Colette Flesch
received a bursary and studied at the Wellesley College and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts.
She jointed the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities in 1964 as Administrator in the Directorate General Agriculture, until 1969. In 1968 Gaston Thorn asks her to be a candidate in the advanced general election.
From 1969 to 1980, again from 1984 to 1990 and from 1999 to 2009, she was Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and/or Member of the European Parliament. Between 1970 and 1980, and between 1987 and 2007, she was Member of the City Council of Luxembourg.
She was the first female mayor of Luxembourg City at the age of 32 (1969), which she remained until 1980. Between 1980 and 1984, she was first female to hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister of the Luxembourg Government, Minister of Foreign Affairs, External Trade and Cooperation, Minister of Economic Affairs, Minister of Justice. In 1990, she was appointed Director-General at the European Commission in the DG Information, Communication, Culture, Media and Sports. In 1997, she was appointed Director-General at the European Commission in the DG Translation and Information Technologies, until 1999.
On a national level, she helped work on a number of important reforms: the abolition of the death penalty, the liberalization of abortion, the implementation of palliative care and the decriminalization of euthanasia.