In summer 2025, Peter took charge of a new directorate, focused on shaping the European Commission’s approach to economic security and maintaining the EU’s capacity for independent action. His teams are responsible for policy development, outreach to business and partner countries and key economic security tools, such as investment screening and export controls, as well as the design and roll-out of trade sanctions.
Prior to his current post, Peter’s roles have included market access work, enforcement and legal affairs, as well as investment and export controls and trade sanctions. He has been the Commission’s deputy representative in the Council’s Trade Policy Committee and later Director for policy coordination, Interinstitutional relations, communications and resources.
Peter has spent most of his career 'building' Europe from the inside, having graduated as a lawyer from Bristol University in the UK and the College of Europe in Bruges (Promotion William Penn 86-87). He joined the Commission in 1992. Earlier in his career, he worked on the EU’s economic reform agenda from opening up Europe's telecoms markets in the 1990s to being a Commission spokesperson for the information society and business in the Prodi Commission. He was policy assistant to the Commission’s Secretary-General. He joined what is today DG Trade and Economic Security in 2004.