Director General
European Commission
Jean-Eric Paquet is the Director-General of DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission.
He began his career in the European Commission in 1993 in the Directorate-General for Transport. In 1999 he joined the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Enlargement. In 2002 he became the Deputy Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Research.
Mr Paquet was EU Ambassador in Mauritania between 2004 and 2007.
He returned to DG Transport in 2007 where he led the development of the Trans-European Transport Network policy. As Director for the “European Mobility Network” he was responsible for Europe’s transport infrastructure policy and investment strategies, the single European rail area, inland waterways and port policy.
He joined DG Enlargement in 2013 where he took over the Directorate in charge of relations with Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and the Western Balkans.
In 2015 he was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the European Commission in charge of Policy Coordination and Better Regulation, dealing, inter alia with the European Semester for economic policy coordination, energy and climate-related policies, and social and employment policies.
He was appointed to his current position in 2018.