His Excellency Dirk Wouters has served as the Belgian ambassador to the U.S. for three years, having previously served as was the permanent representative of Belgium to the EU for five years. Wouters’ career has been focused on European affairs. This has included key foreign policy decisions on Afghanistan and Libya as chief of staff to the minister of foreign affairs and involvement negotiating revisions on European treaties (Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, and Lisbon). He received BAs in law and economics from the University of Antwerp, graduated from the Institute of Higher Studies in Geneva, obtained an MS in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and received a master’s in Law from the University of Louvain. Wouters speaks Dutch, French, English, Italian, and German. He and his wife Katrin have one daughter and two grandsons.