A Ukrainian billionaire has been chosen to take charge of the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC).

Igor Kolomoisky was appointed as the organisation’s president at the annual ECJC conference in Berlin.

He succeeds Jonathan Joseph, the London-based businessman who has been ECJC president since 2004.

The ECJC represents Jewish people in around 40 countries, not only those in the EU but also some of the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Mr Kolomoisky, who has Israeli citizenship and last year was named the second wealthiest person in the Ukraine, is the first ECJC president from a former Soviet Union country.

Mr Joseph said the appointment was representative of "a new paradigm that really draws together East, Central and Western European Jewry as a united front".