Factbox - EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The career of EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier: 1951 - Born Jan. 9 in La Tronche, a suburb of the French Alpine city of Grenoble. Now married, with three children. 1972 - Graduates from Paris business school ESCP. The next year, at just 22, elected to local council of department of Savoie, east of Grenoble. He would lead it from 1982 to 1999. 1978 - Elected to parliament aged 27, representing Gaullist, centre-right Savoie district, including major ski resorts. 1992 - Co-organiser of Winter Olympics held at Albertville in his constituency, an event still central to his public image. 1993-95 - Environment minister, embracing many green ideas. 1995-97 - French Europe minister. Member of EU reforms panel with British counterpart David Davis, now the Brexit secretary. 1999-2004 - EU regional policy commissioner, responsible for grants and subsidies accounting for a third of Union's budget. 2004-05 - French foreign minister, a role critics said was ill-suited to his low-key style. Paris's opposition to U.S. and British occupation of Iraq was a source of tension with allies. 2007-09 - French agriculture minister, credited with reforms to state support negotiated relatively smoothly with farmers. 2009-10 - Member of European Parliament, a fractious forum where any Brexit deal must ultimately win lawmakers' approval. 2010-14 - EU commissioner for internal market and services. Negotiated extensive new regulation of financial markets after global crash, including reforms unpopular in the City of London. 2016 - Named EU's Brexit negotiator after British referendum on leaving bloc; British newspaper calls his appointment an "act of war" by EU chief executive President Jean-Claude Juncker. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; @macdonaldrtr)