Guest lecture by Simonetta Cook, Member of Cabinet of President Michel
On Monday 23 November, Ms Simonetta Cook, member of the Cabinet of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, addressed master's students following the LLM European Law Programme. She shared valuable insights on what it is like working for the European Council, in addition to some of her own personal experiences. Ms Cook provided the students with useful and practical tips on how to pursue a career within the European institutions.
Ms Cook, a dual Italian-British national worked in private practice on corporate and EU regulatory law before working for the European Parliament. After completing a master's degree in European Union law, she started work with the Council in 2008, as a lawyer linguist. In this capacity she revised EU legal texts in the language of the competition from at least one or two other languages and provided advice on legislative drafting. Later on she would become a political administrator at the Council, working on relations with the Parliament.
In addition to sharing her own experiences, Ms Cook took the opportunity to discuss some of the major topics that are currently on the political agenda of European Council. Europe was, and still is, facing a number of important challenges. These range from Brexit to COVID-19 and from climate change to the rule of law. The European Council and its President have a major role to play in managing crises, which may be challenging due to the diverse nature of these issues. A 'one size fits all' approach is not suitable to address the different crises, as each of them has its own causes and context. For Ms. Cook the diverse and dynamic nature of the work, dealing with different topics on a daily basis is what makes her job so fulfilling.