Biography of Didier Seeuws

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DIDIER SEEUWS' BIOGRAPHY Didier Seeuws (55) was until February 2021 the Head of the Task Force on the UK of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European union. He was nominated by the Secretary General immediately after the UK Brexit referendum in June 2016. In this capacity, he provided advice to the Secretary General and to the President of the European Council in all matters related to EU-UK relations and was in charge of coordinating the EU Member States' positions and developing the negotiating mandates of the Council and the guidelines of the European Council for negotiations with the United Kingdom. During the Art. 50 negotiations, he chaired the ad hoc Working Party on Article 50 and, between 1 February 2020 and 31 December 2020, the Working Party on the United Kingdom. Between December 2014 and June 2016, he was the director for Transport, Telecom and Energy at the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. In this position, he advised the EU rotating presidency mainly on legislative files related to transport, telecom and energy and provided policy advice to the President of the European Council on these matters, in particular with respect to energy files. Before becoming a EU civil servant, Didier Seeuws was a Belgian career diplomat, posted in Washington and with the EU Institutions. He did a number of ministerial cabinets and was Spokesperson of the Belgian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Belgian Prime Minister. In his postings with the EU, he was the Belgian Deputy Permanent Representative, dealing with a wide number of files related to the EU Single Market, and was the chair of COREPER I during the Belgian Council Presidency in July-December 2010. In 2011, he was called by the then President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, to integrate his cabinet first as special advisor and, as of 2012, as head of cabinet. In this position, he assisted the President in a number of difficult files, such as the management of the Eurozone crisis, the Ukraine crisis, the negotiation of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) and the updated climate change package. As Head of Cabinet, he participated in the G-7 Sherpa meetings to coordinate and prepare the work of the G7 countries. He was also actively involved in the preparation of the EU-US and EU-Japan summit meetings. .

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