Born in Nicosia on 25th August 1976, Andreas Photiou earned his BA in Business Administration from the University of Cardiff and also holds a BE-MA in European Studies from Belgium’s Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He joined the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October 2001.
His first foreign posting (Feb 2003 to Jul 2007) was at the Embassy/Permanent Mission of Cyprus to Vienna, after which he served – from August 2007 to July 2011 – at Cyprus’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. Returning home to Cyprus, he served as Head of the EU Department at the MFA from August 2011 to January 2013, then as European Correspondent and Foreign Affairs Council coordinator, also at the MFA, before returning to Brussels from October 2013 to July 2018, working on EU Enlargement – Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro – and the Cyprus settlement process at the Permanent Representation of Cyprus to the EU.
After heading the EU-Turkey Department at the MFA from August 2018 to July 2022, he became Director of the Office of the Permanent Secretary, also at the MFA. Ambassador Photiou, who speaks English and French alongside his native Greek, was appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the Republic of Serbia in July 2023.
