Carine Claeys is the EU Special Envoy for Space in the European External Action Service (EEAS) since 2019. She is Head of the EEAS Space Task Force (now SecDefPol.5 Space) since its inception in 2015. In this capacity:
- she ensures that the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR) can exercise his operational responsibilities regarding the Union’s response to threats to or through the systems and services deployed under the EU Space Programme and regarding the functioning of the EU Satellite Centre (SatCen);
- she advises the EEAS Secretary General on all space matters of EU interest, in particular those having an international, as well as a security and defence, dimension;
- she chairs the Board of the SatCen, as the representative of the HR.
Before the EEAS was established, Carine Claeys served in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union.
- She was head of the “Security of space tools” cell (Galileo, GMES – then Copernicus) in the EU Joint Situation Centre from 2005 to 2011.
- She was responsible for maritime transport and for intermodal transport and networks in the Directorate-General for Transport from 2000 to 2005.
- She worked in several other sectors of this administration since 1992, including energy, human rights, United Nations, drugs, terrorism, agriculture and enlargement.
Carine Claeys holds a PhD in political sciences, a Master degree in business engineering, a Master degree in international relations and a Master degree in development cooperation.
