Petr Ježek
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Petr Ježek | |
|---|---|
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019 | |
| Constituency | Czech Republic |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 March 1965 |
| Party | HLAS (since 2019)  European Union:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Other political affiliations |  Czech:ANO 2011 (2014–2017) |
| Alma mater | University of Economics, Prague |
Petr Ježek (born 28 March 1965) is a former Czech politician and diplomat. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2014 to 2019, representing ANO 2011. While an MEP, he chaired a Parliamentary Committee and an External Delegation, and was ranked as the 20th most influential MEP of 751 by the Vote Watch Europe analyst group.[1]
Ježek studied Economics of International Trade at the University of Economics, Prague, graduating in 1987.
EU diplomatic career
From 1989, he worked in a number of diplomatic and public service roles within the Czech government, related mainly to the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. In 1992 he was a volunteer with the EU Monitoring Mission in the war in the former Yugoslavia. In 1993 he was posted to the Czech Embassy in Copenhagen to cover the Danish EU Council Presidency, which was also dealing with the EU's Eastern enlargement.
Upon his return to Prague, he participated in establishment of the EU Department at the Czech Foreign Ministry, and as head of its unit and later European Correspondent he took part in deepening the structural political dialogue between the EU and its associate countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In the period of key negotiations and decisions on launching talks on EU enlargement and shaping EU future, between 1996 and 1999, he worked at the Czech Mission to the EU in Brussels as Political Counsellor, then Head of Political Department and Deputy Ambassador.
In 1999–2001, Ježek returned to Prague as Director of the Department for Political Relations with the EU at the Foreign Ministry, and then at the expanded Department for Western Europe and EU, dealing with bilateral and EU relations were dealt with. In 2001 he was appointed Director-General of the European Integration Section, the central and coordinating body for European affairs in the Czech Republic in charge of EU accession preparations, negotiations and also of the government communication campaign before the referendum on EU membership. He was also Deputy to the State Secretary for European Affairs and Deputy Chair of the inter-ministerial Committee for European Integration.
Prime Minister's Office
In 2003–2004, under Vladimír Špidla, Ježek worked at the Office of the Czech Government as the Director of the Prime Minister's Departments and Offices, a politically independent civil servant.
Private sector
From 2005 to 2013, Ježek was a partner in European affairs consultancy BXL Consulting, which he co-established with Pavel Telička, the first Czech EU Commissioner. The firm advised multinationals, foreign and Czech companies, and political actors such as the Cuban opposition.
