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Günter Burghardt, a senior European civil servant and formerEuropean Union ambassador to the United States, is a European lawyer and academic.
Born on 27 April 1941 in Kroßwitz, Provinz Posen, now Krosnievice/Poznan, Burghardt studied law in Hamburg and Strasbourg. He passed his two State exams in Hamburg (Prädikat "Gut") in 1966 and 1970. He became "Lauréat de la Faculté de Droit de l'Université de Strasbourg" in 1963 and performed post-graduate studies at the City of London College in 1970. After earning a "Summa cum laude" PhD in European Community law (University of Hamburg, 1969), Burghardt joined theEuropean Commission's legal service, where he worked from 1970 to 1972. He then moved to the Commission's External Relations Department as a desk officer for theUnited States,Canada andAustralia under Commissioner Sir Christopher Soames. In 1978 he became the personal assistant of SirRoy Denman, theDirector-General for External Relations (1978–1980). Denman was later to serve as EU Ambassador to the U.S. (1982–1989).
From 1981 to 1984 Burghardt was deputy chief of staff to the EU’sCommissioner for Internal Market, Environment Protection, and Nuclear Safety and Innovation. From 1985 till 1993, as an aide toEuropean Commission presidentJacques Delors, he was deputy chief of staff and political director, participating in major achievements of the Delors presidency, such as the completion of the EU's internal market agenda, the negotiation of the Single European Act and the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties on European Union, the introduction of theEuro currency, managingGerman reunification within the European Union process, theaccession of new EU member states and strengthening the partnership of the EU with theUnited States.
In 1987 Burghardt was also appointed as the European Commission's Political Director participating a.o. in the Balkan crisis and in 1993 he became the Director General for External Relations of theEuropean Commission, a position he held from 1993 to 2000 under CommissionersHans van den Broek (1993–1999) andChris Patten (1999–2000). In this capacity Burghardt was responsible for the setting up of the Commission's External Services with some 130 diplomatic posts around the globe which in 2009 were transferred to today's European External Action Service (EEAS) under the Lisbon Treaty. In 1999 he was appointedEuropean Union Ambassador and Head of Delegation to the United States, a position he left in November 2004.
After retirement in 2004, Burghardt combined a number of activities as legal and European policy adviser, and as an academic. He has been a special advisor toOlli Rehn, till 2010 theEuropean Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, responsible in particular for the political aspects of enlargement and related issues in theBalkans. From 2005 to 2012 he lectured as a guest professor at theCollege of Europe in Bruges and at the Law Faculty of Ghent University. In 2005 he joined the law firmMayer Brown Europe-Brussels LLP in their Brussels andWashington, D.C. offices as a Senior Counsel specializing in regulatory matters, trade policy and antitrust.
Burghardt serves on the board of directors for severalthink tanks, including Friends of Europe, theTransatlantic Economic Council, theEuropean Institute, theItinera Institute, and theEU-Russia Centre. He is a member of theAmerican Chamber of Commerce to the European Union and theGerman Economic Council. In 2011 he became vice-president of theClub of Rome EU Chapter.[1]
Burghardt has received the GermanFederal Cross of Merit, First Class (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse), theEuropean Commission'sRobert Schuman Medal, andBavaria's Europe Medal.[2]
Theprivate papers of Burghardt Günter are deposited at theHistorical Archives of the European Union in Florence.
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