Ekaterina Zaharieva

As Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva’s task is to drive the EU’s ambition to put research and innovation, science and technology at the centre of our economy. She will foster investment and cooperation, creating the right conditions for researchers to thrive and develop new skills, and the innovation needed for the EU’s competitiveness, security and sustainability goals.

She is responsible for:

• expanding the European Innovation Council and the European Research Council
• proposing a European Research Area Act to guarantee the free movement of researchers, scientific knowledge and technology
• developing a long-term strategy to boost European Research Infrastructure and a European Innovation Act to streamline our regulatory framework and facilitate access to venture capital 
• developing ways to support EU start- and scale-ups and creating a network of Trusted Investors to bring together deep tech investors across Europe
• preparing a new Strategy for European Life Sciences to unlock high-value technologies
• working on an Advanced Materials Act to support the research and innovation process through to manufacturing and deployment
• increasing the uptake of artificial intelligence by European scientists and helping to set up a European AI Research Council
• implementing and overseeing the funding from EU research and innovation programmes, such as Horizon Europe, as well as the EU Missions

Read more about research and innovation in the EU.

Speeches will be available soon.

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Meetings and missions

As part of the Commission's commitment to transparency, Commissioners and their Cabinet members publish information on and minutes of all meetings they hold with interest representatives. Every two months, they also publish an overview of mission expenses.

• Meetings with Commissioner Zaharieva
• Meetings with Commissioner Zaharieva's Cabinet members
• Missions of Commissioner Zaharieva

European Parliament hearings

Read Commissioner Zaharieva's answers to the European Parliament questionnaire.

Declaration of interests

In line with the Commission's Code of Conduct for Members of the Commission, each Member of the Commission publishes a declaration of interests. The declarations of the Commissioners-designate can be found on the European Parliament’s website, where they were published before the confirmation hearings of the Commissioners. 

The declarations of interests of the new Members of the Commission will be updated and published here at the beginning of 2025 in line with Article 3 of the Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission. Machine-readable versions of all declarations will also be made available in line with the requirements of the Code of Conduct. The declarations of interests follow the requirements set out in Article 3 and Annex 1 of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners.