Michael Tracy was a Director in the Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in 1973-82. He is very well known figure in the field of agricultural policy and is respected both within the academic community and amongst professional economists and civil servants concerned with the subject. Since his retirement from Brussels, he has been writing and lecturing on agricultural and agricultural policy issues. He has been a Visiting Professor in several universities, including London (Wye College) and the Budapest University of Economics. He has founded and directs "Agricultural Policy Studies" to promote and publish original work in this field. Tracy also spent many years in Paris in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).