COLLEGE MEETING: Three appointments of Directors in the departments for energy and regional and urban policy

Today, the European Commission has decided to appoint Ms Cristina Lobillo Borrero as Director “Energy Policy” and Ms Catharina Sikow-Magny as Director “Internal Energy Market” in the Directorate-General for Energy (ENER) as well as Ms Monika Hencsey as Director “Budget, Communication and General Affairs” in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (REGIO). Currently, Cristina Lobillo Borrero, a Spanish national, is principal adviser of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural development (AGRI), after having been the Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Arias Cañete for Climate Action and Energy Policy from 2014 until 2019. She was assistant to the Director-General for Trade from 2011 until 2014, and to the Director-General for DG AGRI from 2010 until 2011. She graduated in Economics and Law in the University of Córdoba in Spain in 1995. After a career in the Spanish public administration, where she worked notably as Deputy Head of Cabinet of Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries from 2000 until 2004, she joined the Commission in 2004. Catharina Sikow-Magny, a Finnish national, is currently acting Director “Internal Energy Market” and Head of unit “Retail markets, consumers and local initiatives” at DG ENER. She was the head of Unit of “Networks and regional initiatives” also at DG ENER between 2013-2019, and has previously worked on internal transport relations, trans-European network policy and policy research. She graduated in economics in Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration in 1986. She started a career as economist and researcher in Finland and also worked in Haiti for the United Nations Development Programme before joining the Commission in 1997. Ms Hencsey, a Bulgarian and Hungarian national, is currently Head of Unit for the South Mediterranean and Middle East at the DG for Trade (TRADE). From 2011 to 2015, Ms Hencsey was Head of Unit for Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) and Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) at DG Trade and led negotiations for an Environmental Goods Agreement in the WTO. Prior to that, she served at the EU Delegation to China and to Liberia as Head of Operations Section managing assistance programs, as well as External Relations Desk Officer at the Russia and Northern Dimension Unit of the DG for the External Relations (RELEX). Her first assignment at the Commission started in 2003, when she joined DG Competition as case handler. Before joining the Commission, she had worked at McKinsey&Company, the World Bank Group and the Hungarian Ministry of Industry. Ms Hencsey holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University and Master of Arts in European Studies from the College of Europe.