Andrea Čović Vidović has 18+ years of professional experience in diplomacy, EU affairs, communication, management, and mentoring. Since July 2022 she has been the Head of Media at the European Commission in Croatia and Deputy Head of Commission Representation since February 2023, with the role of Acting Head of Representation from 1 July 2023 until 1 April 2024. She was in charge of public relations for the European Parliament in Croatia from its inauguration in February 2013 until July 2022. She had previously worked at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs as a diplomat on Croatia’s EU membership negotiations and as EU policies lecturer. Thereafter, she headed EU sectors at the Ministry of Finance (Customs Administration) and the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy. During her studies, she was a freelancer on international cultural projects at the Institute for International Relations and Development in Zagreb, before being recruited as regional coordinator of international ICT projects for UNIQA insurance.
She holds a Master’s degree in contemporary European Studies from Sussex University in the UK, as well as in German and English Studies from the University of Zagreb. She studied International Relations and German Studies at the Technical University of Dresden and conducted her PhD research in Comparative Politics at the University of Zagreb and the Johns Hopkins SAIS – School of Advanced International Relations in Washington DC. She is an alumna of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the US Fulbright Programme, and the British Chevening Programme. A volunteer in several non-profit organisations, she is the author of projects „Women in the Lead“ for the Academy for Political Development and „AI in PR: Educating the Next Generation of Communicators“ for the Croatian Public Relations Association.
