Astrid Schomaker Ms Schomaker is the head of unit for Global Sustainability, Trade & Multilateral Agreements in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment. She studied English, history and law in Hamburg and Norwich and has an LLM in international legal cooperation from Brussels Free University. After a few years in Hamburg working as fellow in the Department of European Law at Hamburg University and a brief stint as visiting scholar in the law faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she joined the European Commission in 1992, working on EU – US relations first at headquarters and then in the Commission’s Washington Delegation. Returning to Brussels in 1999 she was in charge of regulatory cooperation with Japan, before in 2001 becoming head of unit for Relations with the Andean Community in the Directorate General for External Relations. In 2004 she moved to the Environment Directorate General to head the unit for International Relations, Governance and Development. Between 2007 to 2014 she held different positions in the Environment Department, leading the work on chemicals, oceans and water industry, and acting as Coordinator for the DG’s overarching policy strategy, the 7th Environmental Action Programme, before taking up her present position in mid-2014.