Head of Global Issues and Innovation
Mercedes García Pérez is the head of global issues and innovation at the Delegation of the European Union to the USA. Her office represents the EU in the areas of climate, energy, environment, research and innovation, space, and public health.
García Pérez has outstanding experience in the area of EU foreign policy and security strategy. She was the head of division for human rights in the European External Action Service until August 2018, leading the formulation of the EU’s human rights policy and guidelines applied worldwide. She conducted human rights dialogues with third countries, spearheaded EU efforts to support the International Criminal Court, advocated relentlessly in support of human rights defenders and initiated new human rights guidelines in the area of water. From 2012 to 2016, she was the head of operations in the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), where she led the conduct of 10 EU civilian operations on three continents. In this capacity she oversaw the creation of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in the Hague, with a mandate over crimes against humanity and war crimes.
A lawyer by training, she practiced EU competition and trade law in Brussels from 1998 to 2002. She was a member of the Academic Council and visiting scholar at the Institut Supérieur de Management Public et Politique in Paris until 2011.
García Pérez is a visual artist whose current practice focuses on documenting life and our relation to the environment. She holds an LLM in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and two degrees in law and literature from Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
