Dr Hilde Hardeman, Head of the European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI).
Hilde has spent twenty-five years working for the European Commission, covering external relations and economic and competitiveness issues. From 2014 to 2017, she served as Deputy Head of Cabinet to Vice-President Katainen in charge of Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. Previously, she headed the Commission's Units for respectively Relations with Russia and with Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, and was in charge of briefing the President of the Commission for meetings with EU Heads of State or Government.
Hilde Hardeman holds a PhD in Slavic Philology and History of the University of Leuven after studies at Leuven, Stanford University, and Paris. She was visiting professor at the College of Europe, and taught History of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at Vesalius College, Brussels. She published on Russian history and minority right issues.