Brussels, 20/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 May, at the ETUC Congress in Athens, Bernadette Ségol was appointed to the post of ETUC general secretary to replace John Monks, whose term of office has come to an end. Ségol, of France, will head the ETUC until 2015 alongside a new team. In that team there will be Jozef Niemiec of Poland and Patrick Itschert of Belgium who will be the deputy general secretaries. The new confederal secretaries will be Claudia Menne (Germany), Luca Visentini (Italy), Veronica Anna-Maria Nilsson (Sweden), and Judith Kirton-Darling (United Kingdom). Ignacio Fernandez Toxo of Spain has been elected as president of the ETUC.
Born in Luzech (France) in 1949, Bernadette Ségol was elected to the head of UNI Europa in 2000 and then re-elected in 2003 and 2007. She was the director of Euro-FIET (commerce, finance, information technologies and other services) from 1985 to 2000. She was assistant to the general secretary of the International Textile Workers' Federation from 1974 to 1985, and was a member of the ETUC's executive committee from 1985 to 2011. She obtained her Masters in philosophy from Toulouse University in 1972. (G.B./transl.jl)