Pierre Defraigne is an interesting figure to encounter during this period of transatlantic trade negotiations. Former Head of cabinet of Etienne Davignon and then Pascal Lamy (two important commissioners, one in the 1980s and the other in the 2000s), and ex-director of North-South relations and subsequently Assistant General Director of the European Commission's Directorate General for Trade, he is a professor of economics, until recently at the University of Louvain and currently at the College of Europe and at Sciences-Po in Paris. He now directs the Madariaga Foundation,1 a think-tank closely linked to the College of Europe in Bruges.
