Veronika is Head of the UN Environment Programme Brussels Office since April 2019. She is responsible for promoting and facilitating partnership building between UNEP and EU institutions, as well as key EU stakeholders in Brussels. This includes taking the lead on facilitating policy dialogue between UNEP and the European Commission, UNEP’s outreach initiatives in Brussels, assisting and advising UNEP leadership on EU Policy and representing UNEP in meetings and public events in Belgium. She also steers a working group of UN agencies in Brussels focused on the European Green Deal.
Veronika has over 15 years of experience in the field of international environmental affairs. At the Czech Ministry of Environment, she held different positions - director, director general and deputy minister, responsible for a number of areas including relations with the European Union, European Union funds and the overall international agenda. She addressed a wide range of issues including multilateral environmental agreements and relations with international organisations, strategic and policy work in the field of environment and sustainable development. Veronika led the drafting and negotiation of the Czech State Environmental Policy 2012-2020 and was a member of the governmental group on preparation of the National Reform Programme. She also successfully managed several European Union funded projects in other countries - Romania, Bulgaria, the Republic of Serbia and Ukraine.
Much of the focus of her career in the public sector has been on negotiating Czech positions on environmental legislation in the Council of the European Union. She coordinated environmental affairs during the Czech Presidency of the European Council in the first half of 2009. This involved daily negotiations with Member States, European Commission, European Parliament and other international institutions on different levels.
She has served as a member of various national decision-making bodies and was a member of the Management Board of the European Environment Agency for several years.
From 2015 to early 2019, she has been working in the academic sector. Until late 2017 she was Director of International Relations Office at the Charles University in Prague responsible for academic partnerships, teaching exchanges and the ERASMUS programme.
Veronika is of Czech nationality. She is married with two children.
