Rupert SCHLEGELMILCH

Mr SCHLEGELMILCH is a former German diplomat, senior official and Ambassador of the EU (Commission and Extern Action Service) and experienced trade negotiator. 

After law and political science studies in Freiburg and Berlin he joined the German Foreign Service in 1987 and the European Commission Directorate General for External Relations in 1993. From 1998 to 2003 he worked on WTO matters in the European Commission Delegation in Geneva.

From 2003 to 2010, Mr SCHLEGELMILCH was responsible in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Trade (DG TRADE), for the EU’s bilateral trade relations first with China, and later for the trade relations with the Americas and South Asia, Korea and ASEAN.

In 2011 he became the Director in DG TRADE, for Trade in Services, Investment, Government Procurement and the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). He has been the EU’s Chief negotiator for the EU-Singapore, the EU-Ukraine, the EU-Peru/Colombia, and the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreements.

From 2016 to 2019 Mr SCHLEGELMILCH served as the European Union’s Ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris. 

In October 2019 he returned to DG TRADE in Brussels. Mr SCHLEGELMILCH served as the Acting Deputy Director-General of DG TRADE 2020-2022. He coordinated the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) from its inception 2021 to 2024 After his retirement in early 2024 he continues an assignment leading the EU’s Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the Mercosur countries. Since 2024 he  is also the Chair of the OECD Investment Committee and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe.