Profile

Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Vienna, Austria

3 December 2012 marked the beginning for Mr. Janez Kopac's appointment as the Director of the Energy Community Secretariat.

Mr. Kopac was officially appointed for the period of three years by Energy Community Ministerial Council on 18 October 2012. The Director is responsible for the organisation's policy definition, including the development and implementation of the Secretariat's strategic activities.

Mr. Kopac's career highlights include a 10 years working experience as a parliamentarian (1990 - 2000). During this time period, Mr. Kopac acted as the Chairman of Budget Committee. He also shortly held the position of the Minister of Finance in 1992. From 2000 - 2004, Mr. Kopac was the Minister of Environment, Spatial Planing and Energy of Slovenia. Among other things, it was his task to lead the EU accession negotiations in the area of energy and environment. Afterwards, Mr. Kopac acted as the Director General in Directorate for Energy (2008 to 2012).

In this position, he prepared the transposition of 3rd energy package into Slovenian legislation and successfully concluded South Stream negotiations with the Russian Federation.

Mr. Kopac is fluent in Serbian, Croatian, English and has a working knowledge of German.

Educational Background

• 1986 - 1996: Master of Economic Science, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  specialisation: economics of international relations, title of the thesis: "Management of Budget Expenditures"
• 1981 - 1986: Bachelor of Science, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  specialisation: economic science