According to the European Commission, Baroness Catherine Ashton appointed Ambassador Yuri Sterk as the Head of the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan.

Yuri Sterk is a citizen of Bulgaria. Prior to appointment he worked as Ambassador of Bulgaria in Israel. He also worked as Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

Ambassador Yuri Sterk, a career diplomat from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, has a degree in Public International Law from the Moscow Institute of International Relations; he has been a trainee in the Diplomatic Training Program at Stanford University, California; he also has a DEA in Political Science, profile "Construction Européenne" from the Institute of Political Science, Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg, France.

At this post, Yuri Sterk will replace Ambassador Norbert Jousten, who has been working in Uzbekistan from January 2012.