Algirdas Gediminas Šemeta (born 23 April 1962) is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n economist and politician.

Biography

A native of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Algirdas Šemeta graduated in 1985 from

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

's Faculty of Economic Cybernetics and Finance with a degree as economist-mathematician. His previous position has been as Lithuania's

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

, which he fulfilled from December 2008 to June 2009, having already served in the post a decade earlier, from February 1997 to June 1999. Šemeta has minimal business experience in the private sector, his career to date has been concentrated in public office as a civil servant. He was

European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud The European Commissioner for Economy is a member of the European Commission. The current Economy Commissioner is Valdis Dombrovskis. From 2014 to 2019 the post was named ''Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs'' ...

from July 2009 till November 2014. Following his Commission nomination by center-right Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, Šemeta has affiliated himself with the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

(EPP). Since December 2014 Šemeta is

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

Ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

.Former European Taxation Commissioner appointed Business Ombudsman for Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Initiative

Interfax-Ukraine Interfax-Ukraine () is a Ukrainian news agency. Founded in 1992, the company publishes in Ukrainian, Russian, English and German. The company owns a 50-seat press centre. The staff of the agency is 105 people (as of the end of February 2022) ...

(11 December 2014)

References

, - , - , - 1962 births Homeland Union politicians Lithuanian European commissioners Living people Ministers of finance of Lithuania Vilnius University alumni Ombudsmen in Ukraine {{lithuania-politician-stub