Androulla Vassiliou

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Androulla Vassiliou (2011)

Androulla Vassiliou (Ανδρούλλα Βασιλείου; born November 30, 1943 ) is a Greek Cypriot politician ( ED ); from 2008 she was EU Commissioner for Health and from February 2010 to November 2014 EU Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth as well as for Multilingualism . She is married to Georges Vassiliou , the former President of Cyprus , and has three children with him.

Career as a lawyer

From 1961 to 1964, Vassiliou studied law at the Middle Temple Inn of Court in London and then studied international relations at the renowned London Institute of World Affairs . After returning to Cyprus, she served as legal advisor to Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of Cyprus from 1968 . She ended her legal career when her husband Georges Vassiliou became President of Cyprus.

Political career

In 1996 Androulla Vassiliou began her own political career in the liberal party Enomeni Dimokrates (ED) founded by her husband and was elected to the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, she was re-elected in 2001. During her work, she stood out more and more through her European political expertise, and consequently she was among the representatives of Cyprus in the European Convention , the advisory body for the preparation of the Treaty on a Constitution for Europe .

From 2001 to 2006 she was Vice-President of the European Liberals and Chairwoman of the European Liberal Women's Network , the women's organization of this party.

After losing her parliamentary seat in the parliamentary elections in Cyprus in 2006 , Vassiliou was appointed EU health commissioner in February 2008 as the successor to her resigned compatriot Márkos Kyprianoú . It took over his agenda on March 3rd and was confirmed by the European Parliament on April 9th, 2008 by 446 votes to 7 with 29 abstentions. In 2010 she became Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth and for Multilingualism in the Barroso II Commission . The Juncker Commission not heard of more.

For several years she has been active in the United Nations Association of Cyprus, of which she was president for several periods. During this time she participated in numerous human rights conferences. In 1991 she was elected chairman of the World Association of United Nations Associations , twice confirmed in office and then elected honorary president.

Since 1996 she has been chairwoman of the Cypriot Federation of Women in Business and Economy .

linguistic proficiency

Androulla Vassiliou speaks Greek , English and French .

Individual evidence

  1. euranet.eu ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )

literature

Web links

Commons : Androulla Vassiliou  - collection of images