Director ad interim

In accordance with Article 7(2) of the Staff Regulations, the Management Board temporarily assigned Dr Panos Karaminas to the post of the BEREC Office Director (ad interim) from 1 April 2024 until 30 June 2024.

Dr Karaminas exercises the powers conferred on the Director within the limits required in order to ensure business continuity in the operation and the day-to-day management of the BEREC Office, refraining from taking strategic decisions with a longer-term impact.
The new Director of the BEREC Office is expected to take up duties on 1 July 2024. 
 

Dr Panos Karaminas

Currently acting as the ad interim Director of BEREC Office, under this role, Dr Karaminas is the legal representative of the Agency for Support for BEREC (the BEREC Office) and is charged with the administrative management of the BEREC Office. He is responsible for heading the BEREC Office and takes overall responsibility in the day-to-day work required to provide professional and administrative support to the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). 

Dr Panos Karaminas is also the Head of Programme Management Unit of the BEREC Office. As part of this role, he leads a team of experts responsible for the professional, financial and administrative support of the Working Groups of BEREC aiming towards the timely, effective and efficient support of the telecommunications sector and of the European citizens. He is also the Chair of the Sustainability Expert Networking Group responsible for the improvement of the environmental footprint of BEREC and of the BEREC Office operations. 

Prior to this role, Dr Karaminas was the Director of the Telecommunications Directorate at the EETT – the National Regulatory and Competition Authority for supervising and regulating the telecommunications as well as the postal services markets in Greece. In that post, Dr Karaminas led a large multidisciplinary team of regulatory experts in safeguarding the Greek telecommunications market in terms of remaining highly competitive for the welfare of the national economy and benefit of Greek citizens. Between 2005 and 2007, Dr Karaminas was manager of a team of regulation specialists of EETT whose aim was  the promotion of the broadband penetration in Greece. The main outcome of these efforts was the initiation of infrastructure and services competition in the country. 

Previously, he was the Manager of the Mobile Satellite Services and Radionavigation Satellite Services Unit of Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator, and before that, he was working as a Senior Engineer at the R&D Labs of Nortel Networks in Harlow, the UK. 

Dr Karaminas holds a PhD degree in Array Signal Processing with applications in mobile communications systems from Imperial College, London, an MSc in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University of Athens and a degree in Physics from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Dr Karaminas has been a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) since 1993 and a Chartered Engineer since 2003.
 

Appointment

The Management Board (MB) of the BEREC Office appoints the Director through an open and transparent selection procedure, on the basis of merit, management, administrative and budgetary skills and the skills and experience relevant to electronic communications networks and services. For this, the MB must adopt a vacancy notice setting out the eligibility and selection criteria, as well as the overall procedure for the appointment of the Director.

For the selection process, the MB must set up a selection panel consisting of five members, four being EU National Regulatory Authority senior representatives and one representative from the EC. A second representative from the EC, an expert in human resources, must participate in the work to ensure the respect for due process. Overall, the selection panel acts upon unanimity and its purpose is to propose a short list of suitable candidates for the post of Director to the MB.

Following interviews of the short listed candidates with the MB, the members of the MB must vote for one candidate. A candidate is selected after receiving a two-thirds majority. Moreover, and before the appointment of the selected candidate, this candidate may be subject to a non-binding opinion of the EP. Thus, the candidate must be invited to make a statement before the competent committee of the EP and answer questions forwarded by their members.

The Director’s term of office is five years. It can be extended once, for no more than five years.

Responsibilities

The Director is responsible for heading the BEREC Office and is accountable to the BEREC Office MB. The Director’s main tasks are the following:

  • being in charge of the administrative management of the BEREC Office and accountable to the MB;
  • assisting the Chair of the Board of Regulators (BoR) and the Chairperson of the MB in preparing the meetings of their respective bodies; 
  • without prejudice to the powers of the BoR, the MB and the EC, being independent in the performance of their duties, and not seeking or taking instructions from any government, institution, person or body;
  • reporting to the EP and the Council on the performance of their duties when requested to do so; 
  • being the legal representative of the BEREC Office;
  • being responsible for the implementation of the BEREC Office’s tasks and following the guidance provided by the BoR and MB;
  • under the supervision of the MB, taking the necessary measures, in particular with regard to adopting internal administrative instructions and publishing notices, in order to ensure the functioning of the BEREC Office in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1971 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the Agency for Support for BEREC (BEREC Office) – the ‘BEREC Regulation’;
  • subject to the prior consent of the EC, the MB and the Member States concerned, deciding whether it is necessary for the purpose of carrying out the BEREC Office’s tasks in an efficient and effective manner to locate one or more members of staff in one or more Member State(s). The decision must specify the scope of the activities to be carried out in a manner that avoids unnecessary costs and duplication of administrative functions of the BEREC Office. Before such a decision is taken, its impact in terms of staff allocation and budget must be set out in the multiannual programming document referred to in Article 23(4).