María Domínguez Gaitán

María Domínguez is a Principal Consultant and Head of Operations at Spark Legal and Policy Consulting, where she has been working since 2017. She also leads the policy area of Environment and Climate Action.

María has participated in and managed numerous studies for DG ENV, DG ENER, DG GROW, DG COMP, DG CONNECT and DG FISMA, often acting as a project manager or legal expert. Currently, María is a legal expert for the DG ENV study on the update and revision of the notice on access to justice in environmental matters and the guidance on interpretation of definitions of project categories of annex I and II of the EIA Directive. Moreover, María has managed several projects, such as a Study on the mapping and assessment of developments for the professions of nurse responsible for general care, a Legal study to verify the transposition of the Metrology Directives, a Study to verify the compliance of national legislative measures implementing Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal energy market for electricity, and a Study to assess the completeness and conformity of Member States' measures to transpose Directive (EU) 2019/1 of 11 December 2018 (ECN+ Directive).

Prior to receiving an MA in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe (Natolin), María completed a four-year degree in Law from the University of Málaga. María is also qualified to practice law in Spain.

Before joining Spark, María worked with the Council of Europe as an organiser for an International Conference on Terrorism and Organised Crime. She also worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union, where she gained extensive knowledge of the functioning and jurisprudence of the Court.

Her mother tongue is Spanish, and she speaks English and French.