Paraskevi Papantoniou

Paraskevi Papantoniou is Head of Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), where she is responsible for Defence Single Market and Hybrid Threats. In this role, she works on strengthening the EU-wide defence market by promoting simplified rules, enhancing the competitiveness and resilience of the European defence industry and addressing the Union’s vulnerabilities to cyber and hybrid attacks. She oversees initiatives related to defence readiness simplification, including the Defence Readiness Simplification Omnibus, as well as the implementation of the Directives on defence procurement and transfers of defence products within the EU and issues related to security of supply under the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP). 

Ms Papantoniou has held a number of policy and leadership position at the he European Commission, including heading the EU Space Policy Unit in DG DEFIS, where she was responsible for supporting the European aerospace ecosystem, strengthening its resilience and advancing the EU’s autonomous access to space. In this capacity, she worked closely with the European Space Agency (ESA) and contributed to ensuring the effective functioning of the EU’s space flagships, including Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS. Prior to this, Papantoniou worked in the European Commission’s Task Force for Greece, and also spent several years in the Directorate-General for Competition. 

Before joining the European Commission, Ms Papantoniou worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg and practised competition law in Paris. 

Ms Papantoniou holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in European Union Law from the College of Europe in Bruges and a law degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.