MEMBERS DIRECTORY

Cristina Russo is Head of Unit in DG SANCO for "Financial services and Consumer redress" She graduated cum laude in political sciences at the University of Rome in 1990. The same year she did a stage in the European Commission and started her post graduate studies at the College of Europe, in Bruges. Meanwhile, she also continued her studies in law at the University of Rome.

She joined the Commission in 1992 dealing with legal and policy advice in the external relations field. She then moved to the Secretariat General in the unit responsible for the relations with the Council and worked on different files including on consumer related ones. In 1999, she joined Commissioner Busquin's cabinet (research and development) where she was responsible for the relations with the other Institutions and for legal and interinstitutional issues.

Cristina was appointed Head of unit in the Secretariat General in 2004 in the unit responsible for "Coreper I". Later she was also appointed Head of Unit for Co-decision and GRI (groupe des relations interinstitutionnelles) carrying out these two tasks at the same time. From 1 December 2009 onwards she continued her work as Head of Unit responsible for Co-decision and GRI. In July 2010 she was appointed Head of Unit for the strategic objective "Security and freedom". In this framework, she deepened her experience in upstream coordination and policy preparation in the fields of consumer affairs and in all the other sectors related to DG SANCO.

She is 43 and has three boys, Vincent (14), Paul (12) and François (9). She likes sport and is very dedicated to yoga