Sir Michael is a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States, Brussels, and a visiting professor of European studies at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, Bologna. He was an Erskine fellow at the National Centre for Research on Europe at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2017. His focus is the European Union especially “the future of Europe”, Brexit, energy, enlargement, Turkey and neighbourhood policy. He is a member of the Wilton Park Advisory Council (UK) and a Senior Adviser at Covington, Brussels. Sir Michael was director-general for enlargement at the European Commission 2006-2011 after more than thirty years in EU institutions.