Jean-Éric Paquet has a Master in European Administration from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a Degree in International and Public Policies from the Institute of Political Science, Robert Schuman University (Strasbourg). He joined the European Commission in 1993 as Administrator in the DG VII Unit A1 International Transport Relations from 1993 to 1996.
From 1996 to 1999, he was Assistant to the Director-General for Transport, Mr Robert Coleman. He was Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Günter Verheugen, Commissioner for Enlargement from 1999 to 2002, and was then from 2002 to 2004 Deputy Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Research Policy, Philippe Busquin.
From 2007 to 2013 he recovered different charges at the TEN-T Policy Unit.
End 2013 – 2014: he is Director, Directorate C "Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo", DG NEAR (former DG ELARG).
2015: he is Director, Directorate D "Western Balkans", DirectorateGeneral "Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR).
From 11/2015 – 03/2018: Deputy Secretary-General in charge of Policy Coordination I (Directorate D) and II (Directorate E), Data Protection and the Mediation Service (SG.DSG1)
04/2018 to date: Director-General – Directorate "Research and Innovation" (RTD).