Gunnar Wiegand (DE) is Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the Indo-Pacific Program of the German Marshall Fund, Brussels Office, as well as Senior Adviser and Member of the Strategic Board of the European Policy Centre. He is also Visiting Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po).
Gunnar Wiegand is the former Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service (EEAS, 2016-2023) and was in this capacity also the EU’s Senior Official for relations with ASEAN, Asia (ASEM) and the Indo-Pacific area. He was a key contributor to the EU’s new policy orientations on EU relations with China (2019) and India (2018), as well as the new policy initiatives on the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific (2021) and EU-Asia Connectivity (2018, precursor of the EU’s Global Gateway initiative). He led the negotiations on the establishment of the EU-ASEAN Strategic Partnership (2021) and was also the EU’s Chief Negotiator for the new EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement and the EU-Pakistan Strategic Engagement Plan.
Before assuming the function of Managing Director, he served as Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia and OSCE (2011-2016) at the EEAS, and as Director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia at the European Commission (DG External Relations, 2008-2011). In the latter function, he has been the EU’s Chief Negotiator for the Association Agreements with Moldova, Georgia and Armenia, as well as the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Kazakhstan. He also negotiated the EU-Ukraine Association Agenda and was the Deputy Chief Negotiator of a New Agreement with the Russian Federation (2008) and EU Coordinator of the EU-Russia Partnership for Modernisation (2010).
Between 1990 and 2008 Gunnar Wiegand had worked in various functions related to external relations and trade policy at the European Commission, including as Desk Officer for the GDR/external aspects of German reunification, as Project Manager Financial Services in the EU’s technical assistance programme in support of the newly independent states of the CIS (TACIS), as Policy Assistant of the Director-General for Trade Policy, as Spokesperson for External Relations to Commissioner Lord Chris Patten, and as Head of Unit, first for relations with the United States and Canada and then for relations with Russia and the Northern Dimension.
Prior to working for the EU Institutions, Gunnar Wiegand worked at the Institute of European - Latin American Relations (IRELA) in Madrid (1985-1987) and at the Europe Department of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Bonn (1987-1990). He holds a Law Degree from the University of Hamburg and an MA in International Relations from the Paul S. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Among his publications are: “The EU and its Eastern Partnership: Political association and economic integration in a rough neighbourhood” with Evelina Schulz, in European Yearbook of International Economic Law EYIEL 6 (2015), Springer, 321-358.