Tanya Van Gool

Tanya is a former Dutch diplomat. After her university education in French language and literature she was enrolled in ‘L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques’ (Sciences Po) in Strasbourg for a degree in political science. Her main areas of work, interest and experience are development cooperation and European affairs. She served for ten years in Africa, and sixteen years in Latin America.

She served in the European division in the Dutch Foreign Ministry during the NL EU Presidency in 1990-1992, and was later seconded to the EU, to DG1/ TACIS as head of the small and medium enterprise Cluster.

Following that she was seconded as Dutch bilateral ambassador to Bolivia, Kenya, Surinam and Romania, and temporary to Belgium. In between she was appointed as the roving ambassador for sustainable development during the Rio+10 Summit.

She also represented the Netherlands for four years as Permanent Representative to the UN Environment Programme and UN Habitat. In 2011 she worked as the EU Ambassador in Colombia and Ecuador. She finished her career in September 2017 at the European External Action Service headquarters as the Head of the Inspection Division.

Tanya is a linguistic multi-talent. She is fluent in Dutch, English, French, Spanish and German. In her free time she enjoys looking after her two grandchildren.