Today, the European Commission decided to appoint Ms Maria Martin-Prat de Abreu to the function of Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Trade (TRADE). The date of effect of this appointment will be determined later.
Ms Martin-Prat de Abreu, a Spanish national, has spent over 20 years at the Commission during which she acquired an extensive knowledge of EU policies, notably internal market and trade policies as well as in-depth experience in international negotiations and EU legislative decision making. Together with her experience, she has high-level negotiating, management and representation skills, which make her very well suited to a post of Deputy-Director general of DG Trade at a time where trade policy is central to achieving the objectives of the von der Leyen geopolitical Commission.
Ms Martin-Prat is currently Director in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade. She is responsible for relations with a number of Asian countries as well as for the policy areas of Services and Digital Trade, Investment and Intellectual Property. She is the Commission’s Chief Negotiator for the negotiations with China on a bilateral investment agreement. Before she was the Head of the Copyright Unit in the Directorate-General for Communications, Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT). She was in charge of the development and enforcement of the EU rules in the area of copyright as well as international negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Previously, she was the Head of Unit responsible for free movement of services and freedom of establishment at the Directorate-General for Internal Market and she was a member of Commissioner Joaquin Almunia’s Cabinet (responsible at the time for Economic and Monetary Affairs). Before joining the Commission in 1995, she worked in the private sector and in the European Parliament.
Ms Martin-Prat studied law at the University of Seville in Spain. She also has two postgraduate degrees in European Law (from the European Institute of the University of Amsterdam and from the Institute of European Studies of the Free University of Brussels).