Veronica Manfredi

Veronica Manfredi is the Director for Zero Pollution (former Directorate Quality of Life) in DG Environment since February 2018.
Her Directorate plays a pivotal role in leading Europe towards Zero-Pollution and securing an effective management of Water – it thus significantly contributes to tackle the Climate, Biodiversity and Circular Economy challenges. It is indeed responsible for EU policies on Clean and Well-Managed Water (including the protection all EU Freshwater and Marine environments, water reuse, prevention from Floods, compliance with high health standards for Drinking Water), Clean Air, Environmental Noise, control on Industrial Emissions and prevention of Industrial Accidents. It also steers on the sound implementation of the Green City Accord which, in synergy with the Smart Cities Mission, the Covenant of Mayors and other urban initiatives, aims at tangibly delivering on the European Green Deal goals at local level.
Internationally, her team leads the EU negotiations within the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury and the UN Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. It also provides steady support to the work of the four Regional Sea Conventions (notably the HELCOM – Baltic Sea, OSPAR – North Atlantic Sea, Barcelona – Mediterranean Sea, and the Bucharest Conventions – Black Sea) and the International Commissions for the Protection of the Rhine and Danube rivers. In particular, until December 2022, Veronica is the Chair of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine.
A lawyer by background, Veronica deepened her knowledge of International and EU law in Rome, Turin, Kiel, Bruges and Brussels.