Brussels, 03/08/2010 (Agence Europe) - Anton Rop was appointed on Friday 30 July as vice-president and member of the management committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB). He will take up his post on 18 August, succeeding Marta Gajêcka, who has completed a three-year term as EIB vice-president.
Rop, a Slovenian citizen, was appointed by the EIB's Board of Governors on the basis of a proposal from the Minister of Finance of Slovenia with the agreement of the shareholder constituency composed of the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. In the EIB management committee, Anton Rop will hold supervisory responsibility for operations in several member states of the European Union (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) and for financing in support of the development of the trans-European transport and energy networks (TENs). He will also serve as an alternate governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), of which the EIB is a shareholder.
Prior to joining the EIB, Rop was a deputy in the National Assembly of Slovenia, chairing the committee on finance and monetary policy. From 2002 to 2004, he was prime minister of Slovenia after having been minister of finance since 2000. From 1996 to 2000, he held the position of minister of labour, family and social affairs. Anton Rop graduated from the faculty of economics in Ljubljana with a Master's degree in economics, having also completed a thesis on government spending and economic growth.