Maria Joao Santos has a Master Degree in Tropical Agricultural Development and a PhD on Agronomy by the University of Reading in the UK. She has an extensive work experience in cooperation having worked in twinning projects with EU enlargement countries for the Ministry of Finance in Portugal and as manager of development cooperation projects in EU Delegations in several African countries. In Eurostat she was first responsible for the statistical methodology team and is currently responsible for the external relations team.