Jiří Buriánek takes over as Committee of the Regions' Secretary-General - Main contents

Jiří Buriánek took over as Secretary-General of the Committee of the Regions today. The former Director at the Secretariat-General of the Council of the EU succeeds Daniel Janssens and Gerhard Stahl heading the administration of the European Union's assembly of local and regional authorities.

On taking office Jiří Buriánek said , "Following the recent European Parliament elections it is obvious to all of us working for the EU that we are restarting our work within a new political setting. The citizens of Europe are calling for a shift in respect to their involvement in areas that matter most to them. This is a clear mandate to all European institutions and bodies, and notably the Committee of the Regions".

Jiří Buriánek, who holds joint Czech-German citizenship, was formally appointed by the Committees' Bureau members on 24 June 2014. He leaves his post as Director at the Secretariat-General of the Council of the European Union where he was responsible for research, industry and innovation, as well as for network industries (energy, transport, telecommunications/information society) and European infrastructures (Connecting Europe Facility and Trans-European Networks).

Prior to this, he served as Enlargement Manager at the European Commission's Directorate General Joint Research Centre and was Secretary-General of PostEurop - the European branch of the United Nation's Special Agency, Universal Postal Union representing, at that time, 42 European Universal Services Providers from across the EU. During his illustrious career Dr. Buriánek also held numerous management positions in large scale public sector entities in Germany. His education includes a law degree, a PhD in European Law and a Master of Business Administration with a focus on Information Technology and Telecommunication Policy

The Committee of the Regions' Secretary-General is appointed by the assembly's Bureau members for a mandate of five years .