Martin Westlake was from 1985 to 1986 Clerk to two parliamentary committees (Social Affairs, and Migration, Refugees, and Demography) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He was then from 1986 to 1987 Administrator in the Secretariat General, EC Council of Ministers, Directorate General for the Internal Market. Between 1987 and 1995, he was Administrator, then Principal Administrator in the Secretariat General of the European Commission's DG for Relations with the European Parliament. From 1995 to 1999, he was Head of Unit 'Relations with the Other Institutions' in the DG for Information, Communication, Culture and the Audiovisual Media. In 1999-2000, he was Head of Unit 'Relations with the European Parliament and the Other Institutions' in the DG for Education and Culture. From 2000 to 2003, he was Head of Unit 'Tempus, Erasmus Mundus and third country higher education cooperation' in the DG for Education and Culture, until becoming, in 2003, Head of Communication at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).