Irène Souka

Irène Souka (born 1953 or 1954) is a former European civil servant from Greece who served in the European Commission for 40 years starting in 1980. From May 2009 to January 2020, she was director general of the Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security.

Early life and education Souka earned a law degree from the University of Athens. She was promoted to director-general one year later.

As director-general, she helped push through reforms of the European Commission's performance appraisal process. In 2016, Souka launched an "anti-leaks" strategy to prevent confidential information, including sensitive policy documents, from being leaked to the media, a top concern for president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Role in Selmayr controversy In February 2018, the College of Commissioners approved the extension of Souka's term as director-general of human resources beyond the compulsory retirement age of 65. They also approved the extension of her husband Dominique Ristori's term as director general of energy. In December 2018, Souka received a further delay to her retirement until January 2020.

The European Ombudsman later concluded that the Consultative Committee on Appointments, of which Souka was a permanent member, had not followed its own procedure, leading Politico to comment that Souka had been "heavily" involved in "distorting the Commission's rules on senior appointments to ensure that Selmayr's route to the top job was cleared of all obstacles". In her email to Seibert, she complained that she had not been notified whether or not her contract would be further extended, with only four days to go before her retirement date – conduct which she characterised as "disrespectful". At the time, she was assistant to the head of the translation department, while he was assistant to the director-general of personnel. They went on to become known as a "power couple" within the European Commission, when Ristori was head of the energy department and Souka was head of human resources.