The European Commission has today decided to
appoint Ms Ditte Juul Jørgensen,
currently the head of Competition Commissioner Margrethe
Vestager's private office, to the position of Director-General
in its energy department (DG Energy) as of 1 August, following
Mr Dominique Ristori's retirement on 31 July.
The Commission has also decided to appoint Ms
Sabine Weyand, currently the Deputy Chief Negotiator
of the Task Force for the preparation and conduct of the
negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 TEU
(TF50), to the position of Director-General of its trade
department (DG Trade). She will take up her new job on 1 June,
succeeding Mr Jean-Luc Demarty who will continue to advise and
support President and the
Secretary-General regarding the implementation of the EU-U.S.
Joint Statement agreed by the President and President Trump on
25 July 2018.
Finally, the Commission has decided to appoint Mr
Pascal Leardini to the position of Deputy
Secretary-General and the Commission's Chief Operating Officer
as of 1 June. Mr Leardini has been holding this position in an
acting capacity since the appointment of Ms Pia
Ahrenkilde Hansen to the position of
Director-General of its Communication department (DG COMM)
earlier this year.
Ms Ditte Juul Jørgensen, a Danish national,
joined the European Commission in 1992. Since then she has
devoted most of her career to trade matters and competition
policy, including as Head of the Economic Section in the EU
Delegation to the United Nations in New York. She first became
a Head of Unit — in the trade department —
in 2007 and served as Director in the same department
between 2011 and October 2014. Since November 2014 she is Head
of Competition CommissionerMargretheVestager's private office.
Ms Sabine Weyand, a German national,
joined the European Commission in 1994. Between 1999 and 2009,
she was a member of the private office of Trade Commissioner
Pascal Lamy, Head of the private office of Development and
Humanitarian Aid Commissioner and Adviser in the
private office of Commission President José Manuel Durão
. She first became a Head of
Unit in 2009 and was promoted to the position of Director in
2012, both in the Secretariat-General. Ms Weyand became Deputy
Director-General in the trade department in March 2016 and
Deputy Chief Negotiator for the Article 50 negotiations in
October 2016.
Mr Pascal Leardini, a Belgian national, joined
the Commission in 1994 and spent over a decade working in its
internal market department where he was first appointed Head of
Unit in 2002. In 2005, Mr Leardini joined the
Secretariat-General, where he worked on a variety of topics
including corporate management, budget and administration.
Since 2014, he has been serving in different Director functions
in the same department, covering a wide range of areas; he is
currently Director for strategy, better regulation and
corporate governance.
