Vytenis Andriukaitis

Vytenis Andriukaitis
Official portrait, 2013
WHO Special Envoy for the European region
Assumed office
1 March 2020
European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety
In office
1 November 2014 – 30 November 2019
PresidentJean-Claude Juncker
Preceded byTonio Borg (Health)
Succeeded byStella Kyriakidou
Minister of Health
In office
13 December 2012 – 14 July 2014
Prime MinisterAlgirdas Butkevičius
Preceded byRaimondas Šukys
Succeeded byRimantė Šalaševičiūtė
Member of Seimas
In office
16 November 2012 – 15 September 2014
Preceded byVilija Aleknaitė-Abramikienė
Succeeded byŠarūnas Gustainis
ConstituencyŽirmūnai
In office
17 November 2008 – 15 November 2012
ConstituencyMulti-member
In office
24 November 1992 – 27 July 2004
Preceded byConstituency created
Succeeded byAlgis Čaplikas
ConstituencyŽirmūnai
Personal details
Born
Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis

(1951-08-09) 9 August 1951 (age 73)
Kyusyur, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Political partySocial Democratic Party of Lithuania (1989–present; suspended since 2014)[1]
SpouseIrena Meižytė
Children3
EducationLithuanian University of Health Sciences
Vilnius University

Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis (born 9 August 1951)[2] is WHO Special Envoy for the European region, the former European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, a heart surgeon, a co-signatory to the 1990 Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.[3]

Andriukaitis' family was deported to Siberia in June 1941. He, his mother and two older brothers were allowed to return to Lithuania in 1958; his father returned in 1959.[4] After excelling at school, he enrolled at Kaunas Medical Institute, graduating in 1975. In 1976 Andriukaitis started his career in politics as a member of the underground Social Democrat movement, but later continued his studies by pursuing a degree in history at Vilnius University, graduating in 1984.

Andriukaitis was elected to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania, which preceded Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament), in 1990.[5] Andriukaitis was a member of the Lithuanian Parliament for six terms, from 1992 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2012, and was a deputy chairman of its council from 2001 to 2004.[6] He was a health minister of the Republic of Lithuania since December 2012 until the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed him to serve as an EU Commissioner in November 2014. After the term as European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Andriukaitis became WHO Special Envoy for the European region in March 2020.

  1. ^ ""Socdemų" grietinėlei partijos patriarcho išsišokimas nepatiko: Iškilo net narystės partijoje klausimas".
  2. ^ "Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). European Convention. 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  3. ^ "A fair deal". British Medical Association. 16 August 2023. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  4. ^ "Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis" (in Lithuanian). Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. 2008. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  5. ^ "Vytenis Andriukaitis" (in Lithuanian). Vytenis Andriukaitis. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  6. ^ "Member of the Seimas 2000–2004 Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis'". Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. 2004. Retrieved 2 November 2008.