Thea Emmerling has extensive working experience with the European Commission, which she joined in 1996. She is Head of Unit in the Cross-border health care and tobacco control unit of the Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate General. She was a Member of the Private Office of Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer, dealing with health, agriculture, environmental, transport and regional policy questions, and Spokesperson for Health and Food Safety Commissioner David Byrne. Thea Emmerling also worked in the health department’s Health Risk Evaluation Unit as a speech writer, and was Desk Officer in the Commission’s Department for Regional Policy, managing EU structural funds.

Thea Emmerling holds a diploma in economics from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked for nine years as a political and economic journalist for the German Press Agency in Stuttgart, Bonn and Düsseldorf.