Dr Samo Kopač, born on 5 June 1963 in Kranj, obtained his Master’s degree in 1992 and his doctorate (PhD in Physics) in 1995. He has 21 years’ professional experience. He worked from 1986 to 1995 at the Jožef Štefan Institute in Ljubljana – first as a junior researcher and then, from 1995 to 2001, as Assistant to the Director/Head of the Accreditation Sector at the Metrology Institute of the Republic of Slovenia. From 2001 to 2002, he was the acting Director at the Slovenian Accreditation Office in Ljubljana.

He has been employed since 1 July 2002 at the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning – initially as Adviser to the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in the Environment Office, then from 2004 as Head of Sector in the Sector for Environment Policy within the Environment Directorate, from 2005 as Head of Sector in the Sector for the Prevention of Environment Pollution, Environment Directorate, from 2007 as Secretary in the Environment Directorate and lastly, from 1 November 2007, as Deputy to the Director General of the Directorate for the Environment.

In the course of his professional career, he has been both a member and a head of different working groups and committees. In 2005, he was member of the EU Presidency working group. In 2007, he headed the project team monitoring the co-decision process concerning the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 98/70/EC as regards the specification of petrol, diesel and gas-oil and the introduction of a mechanism to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the use of road transport fuels and amending Council Directive 1999/32/EC, as regards the specification of fuel used by inland waterway vessels and repealing Directive 93/12/EEC. In 2007, he was head of the project team monitoring the co-decision process concerning the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the banning of exports and the safe storage of metallic mercury. He has also authored many scientific and expert articles.