Mr Selmayr holds a doctorate in law from the University of Passau and is Honorary Professor of Economic and Financial Law at the University of Saarbrücken. He joined the European Commission as an official on 1 November 2004 and served under President José Manuel Durão Barroso first as Spokesperson for Telecoms and Media and then as Chief of Staff for Vice-President Viviane Reding, in charge of Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. During this time, Mr Selmayr was a driver of the abolition of mobile roaming charges in the EU and of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.
In 2014, Mr Selmayr managed the successful election campaign of Jean-Claude Juncker, then lead candidate of the European People’s Party for President of the Commission. On 1 November 2014, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the President. In February 2018, the Commission appointed Mr Selmayr as its Secretary-General. Since 1 September 2024, he is the Ambassador of the European Union to the Holy See, to the Order of Malta, to the United Nations Organisations in Rome and to the Republic of San Marino.
During the mandate of the Juncker Commission, Mr. Selmayr worked as sherpa for President Juncker in the preparation of European Councils, during the drafting of the Five Presidents’ Report on the deepening of Economic and Monetary Union, at informal meetings of EU leaders on migration, and at G7 and G20 meetings. As Secretary-General, Mr Selmayr helped brokering the trade truce between Presidents Juncker and Trump on 25 July 2018 and coordinated the Commission’s proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. He modernised the corporate governance of the Commission, reformed the structure of the Secretariat-General and played a key role in increasing the share of female managers in the Commission from 30 to 41 %.
