ANDREA Elscheková-Matisová became the new head of the European Commission Representative Office in Slovakia on October 16. She replaces Eric van der Linden, who completed his diplomatic mission to Slovakia in July 2005. According to EU custom, the new Representative Office head should be a Slovak citizen, the TASR news wire reported.
Until recently, Elscheková-Matisová was part of the Slovak diplomatic mission to the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She has also been a member of the Slovak diplomatic mission to the European Union in Brussels, and a member of Slovak EU Commissioner Ján Figeľ's team.
According to Elscheková-Matisová, one of her top priorities is to build a "fully-fledged" EC representation in Bratislava, comparable to those in old EU countries.