On 1 May 2014, João Aguiar Machado took over from Matthias Ruete as Director General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE). Responsible for developing transport policies for the European Union, Mr Aguiar Machado’s particular remit is to ensure mobility in a single European transport area, including the Single European Sky (SES), integrating citizens' needs, environmental policy and competitiveness. As part of this role, he eagerly takes over as Chairman of the SESAR Joint Undertaking Administrative Board, “SESAR is one of Europe’s most ambitious research and development programme. While the SES provides the legal framework for more efficient, safer and greener air transport, SESAR provides the technological and operational solutions that will enable the aviation sector to tackle and solve today’s ATM challenges. This will create new business opportunities to benefit Europe’s society and wider economy.”

More about Mr Aguiar Machado

Before taking up his current position, Mr Aguiar Machado was Deputy Director General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade. There he was responsible for bilateral trade relations with Asia, Latin America and Africa, including many of the EU’s free trade negotiations, and for trade in services, investment, intellectual property and public procurement. From September 2007 to December 2008 he was Deputy Director-General at the EC’s Directorate-General for External Relations – where he was in charge of coordinating overall EU relations with Asia and Latin America. Mr Aguiar Machado spent most of his career working on trade matters in Brussels and in EC Delegations in both Tokyo, Japan (1989 – 1994), and Geneva, Switzerland (WTO, 1994 – 1998). Mr Aguiar Machado studied economics both in Lisbon and at the College of Europe in Bruges.