Wolfgang Wessels

Visiting professor, European Political and Administrative Studies Department
Visiting professor, European Interdisciplinary Studies Department (Natolin (Warsaw) Campus)

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wessels, born in 1948, studied Economics and Political Science at the University of Cologne and in the USA. He was Director of the Institut für Europäische Politik in Bonn (1973-1993) and Head of the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges (1980-1996). Since 1994 he is holding a Jean-Monnet-Chair at the University of Cologne. He held the Chaire Européenne at Sciences Po Paris (1999), was Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence (2000) and held the Alfred Grosser Chair at Sciences Po Paris (2004/2005). In 2007 he was awarded the Jean Monnet Award in gold.

His priorities in teaching and research include the political system of the European Union, the role of the EU in the international system, the deepening and widening of the EU, modes of governance as well as theories and strategies of European integration. Prof. Wessels is co-editor of the "Jahrbuch der Europäischen Union" (26th Edition) and the "Europa von A-Z, Taschenbuch der europäischen Integration" (10th Edition) and has published widely in leading Journals and edited volumes.

He is involved in several research and teaching networks: he is chairperson of the executive board of the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP, Berlin) and of the Trans European Political Studies Association (TEPSA, Brussels). Prof. Wessels has coordinated several research projects funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Thyssen and Volkswagen Foundations as well as by the European Commission. Presently he is co-ordinator of the Network of Excellence EU-CONSENT ‘Wider Europe, Deeper Integration?´.