since 1 September 2009, on leave to work for the General Secretariate of the European Parliament

Media Award 2007 of the International Press Corps in Germany

2003 Science Award of the German Bundestag

Project Director for I.PA.COO.-50 - Fifty Years of Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation

2007/2008: Detached National Expert, European Parliament, Secretariat of the Committee for International Trade

2002-2004: Adviser to the European Constitutional Convention

Treasurer, Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration (German ECSA member)

Member of the Academic Board, Institut für Europäische Politik, Berlin

2000-2002 Project Director, Trans European Policy Studies Association, Brussels

1997-2002 University of Cologne, Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science

1996-1997 Task Force 'Intergovernmental Conference' of the European Parliament

1994-1997 Institut für Europäische Politik (Institute for European Politics), Bonn

Areas of Expertise:

Governance in the European Union (EU); Parliaments and Parliamentarism within the EU; transnational cooperation of political parties; negotiations and reform of European treaties; European cooperation in justice and home affairs; EU Employment and Social policies; competencies and the hierarchy of norms within the EU's legal system; German and British policies towards European integration

Current focus:

EU Treaty on a Constitution for Europe; EU Soft Law (Institutions' Rules of Procedure and Interinstitutional Agreements); Full and Selective membership to the EU; Perspectives, roles and functions of the European Parliament and of the national parliaments in EU integration; Reform of the Council of the European Union and related reforms in national political systems; EU policy making with regard to immigration, asylum and international environmental crime