Paraskevi Papantoniou

Head of Unit Defence Single Market & Hybrid Threats, DG DEFIS at European Commission

Speaker

Mrs Evi PAPANTONIOU is a Head of Unit in the European Commission, DG Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) and she is responsible for Defence Single Market and Hybrid threats. The Unit’s mission is to achieve a genuine defence EU-wide market, with simplified rules, strengthening the competitiveness and resilience of the European defence industry and to address the EU’s vulnerabilities to cyber and hybrid attacks. She’s responsible for the Defence readiness Simplification Omnibus, implementation of the Directives on defence procurements, transfers of defence products in the EU and Security of Supply under the European defence industry programme (EDIP).

In her career in the European Commission, Evi held different positions. Evi worked in the Cabinet of Commission Vice President, M. Schinas, dealing notably with EU migration and asylum policy notably the external aspects, as part of the Vice-President’s portfolio to promote our European way of life. Previously, she led in DG DEFIS the EU Space Policy Unit, responsible for supporting the EU aerospace ecosystem and its resilience, as well as for EU autonomous access to space, working closely with the European Space Agency (ESA) and ensuring that the EU space flagships on Earth observation (Copernicus) and satellite navigation (Galileo /EGNOS) are fit for purpose.

Evi worked previously in the EU Task Force for Greece, supporting Greece’s structural reform efforts under the economic adjustment programme, in the areas of business environment and justice reform. As competition lawyer by training, she worked several years in DG Competition of the European Commission on competition enforcement and State aid policy.

Before joining the European Commission, she worked in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and as a competition lawyer in Paris.

She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges and a law degree from the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki (Greece).