Summary Profile

Miriam González Durantez is a qualified Spanish lawyer. She has been senior adviser to two EU Commissioners and a senior policy adviser to the UK presidency of the EU whilst at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She is a highly regarded legal adviser on all aspects of national, European and international trade related matters.

Education

• Senior Associate Member, St Anthony's College, Oxford University (2004-06).
• MA from the University College of Europe, Belgium, on a scholarship from Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1991-1993).
• Degree in Law, University of Valladolid, Spain (1986-1991).

Expertise

• Trade Law (particularly Services and Investment).
• Trade Policy.
• International Relations.
• Regulatory Analysis / Impact Assessment.

Experience

Served for seven years as a senior adviser to the Cabinet for EU External Relations Commissioners Chris Patten and Benita Ferrero-Waldner. In this role, she was responsible for:

• EU relations with the US, Middle East, Gulf, Latin America and the Mediterranean countries. This was a critical time in EU/Mediterranean and Middle East relations;
• Political oversight of the free trade negotiations between the EU and third countries;
• The Commissioners' internal contributions to EU Trade, Competition, Information Society, Internal Market (including financial services) and Industry policies.

Served as a senior policy adviser to the Foreign Office during the UK tenure of the EU Presidency. In addition to continuing with many of the trade negotiations that she had led whilst in the Cabinet of Ferrero-Waldner, during this time she also:

• Set up and managed the Arab Reform Team leading UK efforts to encourage economic and political reform; and
• Led the preparations for the 'Euro-Mediterranean Summit' (November 2005) where Ms. González Durantez acted as advocate for the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area.

Whilst at the EU Trade Directorate General she:

• Acted as a lead negotiator at the WTO negotiations on telecom services and on international aspects of electronic commerce for EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan. During this time she secured agreement on telecoms trade liberalisation (worth US$600bn in 1997) as well as agreement on groundbreaking regulatory provisions;
• Led and managed the EU negotiating teams for services and investment aspects of free trade in services in both the multilateral negotiations and the bilateral accession negotiations of Saudi Arabia (notably in relation to dual pricing for energy) and China; and
• Was involved in all stages of a number of WTO dispute settlement proceedings.

Publications

• 'Regulatory Aspects of the WTO Telecoms Agreements'(Guest author, 2003).
• 'Global Europe - Implementing the European Security Strategy', by Mark Leonard and Richard Gowan. Published by the Foreign Policy Centre (2003).
• Various articles in trade magazines, e.g. 'Telecommunications in GATS 2000', International Trade Law and Regulation (Dec. 99), 'The WTO negotiations on Basic Telecoms' (Aug. 97), 'Adapting services strategies to deregulation' Telecommunications International (Vol. 1(5), May 97).

Professional Experience

• 2006 Head of Trade Law at DLA Piper (London/Brussels).
• 2005-2006 Policy adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (London).
• 2004-2005 Senior Adviser in the Cabinet of EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner (External Relations), in Brussels.
• 1999-2004 Senior Adviser in the Cabinet of EU Commissioner Lord Chris Patten (External Relations), in Brussels.
• 1995-1999 Lead EU negotiator in WTO negotiations (Brussels).
• 1994-1995 Regulatory Analyst, BT (Brussels).
• 1993-1994 European Public Policy Adviser ('EPPA'), in Brussels.

Professional Memberships

• Vice-President of Canning House.
• Trade Committee of the Confederation of British Industry.
• Member of the IMET 2000 Trust.