Gerhard Sabathil

Visiting professor, European Political and Administrative Studies Department

Dr Gerhard Sabathil has been Director for Foreign Policy Strategy and Coordination of the European Commission in Brussels since May 2008. Born in 1954 in Pforzheim, he has been working for the European Commission for 26 years. From 2004 to 2008 he has been the Representative of the Commission to Germany in Berlin and since 2000 the Ambassador of the European Commission for Norway and Iceland, based in Oslo. Previously he had been Head of the Division for the Western Balkans in the Directorate General for External Relations, based in Brussels. From 1992 until 1996, Gerhard Sabathil was Counsellor in the Delegation of the EU Commission for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the OSCE in Prague. After completing his doctorate at Munich University, he began work for the German Association of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bonn, before moving on to the General Directorate for Competition of the European Commission in 1984. In 1987, Gerhard Sabathil became a member of the Cabinet of the Commission's Vice President Karl-Heinz Narjes and in 1989 he then was Office Manager of the Director General for the EU Budget. Since 1996, he has been a guest Professor at the University of Prague. He is also a member of several boards of NGOs and author of many articles, both in the field of Foreign and European Policy ex. the Alpbach Forum of Austria or the European Academy in Berlin. He is married with six children.