As of May 1, 2018, Tanja Baerman will be the Brussels-based Head of Department for European Affairs and Developmental Policy of the German city state of Bremen. She is currently Head of International Affairs and Developmental Policy at the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia. She studied law at Munich and Würzburg, graduating from law school in 1993 and passing her bar exam in 1996. She also holds an M.A. in European Studies from the College of Europe Bruges/Natolin (Natolin branch) and has since acquired extensive experience in European as well as international law and politics in a number of functions on a regional, federal and European level, including a number of years in the European Commission’s DG Enlargement.