Richard Kühnel is Director for Representation and Communication in Member States at the European Commission, where he works on connecting EU institutions and policies with national, regional and local audiences across Europe. He has spent more than two decades at the European Commission, including as Head of the Commission Representations in Germany and Austria. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Commission’s external relations team and served as an Austrian diplomat in New York, Tokyo and Zagreb. His work brings together political communication, local engagement and the challenge of making European issues relevant beyond Brussels.