Günter Burghardt

He then moved to the Commission's External Relations Department as a desk officer for the United States, Canada and Australia under Commissioner Sir Christopher Soames.

From 1981 to 1984 Burghardt was deputy chief of staff to the EU’s Commissioner for Internal Market, Environment Protection, and Nuclear Safety and Innovation.

in the Balkan crisis and in 1993 he became the Director General for External Relations of the European Commission, a position he held from 1993 to 2000 under Commissioners Hans van den Broek (1993–1999) and Chris Patten (1999–2000).

In 1999 he was appointed European Union Ambassador and Head of Delegation to the United States, a position he left in November 2004.

In 2005 he joined the law firm Mayer Brown Europe-Brussels LLP in their Brussels and Washington, D.C. offices as a Senior Counsel specializing in regulatory matters, trade policy and antitrust.