Ms Maria Damanaki will be awarded on EUropa.S 2018

The Institute of reseach & Training on European Affairs will award Ms Maria Damanaki  for her contribution to the European Venture as a Commissioner 2009-2014.

Maria Damanaki is the Global Managing Director for the Ocean at The Nature Conservancy, former European Commissioner 2009-2014.

She served (2009 – 2014) as European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Under her leadership, a new Fisheries policy was adopted that brought more than 25 fish stocks back to sustainability. She also adopted the Blue Growth agenda and introduced the system against the illegal fishing for European vessels worldwide.

She believes that the only path to lasting, tangible results for a sustainable blue economy is collaboration across public, private and civil sectors – at both global and local levels – while always respecting the needs of both nature and people.

In just the next five years, the continuation of her fisheries policy efforts could lead to 15 million more tons of fish in the sea, 30 percent more jobs and the equivalent of over US $2 billion in additional revenue. She also introduced and implemented the Blue Growth agenda for Seas and Oceans in Europe, which aimed to create 1.6 million new jobs and the equivalent of US $750 billion in revenue by 2020 in sectors such as coastal tourism, ocean energy, and marine biotechnology. In addition, she established legislation to create a common framework for Marine Spatial Planning to map and better manage maritime activities across EU countries.

Ms Damanaki was also a member of the Greek Parliament; she became the first woman to lead a political party in Greece in 1990, and was the first woman elected as Vice President of Parliament in 1986. She has authored several books on European issues, human rights, education, and women’s rights.