Christian Cleutinx

Christian Cleutinx is an Associate Fellow at the Clingendael International Energy Programme in the Netherlands and Docent at TU Berlin. He is an international expert in energy security, diplomacy and international dialogues with over 30 years of experience in geopolitics, international relations and energy with a special emphasis on Russia and the United States. He was until April 1st 2011Director General of the Euratom Supply Agency at the European Commission. He advises and lectures on energy policy and geopolitics at universities, think tanks and international institutions. After studies in Belgian universities and post-graduate work in Chicago, he held managerial positions in energy and hi-tech corporations. He joined the European Commission in 1975 and has occupied several functions in the field of energy policy. Between 1982 and1986 he was in charge of industrial policy, antitrust, transport, environment and energy at the Delegation of the European Commission in Washington DC. From 2000 onwards, while being in charge of fossil fuels policy and after having been an initiator of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, he coordinated the Dialogue process up until 2009.

He also led energy negotiations with Ukraine, which led to the signature of an MOU between the EU and Ukraine on energy cooperation. In 2002-2005 he negotiated directly with the US administration the strengthening of energy cooperation between the EU and the United States. In early 2003, he became director within the Directorate General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission, being first in charge of conventional energies(including the internal energy market) before moving to Luxemburg, where he took over the Commission's Nuclear Safeguards Directorate in charge of nuclear non-proliferation. In 2008 he become Director General of the Euratom Supply Agency. He has authored numerous works on international energy relations and affiliated policies. Christian Cleutinx, an economist, holds an MBA degree as well as Master Degrees in Economics and Finance.