ATHENS — The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced that Martin Bijsterbosch has taken over as the new chief of its mission for Greece, succeeding Francesco Drudi, who has led the mission since March 2016.

"Francesco Drudi has tirelessly led the ECB mission for Greece for the last four and a half years," said Fabio Panetta, a member of the ECB's Executive Board. Despite the many challenges and the very demanding programme, he added, Drudi and his team had always worked in the interests of Greece and his contribution to the Greek programme until its successful completion in 2018, and since then in the context of enhanced surveillance, "has earned the recognition and respect of the Greek authorities and other institutions."

"I am convinced that his successor, Martin Bijsterbosch, an experienced ECB economist with extensive experience in the study and analysis of countries, including his participation in the neighbouring Cyprus programme, will continue in the same spirit," said Panetta.

Martin Bijsterbosch has been working for the ECB since 2001. He has held various positions in the Directorate-General for Economic Studies, the ECB Delegation in Washington and the Directorate-General for Macro-prudential Policy and Financial Stability. Most recently, he has worked as a Senior Leader on issues of financial stability and macroeconomic policy for the banking sector of euro area countries. He has extensive experience in the monitoring of countries and in missions to countries whose economies are in crisis, including Cyprus, Greece, Latvia and Portugal. He has also worked at the central banks of Canada and the Netherlands where he began his career. He holds a Master's degree in Economics and studied at the universities of Groningen and Siena.