Odeta Barbullushi is a foreign policy expert, academic and former diplomat, who served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief of Cabinet to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2019.
Before joining the College of Europe, Dr. Barbullushi held the position of Advisor on EU integration and Regional Cooperation as well as Sherpa to the Albanian Prime Minister. In that capacity, she was responsible for the regional cooperation agenda, for Albania’s bilateral relations with neighboring countries as well as for the preparation of regional and EU-Western Balkans Summits. She also oversaw Albania’ EU accession process portfolio and the implementation of Common Regional Market Action Plan.
Prior to her decade-long work in government, Dr. Barbullushi was a full time Lecturer and Vice Rector for Research at the European University of Tirana.
She earned her PhD in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Dr. Barbullushi’s expertise and research interests include EU enlargement policy, EU Foreign and Security Policy, regionalism and regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, as well as social-political transformation and state-building processes in Southeast Europe.