Ms Androulla Vassiliou
Former European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth
Cyprus
Ms. Androulla Vassiliou is currently the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.
In February 2008, Ms. Vassiliou was appointed European Commissioner responsible for Health, serving the remaining mandate of the 2004-2009 College of Commissioners.
Before being appointed as a Member of the European Commission in 2008, Ms. Vassiliou was actively involved in politics in her home country, Cyprus. She was elected Member of the Cyprus House of Representatives twice: in 1996 and in 2001, representing the Movement of United Democrats (a member of the European Liberal Democrats and Reform Party, ELDR).
As a Parliamentarian she was an active member of the European Affairs Committee and she represented the Cyprus Parliament as an alternate member at the Convention on the Future of Europe.
Ms. Vassiliou studied law and international affairs in London and practiced law in Cyprus for 20 years (1968-1988).
In her present post, Ms. Vassiliou has been very active in the fields of literacy (launching the "Europe Loves Reading" campaign in September 2011) and information and communication technology in education. Perhaps the most important achievement of her legacy is the new proposed "Erasmus +" Programme which has seen a budget increase for the period 2014 -2020 of the order of 40 percent.