PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Career diplomat (July 1999-PRESENT):

• December 2021-PRESENT. Secretary General for the European Union.

• September 2021-December 2021. Director General for the European Single Market and other EU Common Policies.

• August 2017-September 2021. Counsellor at the Spanish Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium. In charge of Parliamentary Affairs and the Political and Security Committee.

• September 2015-August 2017. Deputy General Director for Cultural Promotion Abroad at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

• August 2012-September 2015. Deputy Consul General in Bogotá, Colombia.

• April 2010-August 2012. Consul General in Algiers, Algeria.

• November 2007-April 2010. Counsellor at the Spanish Embassy in London, United Kingdom.

• June 2006-November 2007. Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State for International Cooperation.

• December 2004-J une 2006. Advisory Member at the Spanish Foreign Minister´s Office

• August 2004-December 2004. Technical Advisor at the Spanish Foreign Minister´s Office.

• April 2000-August 2004. Embassy of Spain in Rabat, Morocco. First Secretary of the • Spanish Embassy.

• September 1999-April 2000. Head of Service for Coordination at the General Direction for Political Affairs and the United Nations.

• July 1999-September 1999. Head of Service for Consular Action at the General Direction of Legal and Consular Affairs.

EDUCATION

• Graduate in Economics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
• Graduate in Political Science at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Karen Massin leads Google's Government Affairs & Public Policy team in Brussels. She drives the development and implementation of outreach strategies, and engages in various policy areas affecting the digital industry such as platform policies, privacy, cybersecurity, content management, economic recovery and sustainability. Previously, Karen was the CEO of the public affairs consultancy BCW. She also led its Public Affairs Practice across Europe. Karen also worked at the UN, the European Commission and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is a board member of DigitalEurope.

Roberta Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament in January 2022.

She was first elected to the European Parliament in 2013, becoming one of Malta's first female Members of the European Parliament. Metsola was re-elected in 2014 and then again in 2019. 

In 2020 she was elected as the First Vice-President of the European Parliament, becoming the first Maltese national to hold the post. She was responsible for the European Parliament's relations with national parliaments and for the Parliament's participation in the interreligious and non-confessional dialogue (Article 17 TFEU).

Within the European Parliament, President Metsola was the EPP Group's Coordinator in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, between January 2017 and 2020. President Metsola was the Parliament's rapporteur on the European Border and Coastguard Regulation in 2019. She also co-authored the Parliament's own-initiative report on the need to protect journalists in the European Union from Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation.

Professionally she is a lawyer who has specialised in European law and politics.

Prior to her election as a MEP, President Metsola served within the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union and later as the legal advisor to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In her student years, she campaigned actively for Malta's EU membership, and was active in various organisations, acting as the Secretary-General for the European Democrat Student organisation between 2002-2003.

She completed an Erasmus exchange in France and graduated from the University of Malta and the College of Europe in Bruges.

Born in 1979, Roberta Metsola is married to Ukko Metsola and is the mother of four boys.