Commission appoints new Directors-General for Information Society and Media and Health and Consumers

Source: European Commission (EC) i, published on Wednesday, March 31 2010.

Today, the European Commission decided to appoint Mr Robert Madelin as Director-General of the DG for Information Society and Media, to replace Mr Fabio Colasanti, who will retire on 1 April. The Commission also appointed Ms Paola Testori Coggi to replace Mr Madelin as Director-General of the DG for Health and Consumers. Both decisions will take effect on 1 April.

Ms Testori Coggi, an Italian national, has been Deputy Director-General in the DG for Health and Consumers since August 2007. From 2000 until 2007, she was Director for the safety of the food chain, where she was responsible for the White Paper on food safety and the legislative action programme. Prior to that, she was adviser on consumer health in the Cabinet of Commissioner Emma Bonino i, where she worked on the new EU policy on consumer health after the mad cow disease crisis. Paola Testori Coggi joined the European Commission in 1983 in the Directorate-General for Environment.

Mr Madelin, a British national, has been Director-General for Health and Consumer Affairs since January 2004. Between 1997 and 2003, he was a Director in the DG for Trade, for a range of international economic topics, including biotechnology, standards, intellectual property, sustainable development, governance and bilateral trade relations with Asia. Prior to this, he was Deputy Head of Cabinet to Sir Leon Brittan i, European Commission Vice President responsible for trade. Robert Madelin joined the Commission in 1993 after a career in the British civil service.