Dessislava Choumelova

Dessislava (Dessy) Choumelova is Head of the “Demography, Migration and Governance” unit at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre since June 2019. In this capacity, she is co-chairing the Commission Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography.

Prior to that, she has advised the Directors responsible for "Europe, Eastern Neighbourhood and Middle East" and "Strategy, Policy and International Cooperation" at the Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection at the European Commission in Brussels, where her work focused on forced and protracted displacement and the nexus migration – humanitarian aid – development cooperation. Between 2010-2013, D. Choumelova served as a member of the private office (cabinet) of Commissioner K. Georgieva, currently heading the IMF.

Before joining the EU civil service, D. Choumelova has spent more than a decade working on electronic communications, media and IT legal and regulatory issues. Inside the European Union institutions, her career has spanned legislative work at the European Parliament, anti-trust enforcement, international cooperation and diplomatic work at the EU Delegation to South Africa.

D. Choumelova speaks Bulgarian, English, French, Russian and Spanish.