. She says Europe has been at a turning point for five or seven years and that the old ways of doing things are coming to an end. She describes the inward turn as a gut reaction against the bad sides of globalisation, a turn inward and more national. She says Asia is ascendant and the EU is paying much more attention to Asia. [1]

Kionka says David Cameron, who was the prime minister at the time, called a referendum. She describes withdrawal talks, which she calls basically divorce proceedings, that covered every single policy area the EU works on. [1]

Kionka says that most energy sources will be renewable. She says that most people will have given up eating meat. [1]

Timeline

1983

Could not find a job and then worked four different jobs to save money for graduate school.[1]

1984

Began at Columbia University to study to become a Soviet specialist.[1]

2005

Left for Brussels.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. The EU Ambassador who grew up translating for her refugee grandmother . Thought Behind Things , 2023-03-15.