Ladislav Miko was Director for Nature (2005 to 2010) in the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission. In this position, he held responsibility for the Directorate-General’s work on nature and biodiversity, agriculture, soils and forests.
In the period May-December 2009 he held office of the Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic in the country’s caretaker government.
Before he started his career in the European Commission, in 2002 – 2005, he was Deputy Minister and Director General for Nature and Landscape Protection in the Ministry for Environment of the Czech Republic. In 2001-2002 he worked as a private consultant on the evaluation of EU-funded programmes in the Czech Republic. Prior to this, he worked for 8 years at the Czech Environmental Inspectorate, establishing the inspection system and standards in nature protection and CITES implementation.
His early career was as at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he became Deputy Director of the Institute of Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes.
He holds a doctorate in zoology and ecology. His research interests focused on zoology, soil zoology and ecology, and he has published widely in the scientific and popular press. He has also worked as a trainer, lecturer and court advisor. He is teaching ecology, soil biology and environmental sciences at Charles University and at the University of Life Sciences in Prague. Since 2010 he is also guest Professor of Antwerp University, teaching environment and society relations and ecological restoration courses.