Joachim Bitterlich

Joachim Bitterlich was born in 1948. He studied Law, Economics and Politics at the University of Saarbrücken, and was research assistant at the same university. He was also student at the French National School of Administration (ENA) in Paris (1974-75).

Joachim Bitterlich entered in 1976 into the Federal Foreign Office; he was posted to Algiers (1978-81) and Brussels (Permanent Representation to the European Communities –1981-85). He was Advisor in the private office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1985-87), head of the European Policy Department at the Federal Chancellor’s Office (1987-98) and Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl (1993-98), and then Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany on the North Atlantic Council Brussels (1998-99), Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra (1999-2002). He was is Executive Vice President International Affairs of Veolia Environment SA in Paris (2003-2012), and also Chairman of Veolia Environment Germany in Berlin (2009-2012).

Since 2013, Joachim Bitterlich is Independant Consultant, mandates and member of boards in different public and private companies and institutions.

Specific mandates are : Senior Advisor of BGA Berlin Global Advisors, EUTOP Brussels/Munich and CogitoPraxis, The Hague.  He has been member of the Independant Historical Commission of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Berlin, and till 2022 of the Board of administration of the École Nationale d’Administration ENA, Paris/Strasbourg. He is Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the “Club Rhénan”, member of the Advisory Board of the Franco-German Business Club (CEFA), Paris ; Hon. Chairman of the Franco-German Business Circle (DFWK), Berlin ; of the Advisory Board of the Institut du Bosphore, Paris/Istanbul, of the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Europeos, Universidad San Pablo CEU, Madrid.

Joachim Bitterlich is Professor (Affiliate) at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP) and teaching too at ILERI Paris and at other institutions.

His last publications :

• Reflections on the End of the Cold War, in : Exiting the Cold War – entering a new world, edited by Daniel S. Hamilton and Kristina Spohr, Washington 2019, page 483 – 507;
• “Repenser la politique étrangère et de sécurité de l’Union européenne“ (rethink the CFSP), in : L’Etat de l’Union – Rapport Schuman 2020 sur l’Europe, pages 123-130 in French and English)
• “Sechzig Jahre Europäisierung der Agrarpolitik – Interessen, Konflikte, Weichenstellungen – Eine historisch-politische Betrachtung“ (mit Simon Weiser), in: Agrarpolitik im 20. Jahrhundert, das Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft und seine Vorgänger, hrsg von Horst Möller, Joachim Bitterlich, Gustavo Corni, Friedrich Kiessling, Daniela Münkel und Ulrich Schlie, Berlin Juni 2020, page 650 – 704 (in German) (Sixty years Europeanisation of the Agricultural policy – interests, conflicts, agenda settings – a historical-political view, in: Agricutural policy in the 20th century, the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture and its predecessors, Berlin 2020).
• „Europe souveraine et solidaire: une conception prometteuse?“,in : Souveraineté et soldiarité, un défi européen, Paris 2021 (in French).
• “Grenzgänger” – Deutsche Interessen und Verantwortung in einem sich verändernden Europa – Beobachtungen und Anmerkungen eines Zeitzeugen über erlebte vier Jahrzehnte deutscher und europäischer Geschichte) Hannover 2021 (in German – French translation: Le Passeur – L’Allemagne et la France face à l’Europe, Paris 2023)