Mr Prosper De Winne was today appointed Deputy Director-General for Agriculture. His main duties will be to define the strategies, concepts and policies linked to the fields covered by the three Directorates for which he is responsible: Resource management, Audit of agricultural expenditure and Relations with other institutions, communication and documentation. Mr De Winne will also be responsible for representing the Agriculture Directorate-General in its relations with the other directorates-general, the other European institutions and non-governmental organisations linked to agriculture. Lastly, he will have to supervise and monitor the performance of the directorates for which he is responsible.

Prosper De Winne, 54 years old and of Belgian nationality, has since 2006 occupied the position of acting Deputy Director-General responsible for the Directorates Resource management, Audit of agricultural expenditure and Relations with other institutions, communication and documentation with the emphasis on the audit of agricultural expenditure and relations with other European institutions.

From 2002 to 2006 Mr De Winne was Director of Resource management in the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development. This made him responsible for managing the common agriculture policy budget and the Agriculture DG's financial service, personnel administration and computer department.

Before that he had worked as Head of the Unit 'Beef and Veal, Pigmeat, Sheepmeat and Poultrymeat' from 1999 to 2001. His responsibility for the common market organisations (CMO) for beef and veal, pigmeat, sheepmeat, eggs and poultry was marked by three major events: the 1999 dioxins crisis, the BSE and foot-and-mouth crises in 2000 and 2001 and the reform of the sheepmeat CMO.

A graduate in economics, Prosper De Winne occupied various posts linked to agriculture in the European Commission from 1981 to 1999, among them Head of the 'Beef and veal' Unit from 1996 to 1999 and Head of the 'Fraud prevention and control' Unit from 1991 to 1996. It was in the latter capacity that he developed and implemented the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) which administers direct aid payments to farmers.

Before joining the Commission in 1981, he had worked at the Belgian Ministry of Finance as chief customs and excise inspector. Prosper De Winne will take up his appointment within the next few weeks.