EU’s Diplomatic Strategies and Challenges: An Emerging Southern Mediterranean

Michael Reinprecht is European Visiting Fellow at USC School of International Relations for the 2013-2014 academic year. In this conversation with CPD, he will share his experiences as the Head of the Middle East Department in the European Parliament (EP).

Reinprecht discussed the EP’s recent activities in this emerging region and the role of the 750-Members-strong Parliament in its interaction with the EU’s public diplomacy arm, the European External Action Service.

About Michael Reinprecht
Michael Reinprecht is an EU-official (European Parliament) and former Austrian Diplomat. He was selected for the EU-Fellowship Programme 2013/14. His research interest focus on the Impact of the European Parliament’s Reaction to the Arab Spring.

International relations, public and parliamentary diplomacy as well as political communications has always been at the center of Mr.Reinprecht’s professional activities.His most recent position (since March 2007) is as the Head of the European Parliament’s Middle East Department.  Previous posts have included Director of the Information Office of the European Parliament in Austria and Press Officer during Austria’s EU-Membership negotiations at the Austrian EU-Mission in Brussels. Mr. Reinprecht holds a Master degree (Modern History and French Literature at the University of Vienna) and has followed a two-years-post-graduate Programme at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna.

He speaks fluently English and French. He has been a lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, the Innsbruck University, the Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies in Malta and publishes op-ed’s in various Austrian newspapers.