Ilkka Salmi was appointed as EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator in 2021. Previously, he served as the Director of the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Directorate at the European Commission.
He was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior in Finland, which is the ministry for internal security and migration in 2018-2020. He was a member of the Committee for EU Affairs, the Arctic Advisory Board dealing with Finland’s Strategy for the Arctic Region, the National Emergency Supply Council and the Council of the Finnish Red Cross. He also served as Chair of the Advisory Board on Gambling and the steering and monitoring group for the Internal Security Strategy, and as Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board for National Defence Education.
He worked as Director of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service in 2007–2011, and before joining the Ministry of the Interior, he served as Director of the EU Intelligence and Situation Centre and at the Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security of the European Commission.
