Lieve Fransen

Dr. Lieve Fransen
Director for Social Policies and strategy 2020 for growth and competitiveness
at DG Employment and Social affairs
of the European Commission
Personal details
Born (1950-04-17)April 17, 1950
Gent, Belgium
Spouse(s) Noah Howard
Residence Brussels, Belgium
Alma mater University of Antwerp, Belgium
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Belgium
Ghent University, Belgium
Website ec.europa.eu/represent_en.htm
DG Communication Website

Lieve Fransen, MD, PhD is, since 2015, a Senior Adviser to European Policy Centre on health, social and migration policies. Formerly, after having been since 2011 the Director for Social Policies in the Directorate for Employment and Social affairs for the European Commission. Before that she was Director for Representations in the Directorate for Communication and was in charge of the 35 Representations with 500 staff and for more than 500 networks across the European Union .

She started her career as a Medical Doctor in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s (mainly in Mozambique, Kenya and Rwanda). In several African countries she developed new initiatives and ensured implementation through international cooperation and strategic planning. In 1987 she created the AIDS Task Force, an international foundation where she was executive director until 1993.

In 1993 she joined the European Commission as the Head of the Health, AIDS and Population Sector. She was in charge of negotiating tiered pricing for pharmaceutical products for developing countries. During this period, she was also the guest editor for the Policy Research Department of the World Bank. In 2001 she became the Head of the Social and Human Development Unit in Directorate-General for Development in charge of social protection, employment, health, education and gender.

She was a founding board member and vice-chair of the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) representing the European Commission and several EU member states from 2000 to 2007, where she helped create a large public/private partnership and performance-based fund (8 billion pledges in 4 years).

She has written more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and numerous policy documents for the European Council and the European Parliament. She holds a PhD from the University of Antwerp in social policies and public health. She was awarded the National Order of the Lion of the Republic of Senegal (1999) for special merit in the fight against HIV/AIDS and she received the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights (2000).

Quotes from Speeches

"We should be proud to recognize that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria represents today one of the most important (if not the most important) financing mechanism to provide an adequate response to the three pandemics, by providing 65% of international financing for tuberculosis, 65% for malaria and 20% for HIV/AIDS." — Vice-Chair of GFATM at the Replenishment Meeting of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Durban (South Africa), 4/5 July 2006

I see four areas in particular where urgent action is needed to reduce the gap between men and women: 1. Ending abuse, violence and sexual slavery 2. Ensuring equal pay, social protection, and pension provision 3. Providing affordable, quality childcare for all women who want it 4. Allowing women to develop their careers – as much in the public as in the private sector — Debate for European Parliament Elections: Women's votes: why they matter this year more than ever, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 3 March 2009

What is really happening with the place of Europe in the World? Many different opinions are being discussed and only history will really tell, but we are in a major transformation phase and witness the transition from economic globalisation towards an increasingly political globalisation and a geopolitical rebalancing. — A medio camino de la Presidencia belga y del Trío Gobierno económico y Acción exterior, Madrid (Spain), 10 November 2010

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