Stockholm and Brussels, 4 March 2015
The European Commission has today appointed Swedish lawyer Jan E. Frydman as Special Adviser for Trade Policy and Transatlantic Affairs for Sweden’s EU Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström. Jan Frydman is a partner at Ekenberg & Andersson law firm in Stockholm where he leads the Firm’s EU and transatlantic practice.
Thomas Ekenberg, Senior Partner at Ekenberg & Andersson, said: “We are all glad that Jan, as the only Swedish attorney in such a role, has been appointed Special Advisor to the European Commission. With his vast experience in international trade matters, Jan will support Sweden’s EU Commissioner and contribute to the successful implementation of the EU’s trade agenda, not least the important negotiations now under way for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). With continued globalization and increased trade, trade law will become increasingly important, and our Firm is able to offer unique expertise in this area.”
BACKGROUND
About Jan E. Frydman
Jan Frydman is a Swedish lawyer with a US degree in Business Administration and Economics. He is a partner at Ekenberg & Andersson firm in Stockholm and was previously adj. Judge at the Svea Court of Appeal.
Jan has previously held senior positions in Swedish and American business, including in marketing with The Procter & Gamble Company, as a Nordic representative for The First National Bank of Chicago, as Vice President and Deputy CEO for American Professionals Insurance Company, and as an attorney and Chief Information Officer at Mannheimer Swartling in Stockholm and New York.
When Sweden joined the EU, he was engaged by the European Commission in Brussels, where he remained for nearly two decades in positions of increasing responsibility, first as legal advisor to the Director General for Enterprise and Industry, subsequently as responsible for transatlantic relations and as Head of International Regulatory Affairs, with a focus on the US, China and Japan. He developed and coordinated among others the tools and processes that govern regulatory cooperation for goods between the EU and these countries.
About the role as Special Adviser
Special Advisers provide advice directly to the President or Members of the European Commission. The Commission may engage special advisors because of their particular qualifications and notwithstanding gainful employment in some other capacity. Jan Frydman will advise the European Commission in addition to his regular law practice. Besides Jan Frydman, the Commission has also appointed as Special Advisers former French Foreign Minister and European Commissioner Michel Barnier, former German Minister-President of Bavaria Edmund Stoiber, and a number of professors and former senior officials.
For more information
Special Advisers to the President and Commissioners of the European Commission
Commissioner Cecilia Malmström