As the staff in our headquarters know, the schools are still on holiday in Berlin. And as the Federal Foreign Office, we cannot simply close down for the summer. As part of our Review process, we debated in detail if we were doing the right thing β and if we were doing it in the right way. Now we are in the process of implementing the review findings. We have launched the most far-reaching restructuring that the Federal Foreign Office has seen in decades.
But we want to do more than that. We want to ingrain a new working culture in the ministry β a culture with more interdepartmental collaboration, a greater focus on projects, more flexibility and a more active role. This is not an end in itself. And we are not doing it because it sounds modern. We are making these changes because the nature of the challenges requires us to do so if we want to be successful.
And the new structure of the Ambassadors Conference also reflects this. Germany has foreign policy responsibilities. I do not see this as a matter of choice or wishful thinking, but simply as a reality. This statement is anything but dry theory.
And we did not shy away from our foreign policy responsibilities during the past year. There is no guarantee of success, but we took on the challenge. And I would like to thank all of you for your excellent work. Over the past year, I too spent a large part of my own time and energy on crisis diplomacy.
German diplomacy helped to pave the way for progress in the conflict with Russia and in eastern Ukraine.
