European Economic and Social Committee

Martin WESTLAKE

Secretary General

Nationality:      British

Married,           one daughter, one son

Languages:     English (mother tongue), French, Italian

I have spent over four decades studying European integration and working in European Union government and politics. Having completed a first degree in philosophy, politics and economics at University College, Oxford, I went on to take a master's degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (Bologna Center) and a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence.

Since beginning my professional life as a trainee at the European Commission and then as a clerk to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, I have worked in the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, with the European Parliament and, since 2003, in the European Economic and Social Committee. My work has covered social and health policy, the internal market, interinstitutional relations, economic and industrial policy, trade, communication and higher educational exchange programmes.

I have also maintained some academic activities, writing about European institutions and EU and British politics. From 2000 to 2005 I was proud to serve as a professor at the College of Europe (Bruges).

If you would like to know more about what inspires my work in the European civil service, click here. I keep a private blog, which you can easily find on the internet if you'd like to visit it, in which I write occasionally about my activities, interests and enthusiasms, both in the office and outside.