During this webinar, Marlene Rosemarie Madsen* took stock of the actions taken so far at the EU level and presented the outlines of the European Commission’s comprehensive and coordinated response to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. We discussed about the strategy to deal with health emergency needs, to support economic activity during the crisis and to prepare the ground for the long-term economic recovery. And most importantly, how to do so in a spirit of solidarity.

*Marlene Rosemarie Madsen is the Deputy Head of the Cabinet of Commissioner Ferreira, responsible for Cohesion and Reform. Besides the role of Deputy, she is also responsible for Structural Reform Support.

From May 2018 to December 2019 she was Head of the revenue administration and public financial management Unit, in the Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service. Prior to becoming Head of Unit, Marlene spent nearly 3 years in the private office of Vice President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. During the last year she was Deputy Head of Cabinet, and for 3 months also acting Head of Cabinet. Besides taking care of horizontal files, she was also responsible for financial services and the Capital Markets Union.

Prior to joining the Cabinet, she worked in two different parts of the European Commission. This includes 3 years as a senior economist in the Chief Economist unit in DG TRADE and more than 3 years in the policy coordination and strategy unit in DG ECFIN.

Before joining the Commission January 2009, Marlene worked in two Member States' governments. She worked several years as an economist for the Danish government and then moved to the UK where she worked as an economist for the British government for 5 years, the last position held was as Head of Europe and Single Market economics.

Marlene is a Danish citizen and studied economics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.