Brussels, 26/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - Following the departure of Jonathan Faull, mid March, from the Directorate General (DG) for press and communication at the European Commission where he also held the function of spokesman for the Commission, a certain number of changes have taken place at the head of this Directorate, the main change being the disassociation of the functions of spokesperson and of Director General (which had generally been the case, except during the Renato Ruggiero interlude, under the Jenkins presidency). Since 17 April, Reijo Kemppinen has been Commission spokesperson. He is assisted by Gerassimos Thomas, who replaces Jean-Christophe Filori at the post of deputy spokesperson. The post of Director General was entrusted, on 26 March, to an official of Portuguese nationality, Jorge de Oliveira e Sousa. The latter will be responsible for developing and implementing the Commission's strategy in the field of information and communication, taking fully into account aims defined in the annual Commission work programme. Mr de Oliveira e Sousa will also coordinate the activities of representation and of the regional offices in the Member States and will work in close collaboration with the Commission spokesman's office.
Mr de Oliveira e Sousa has been at the European Commission since 1987, where he worked successively at the Secretariat General, at the Directorates General for financial control and external relations, as well as at the EuropeAid office, before returning to the Secretariat General where he has been Director for relations with the Council of Ministers since October 2001.