EC Representative to Turkey Starts

Here is the ambassasor's biography:

Born on 6 February 1950 in Stuttgart, Germany, Dr. Hansjörg Kretschmer studied law and economics in Tübingen and Freiburg and in 1976 was admitted to the legal profession after practical legal training in Berlin.

From 1976 to 1978 he was a visiting lecturer at the law faculty of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, during which time he also obtained his doctorate in law.

After a short spell as a corporate lawyer in Frankfurt, Germany, Dr. Kretschmer joined in December 1978 the European Commission's Directorate General for External Relations.

12 years of trade policy work in the areas of anti-dumping and countervailing investigations, export credit finance and representing the Commission at the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in Geneva and the OECD in Paris, were followed by a posting as deputy Head of Mission in Moscow, where he was among the very first staff to open a new Commission Delegation in early 1991.

After his return to Brussels Headquarters in late 1994, Dr Kretschmer took over the department responsible for relations to certain South-East European countries before, in 1998, being sent to Sarajevo, where he headed the Commission Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which became the first Delegation to be made fully responsible for the financial management of Community assistance. The success of this pilot exercise subsequently made the European Commission decide also to devolve aid management responsibilities to all other Delegations dealing with financial assistance.

On 26 August, Dr. Kretschmer who apart from his mother tongue speaks English, French and Russian, took up his function as Head of the European Commission Representation to Turkey. (NM)