Jan Michal has been operating on the position of the Head of the European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic since September 2010. The European Commission Representation is the official representative of one of the main institutions of the EU in each of the EU Member States. The European Commission Representation cooperates with constitutional institutions of the Czech Republic, state administration and self-government bodies, social partners, academic institutions and non-governmental organisations. The European Commission Representation prepares economic analyses within the framework of coordination of economic policies in the EU (the so-called European semester) and presents priorities and initiatives of the European Commission (investment plan, Energy Union, single market, etc.). The representation provides also opinion statements for the media with regard to activities of the European Commission and various events in the EU and takes part in and prepares professional and other discussion and cultural events. Jan Michal has been working for the European Commission, which he represented during his stay in Brussels at preparatory meetings of the G8, since August 2009. At the General Secretariat of the European Commission he took part also in preparation of negotiations of the Council of the EU and European Commission Representation in the G20. In the years 1993-2009, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, among other activities also as the UN Department Director (2007-09 and 2002-03) and as the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO (2003-07). Before that mission he worked as a diplomat in the Netherlands and at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague (1996-2001) and at the UN in New York (1995), where he was a member of the Czech Republic Delegation at the UN Security Council. He graduated from the University of Economics in Prague (economics) and he completed studies of international relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University.