I still use the negotiation skills on a day-to-day basis
Evi Roelen graduated in 2008 as a Master of Political Science. She gained six years of experience as a policy officer at Flanders’ Department of Foreign Affairs. Recently, she took her career to the next level with a job at the European Commission.
"As a policy officer I perform a wide variety of tasks, often under high pressure. A few of my responsibilities are the preparation and coordination of policy stances. I also draft speeches, presentations, papers and policy documents. Furthermore, I participate in European and international fora in Brussels and abroad (Geneva, Paris, Oslo, Washington DC, Lima), I have to be able to share confidential information in an appropriate manner and I actively engage with internal and external stakeholders in the process of policy making and implementation, to cite just a few examples of my daily activities.
I have always been passionate about the European Union. Therefore, I decided to study international politics with a focus on the EU (University of Antwerp) and European economic studies (Université Libre de Bruxelles). This background is useful in particular when working as a policy officer, which I have been doing for almost 6 years now in different domains (multilateral affairs, international trade and investment, social dialogue).
I truly appreciate the way in which we learned to negotiate and to communicate during the courses at the University of Antwerp. For example, the European Negotiation Seminar was very useful in that regard. I still use these negotiation skills on a day-to-day basis. Also the focus on quality, for example when we wrote our thesis, was a good basis for the rest of my career. I write many policy documents, papers and other texts that have to meet high quality standards."