EC appoints new Deputy Director-General for Directorate-General for Education and Culture

The European Commission has decided to appoint Normund Popens as Deputy Director-General in charge of Directorates ‘Innovation, Digital Education and International Cooperation' and ‘Culture, Creativity and Sport' in the Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC). The date of effect will be determined later.

Mr. Popens, a Latvian national, who is currently Deputy Director-General for ‘Implementation and International Relations' at the Directorate General Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and has an extensive professional experience of over 30 years, including 12 years as senior manager at the Commission which has endowed him with solid leadership capacity.

Since 2011, he has been working as Deputy Director General in charge of overseeing the implementation of cohesion funding programmes in EU member states and candidate countries as well as relations with third countries. Before joining the Commission in March 2011, he occupied several posts in the Latvian diplomatic services. From 2007 till 2011, he was the Permanent Representative of Latvia to the EU. Prior to that, he took on the function of Undersecretary of State of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for European affairs.