Speaker
Maria
Åsenius
Position
Institution
Maria Asenius -After graduating from Stockholm School of Economics with a degree in business and economics in 1986, she started a career in journalism as an editorial writer. She also worked as a freelance journalist in Brasilia and Paris. In March 1993 she began to work in the Government Offices in Stockholm, first as the Deputy Press Secretary to the Minister for Finance and then as a Political Adviser to the Minister for Culture and Immigration. Between May 1995 and January 2002 Maria Åsenius was Desk Officer for the ELDR Group in the European Parliament before she became Political Adviser to the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, a position she held until July 2004. She was a member of Olli Rehn’s cabinet from August 2004 to June 2007 and the Deputy Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Olli Rehn at the European Commission in Brussels from June 2007 to November 2008. After her work as State Secretary for European Affairs in Stockholm from November 2008 to January 2010 she has been Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Malmström since January 2010.