Brussels, 5 July 2022
The European Commission has decided today to appoint Géraldine Mahieu as Director for ‘Investment, growth and structural reforms’ in its Directorate‑General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN). The Commission department is responsible for EU policies promoting economic growth and recovery, higher employment, stable public finances and financial stability. The date of effect of this appointment is to be determined later.
A Belgian national, she has pursued a career of 20 years in the economic and financial fields, and will draw on her strong economic background, excellent knowledge of EU policies – in particular, in the area of economic policies, structural reforms and investment – and robust management, negotiation and communication skills. Since 2020, she has been Acting Director of the Directorate B ‘Investment, growth and structural reforms’, where she supervises the drafting of micro and macro-economic analyses, as well as the formulation and implementation of policy relevant recommendations, while supporting the horizontal implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
Géraldine Mahieu has been working in DG ECFIN for most of her career, where she headed different units. As leader of the negotiations on new instruments to foster resilience and convergence of the Union from 2017 until 2020, she prepared and negotiated the Reform Support Programme (including the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. She also led for 5 years the ‘Labour market, Health and Social Services’ unit in the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) providing technical support to Member States on social policies. Prior to that, she was a Senior Economist for the International Monetary Fund for almost three years. Before joining the Commission in 2004, she worked as an Economist for the National Bank of Belgium, and holds a PhD in economics.