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Confirmation hearings of the Commissioners-designate: Olivér Várhelyi – Health and Animal Welfare

Briefing 15-10-2024

Olivér Várhelyi, the Commissioner-designate for Health and Animal Welfare, has worked on EU related issues throughout his professional career. He has been serving as Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement since 2019. From 2015 to 2019 he held the dual roles of Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Hungary to the EU, having served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Hungary from 2011 to 2015. From 2008 to 2011, Várhelyi headed the Commission's Unit for Industrial Property Rights in the Directorate General for Internal Market and Services. Várhelyi was part of the team that negotiated Hungary's accession to the EU: initially, as Head of the Legal Unit at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of the Cabinet of the Deputy Head of the State Secretary for Integration of Hungary (1998-2001), and later in Brussels as Legal Counsellor at the Mission of Hungary to the EU (2001-2003). In 2003, he assumed the post of Head of the Legal Service at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU. In 2006, Várhelyi returned to Budapest to become Head of the EU Law Department in the Ministry of Justice. Born in 1972, Várhelyi earned a master's degree in European legal studies from Aalborg University and he holds a law degree from the University of Szeged's Faculty of Law and Political Sciences.