Speakers

Oliver Röpke was elected President of the EESC in April 2023. Member of the EESC since 2009, Mr Röpke was president of the EESC's Workers' Group, member of the EESC Bureau, and rapporteur of many EESC resolutions and opinions on employment and social policy, the single market and innovation. Mr Röpke headed the Brussels office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) and took on several senior positions, including representative of ÖGB to the EU institutions and to the executive committee of the ETUC, and advisory member of the ÖGB federal executive board. Mr Röpke has a legal background and holds a law degree from the University of Vienna.

Hendrik Van de Velde is currently coordinator for the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, which will take place in the first half of 2024.

He was Belgium's Special Envoy for the Conference on the Future of Europe (2021-2022). Until summer 2021, he was Belgian Consul General in Montreal and Permanent Representative to the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Between 2015 and 2019, he was Belgium's ambassador to Jordan and Iraq. The priorities of his mission were the fight against Daesh, consular follow-up of the issue of foreign terrorist fighters, humanitarian support to Jordan-Syria-Iraq.

As spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2013 and 2015, he acquired solid skills in public diplomacy, media relations, and the articulation between domestic and foreign policy. 
Previously, he was Human Rights Focal Point at the European Union Delegation in Vienna, after serving as Belgium's Deputy Permanent Representative to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), dealing mainly with crisis zones in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as democracy and the rule of law in Europe. 

He has also worked at the Belgian Embassy in Rwanda (1997-1998), the Consulate General in Jerusalem (1999-2002), the Embassy in Denmark (2002-2005) and at the HQ of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in charge of the Middle East peace process, 2005-2008).
 

Věra Jourová is currently Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency and deals with democracy, rule of law, media pluralism and fight against disinformation. From 2014 to 2019, she served as EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. In 2014, before arriving to the European Commission, Ms Jourová held the position of Minister for Regional Development in the Czech Republic. Previous to this, from 2006 to 2013, she worked in her own company as an international consultant on European Union funding, and was also involved in consultancy activities in the Western Balkans relating to the European Union Accession. She holds a Degree in Law (Mgr.) and a Master's degree (Mgr.) in the Theory of Culture from the Charles University, Prague.

Emily O’Reilly was first elected as the European Ombudsman by the European Parliament in 2013 and then re-elected for a five- year mandate in 2014 and again in 2019. She investigates maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union. She was awarded Schwarzkopf Europe Award in 2017 in recognition of her work.

From 2003 until 2013, Ms O’Reilly was Ombudsman and Information Commissioner in Ireland. In 2008 the National University in Ireland conferred her with an Honorary Doctorate in Law and in 2014 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University College Dublin for her commitment as Irish Ombudsman.

As a former journalist Ms O’Reilly’s career attracted significant domestic and international recognition, including a Harvard University Fellowship and multiple national awards. She has written three critically acclaimed books on Irish politics and media and is a current member of the International Advisory Board of Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Pedro Silva Pereira was elected for the first time in 2014, and re-elected for a second term in May 2019. Pedro Silva Pereira is Vice-President of the European Parliament in charge of the “Participative democracy and citizens’ panels, including the European citizens’ initiative”, portfolio, among others. 

Pedro Silva Pereira is full member of the Constitutional Affairs Commission (AFCO), full member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commission (ECON) and a substitute member of the International Trade Commission (INTA). Mr. Silva Pereira was also Member of the Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe, following the Working Group on Democracy. He is the S&D representative in the UK Contact Group of the European Parliament and AFCO rapporteur for the Implementation of the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement from the EU. Mr Silva Pereira is also the standing rapporteur for the Economic Partnership Agreement between the West Africa and the EU.  He is a full member of the Delegation for Relations with Japan, having been the standing rapporteur of the European Parliament for the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. 

In the Portuguese government, Pedro Silva Pereira was Minister of the Presidency (2005-2011) and Secretary of State for Territory and Nature Conservation (1999-2002). He was also a member of the Assembly of the Republic, elected on the lists of  Socialist Party (2002-2014).

Born in 1962, PEDRO SILVA PEREIRA holds a Master's degree in Law from the University of Law of Lisbon (University of Lisbon), where he also holds a law degree (Legal and Political Sciences). 
 

Dr. Colin Scicluna joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta in 1994 and has been posted to Brussels, Dublin, Helsinki and the United Nations in New York. He has also served in the EU Negotiations Secretariat in the Office of the Prime Minister (2000-03), the Policy Unit of the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana (2006-10) and the European External Action Service (2011-12). He was appointed Ambassador of Malta to Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Kosovo, as well as Permanent Representative to the OSCE and the multilateral bodies in Vienna, from 1 February 2012. 
On 1 September 2013, he was appointed Middle East and North Africa Adviser in the Cabinet of the EU High Representative for CFSP and Vice President of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton. From 1 November 2014 until 31 December 2016, he served as Adviser on the Southern Neighbourhood of the EU in the Cabinet of the Commissioner for the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn. 

On 1 January 2017, High Representative Federica Mogherini appointed him Director and Deputy Managing Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf region in the European External Action Service.

On 1 December 2019, he was appointed Head of Cabinet to the Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica. During 2021-22 he also served as Co-head of the Common Secretariat of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Ambassador Scicluna, who was born on 5 February 1967, is married to Annelies née Traas and has two children, Amélie and Philip. He is a graduate in Law (University of Malta) and International Politics (Université Libre de Bruxelles). Dr. Scicluna speaks Maltese, English, Italian, French and Dutch.
 

Aurel Laurenţiu Plosceanu has been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and its Employers' Group since 2007. Mr Plosceanu has been involved in activities across all sections of the EESC. Prior to his appointment as Vice-President for Communication, he served as President of the EESC Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC), EU Chair of the EU-Serbia Joint Consultative Committee (2020-2023) and President of the Audit Committee from 2015-2017.

In his native Romania, Mr Plosceanu has been Vice-President of UGIR (the Romanian Industrialists General Union) since 2016 and President of ARACO (the Romanian Association of Building Contractors), which is a member of FIEC (the European Federation of Construction Industries) since 2007.

Other past professional experiences include the position of CEO at ABC Asigurari Reasigurari SA from 2000 to 2007, President of the Social House of Building Workers from 1999 to 2016, member of the Board of the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest and member of the Romanian Economic and Social Council (both from 2007 to 2011), President of the Romanian Association of SMEs in Insurance from 2005 to 2007 and Co-President of the Romanian Alliance of Employers' Confederations from 2007 to 2013. 

Mr Plosceanu studied at the Bucharest Construction Institute and obtained an Executive MBA from the National Institute for Economic Development. In addition, he studied at the Law Faculty of Nicolae Titulescu University Bucharest and completed post-university studies at the National Defence College.

Brikena Xhomaqi is the current Director of the Lifelong Learning Platform – European Civil Society for Education (former EUCIS-LLL). It represents over 40 European wide civil society networks in the field of education from early childhood to adult education, including formal, non-formal and informal learning providers and learners. She is a member of the Civil Society Europe Steering Committee since 2017 and the Advisory Board member of Association Hub Belgium. She is the former Head of Office of the European Students’ Union (ESU) and Director of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). She was active in civil society from early ages as an elected representative of different school and university student bodies. In 2010 she joined the civil society at European level initially as elected representative of the European Students’ Union in charge of social affairs, later on, she specialised on student mobility issues in particular inclusiveness of mobility programmes but also issues related to social inclusion and labour market integration of young people as well as their participation.

Lucie Studničná is the president of the EESC Workers' Group since 2023, having been group vice president since 2020 and member of the EESC since 2010. She has a broad experience in European politics and international relations from the Trade Union's perspective, having been the International Secretary of ČMKOS for the last 9 years. Before that, she was the International Secretary of OS KOVO from 1999 to 2014 and the head of the international department of the same Trade Union from 1992 to 1996. She studied International Relations in the School of Economics in Prague and speaks, aside from Czech, fluent English, German and Russian. 

Séamus Boland was re-elected President of the EESC's Civil Society Organisations' Group in April 2023. He has been an EESC Member since 2011. He has held different roles at the Committee, including the Vice-Presidency of the Civil Society Organisations' Group (2018-2020). His policy and political interests include the eradication of poverty, social exclusion and inequality. Mr Boland currently sits on the SOC, REX and ECO Sections of the Committee as well as on the CCMI. In addition to the Group presidency, he holds several other roles outside the EESC. He has been CEO of Irish Rural Link since 2001, a Board Member of Inland Fisheries Ireland since 2018 and Chair of Peatlands Council since 2012. Mr Boland is a farmer and has worked in civil society for over 40 years, including with young people, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and people living in rural isolation. He is a trained Speech and Drama Educator.

Carlotta Besozzi is the Director of Civil Society Europe (CSE), the coordination of European platforms and networks of civil society organisations representing different sectors within civil society, such as human rights, environment, international cooperation, social inclusion, culture, education, health, civic rights, transparency, and active in promoting an enabling civic space in the EU and dialogue with the European Union institutions. She holds a degree in Philosophy from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. She has worked in the civil society sector for most of her career, after a few years at the European Parliament as a Political and Research Parliamentary Assistant. Prior to managing CSE, she was the Director of the European Disability Forum for a decade.

Shada Islam is a Brussels-based EU analyst and commentator who is a leading expert on EU Foreign, Security, Trade and Development Policy as well as Racism, Diversity and Inclusion. She runs her own global strategy company, New Horizons Project, is a Senior Advisor at several think tanks, including the European Policy Centre and is also Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin Campus). She contributes to several international publications including EUObserver, the Guardian and East Asia Forum. In 2017, Politico identified her as one of Brussels' 20 most influential women. She is the winner of the European of the Year in Media award accorded by the European Movement International and has also received a prize for her work on building an inclusive Union of Equality from the Association of European Journalists of Catalonia.

Giovanni Allegretti is a planner and senior researcher at Coimbra University, he has been Visiting fellow at universities as Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), Florence (Italy) and King Saud (Riyadh). Coordinator of international projects as “EMPATIA” (on the relation between Participatory Budgeting and information technologies) and “PHOENIX: the Rise of citizens Voices for a Greener Europe” (on the relation between participation and the European Green Deal), he is member of IOPD Scientific Committee since 2022. For the mandate 2014-2019 he has been co-chair of the Independent Authority for Participation of Tuscany Region (Italy). As a consultant, evaluator and trainer, he has been working in more than 50 countries for the World Bank, the Council of Europe, United Cities and Local Governments, the Swedish Association of local Authorities and the UNDESA agency.

Güler Altınsoy is an entrepreneur, co-founded IDEMA - International Development Management, Needsmap - Platform Cooperative and INOGAR - a social cooperative  and incubation center for social platforms. 

Güler cofounded İhtiyaç Haritası “Needs Map” which is an online platform where people in need meet the people who want to support and make a difference in their neighbourhood. As the first online social cooperative of Turkey, Needs Map brings an innovative approach to sharing, volunteering and creating impact for people, cultivates ‘online collectivity’ by bringing social benefit and technology together and presents a best practice for TECH4GOOD. Needs Map has attracted over 6+ million visitors and bridge matched over 49 million dollars equivalent of social aid. Güler Altınsoy is also one of the co-founders of the cooperative ‘INOGAR’, a new generation incubation center which combines innovation and enterprise culture with civil society, public sector, sustainable development, culture-arts and technology. 

Güler Altınsoy holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University and an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London.  

Johanna Baeyens brings 39 years of experience in higher education, specializing in level 5 programmes in Flanders and Europe. Her career began in 1985 as a researcher at Ghent's State University, followed by a 16-year tenure as a lecturer in Social Work, and 7 years as Dean of Social Work at Arteveldehogeschool. She spent 5 years as a senior policy advisor and level 5 programme coordinator at NVAO, 3 years advising Arteveldehogeschool's General Manager, and has been a senior expert for EURASHE. She's contributed to EU platforms on VET and PHE, and since 2017, serves as a diploma expert at NARIC-Flanders. In 2019, she established her consultancy and joined Chain5's Executive Committee.

Tatjana Babrauskiene has been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since 2015.  

She was the EESC rapporteur of several opinions, amongst which:  EESC opinion on Digital skills and education package (SOC/774), EESC opinion on Harnessing talents in EU regions (ECO/610), EESC opinion on the European Year of Skills 2023 (SOC/749), EESC opinion on Blended learning (SOC/701), EESC opinion on Empowering youth to achieve sustainable development through education (NAT/860), EESC opinion on the Higher education package (SOC/715 ), EESC opinion on Adult learning (SOC/684), EESC opinion on Promoting skills for a more just, cohesive, sustainable, digital and resilient society (SOC/663), EESC opinion on an Updated skills agenda (SOC/637), EESC opinion Towards an EU strategy for enhancing green skills and competences for all (SOC/636), EESC opinion on Sustainable funding for lifelong learning and development of skills, in the context of a shortage of skilled labour (SOC/629). 

At national level, Tatjana is the Head of International relations of Lithuanian Education and Science Trade Union (LESTU) and an expert of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation (LPSK) in the field of VET, CVET and HE. She has long experience in advocating for adult education and lifelong learning at the European level, including as a member of the European Commission's Advisory Committee on Vocational Education and Training (ACVT) and Cedefop. In 2010, when the European Social Dialogue in Education was established, she was appointed Lithuanian delegate of the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Education sector  (ESSDE). She is also a representative of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) in three European Commission working groups on education: adult learning, VET and school education. 

Vesna Bajšanski-Agić,
Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Global Development, TechSoup and Philea

Vesna serves at TechSoup, a nonprofit social enterprise leading a global network of civil society organizations and ensuring that impact organizations worldwide can effectively leverage data, technology, and digital skills. To date, the TechSoup Global Network has connected more than 1 million organizations in 236 countries and territories with more than 15 billion euros in technology and financial resources.
Outside her role at TechSoup, Vesna is actively involved in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. She serves on the Management Board at Philea, Philanthropy Europe Association, which strengthens philanthropic infrastructure and connects over 240 private foundations and foundation networks. Additionally, she holds the position of President of the Assembly at the Philanthropy Forum in BiH and assumes leadership roles as President or Board member in several CSOs in the Western Balkans.
With a firsthand understanding of the challenges posed by war, Vesna is a dedicated peacebuilder. Internationally certified as a trainer for social justice, she contributes her skills to promote positive change.
Vesna holds a degree in Economics from the University of Sarajevo, and she earned a certificate from the Adizes Leadership Program at Adizes Institute SEE. Vesna was honored with the European Marshall Memorial Fellowship in 2012.

Pietro Barbieri, as a 20-year-old architecture student, found himself living the experience of disability due to a simple dive into the shallow waters. He had to abandon his studies because it was not possible to draw with the computer as it is commonly done today. He then started studying Italian literature, but he didn't complete it due to his commitment to promoting the rights of people with disabilities. He held many positions in Italian and European movements. The most important experience was being part of the Italian government delegation to the Ad Hoc Committee of the United Nations to build what will later be called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He has also actively worked towards building adequate services for people with disabilities, including the Centre for Independent Living in Rome, of which he is still the president. He served as the president of the umbrella organisation representing people with disabilities and their families for 18 years. After that, he became the president of the Third Sector Forum, which is a platform representing more than 90% of Italian non-profit organisations. He represents the Third Sector Forum at the EESC, where he is the Vice-President of the Civil Society Organisations' Group and a Member of the SOC Section Bureau. He has been awarded an honorary degree from the University of Malta.

Mrs. Hasmik Barseghyan was elected President of the European Youth Parliament for Water (EYPW) in 2019. Water and climate action advocate, Hasmik brings the youth voice to the high-level international platforms. She was a delegate to COP26, COP27, UN Water Conference in New York. Hasmik serves on the Advisory Committee of the United Nations University FLORES, the board of the International Secretariat for Water, as an Ambassador of the Universal Declaration of Humankind Rights (DDHU).
Hasmik holds a Master's in Business Administration from the Université de Nantes, France. She was a U.S. State Department program fellow at the Oregon State Capitol. She was a post-graduate fellow in Environmental management at TU-Dresden, Germany.

Audrey Barroux,
Environmental engineer

Member of the Beescoop since 2016. Member of the Community Group and responsible of the Infosession Group. Work as volunteer each 4 weeks at the Beescoop and responsible for managing volunteers during the work periods. 

Carsten Berg is the Director of ECI e.V. and The ECI Campaign. In 2002/03 he successfully campaigned for the introduction of the ECI into EU primary law during the Constitutional Convention on the Future of Europe. Today he advises ongoing and future ECIs through the independent ECI Help Desk provided by The ECI Campaign. At the same time, he co-ordinates advocacy work on ECI reform and publishes regularly on the future of transnational democracy. He has worked as an advisor to the European Parliament on ECI issues, as campaigner in successful ECIs and wrote his doctoral thesis on the impact of the ECI on EU democratization between 2012 and 2022. Moreover, he has been co-designing the world’s first permanent randomly selected citizens’ assembly in East Belgium. In parallel to his long-standing involvement with The ECI Campaign, he works at the European University Institute in Florence on the whole field of transnational democratic innovations, including randomly selected citizens' assemblies, citizens-initiated vote processes and the ECI.

Paul Blokker is professor in political sociology at the Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna, Italy. His research focusses on the sociology of constitutions, constitutional politics, democratic participation, democratic innovation, human rights, legal mobilization, social imaginaries, and populism. Blokker is a member of the Transnational Democracy Forum and the Democratic Odyssey project, School for Transnational Governance, European University Institute. He is coordinator of a working group on constitutional matters in the European civil society coalition Citizens Take Over Europe. 
He is co-editor of the International Journal of Social Imaginaries and the European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology. Amongst his recent and forthcoming publications are: forthcoming, ‘Populism, human rights, and (un-)civil society’,  in  Luisa Antoniolli and Carlo Ruzza (eds.), The Rule of Law in the EU: Challenges, Actors and Strategies, Springer; forthcoming, ‘Populism and Constitutionalism’, in Richard Bellamy and Jeff King (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory, Cambridge University Press. 2023, ‘Populist constitutional politics and civil society fundamentalism’, in M. Tushnet and D. Kochenov (eds), Handbook on the Politics of Constitutional Law, Edward Elgar; 2023, with Volkan Gül, ‘Citizen Deliberation and Constitutional Change‘, in M. Reuchamps and Y. Welp (Eds.), Deliberative Constitution-Making: Opportunities and Challenges, Routledge; 2022, ‘Participatory Citizenship, Constitutional Reform, and the Conference on the Future of Europe’, Opinio Iuris in Comparatione. 

Andrea Bonicatti, is a political scientist, Secretariat at ASviS, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, consisting of almost 300 member organizations. He has a strong interest in sustainability issues and in the 2030 SDG Agenda.

Marie-Helene Boulanger
After working at university and at the Belgian Data Protection Authority including as its secretary, Marie-Hélène Boulanger joined the European Commission. Between 2009 and 2014, she headed the unit in charge of the reform of the European data protection rules. Since 2014, she has headed the unit responsible for European citizenship and free movement of persons. She is responsible among others for policy and legislative proposals on EU citizenship and to strengthen our democracies, such as greater transparency in political advertising. She has been acting Director on equality and citizenship and acting Director on Rule of Law, Democracy and Fundamental Rights. She is now deputy Director on Rule of Law, Democracy and Fundamental Rights.

Gabriella Civico is from the UK, but lived in Spain and Portugal for many years before moving to Belgium and becoming a Belgian citizen.  She has a degree in Social Policy and Education from the University of Surrey (UK), and a Masters in Education in E-learning from the University of Hull (UK).  She worked with CEV in her role as Project Manager for the EYV2011 Alliance from July 2010 until the project’s completion in March 2012, when she became CEV Director.

There, she takes a leading role in advocating for better volunteering policies, contributing her expertise at the European level in various European Union expert & advisory groups, such as EQF, Europass, Mobility of Young Volunteers, as well as in the European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre Advisory Group. She also represents CEV in the EESC Liaison Group for European Civil Society Networks and has been further involved in establishing Civil Society Europe in 2014 where she is currently the President.

John Comer is a dairy and beef farmer from the west coast of Ireland and has been passionate about the family farming model through the years. He is the former president of the Irish creamery milk suppliers association a post that he held for six years. He has been involved in farming politics for many years and has served on the board of Ornua (formerly the Irish dairy board) , An Board Bia (The Irish food board, The national dairy council as well as the Irish cattle breeding federation (ICBF). He is currently a member of the European economic and social committee (EESC) where he is Vice President of the TEN  section and also the co spokesperson for farmers category

Axel Dauchez  is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and started his career in marketing at Procter & Gamble before becoming President of BDDP & Tequila Interactive, France's first digital agency, in 1998. He then served as CEO of Deezer from 2010 to 2014, overseeing its transformation into a global streaming leader with 5 million subscribers in over 180 countries. In 2014, he assumed the presidency of Publicis France, where he pioneered initiatives like Viva Technology. Dauchez later founded Make.org, a platform mobilizing civil society for collective action and societal change.

Laura de Bonfils,
Secretary General at Social Platform

Laura is Secretary General at Social Platform, the largest, leading network of civil society organisations fighting for social justice in Europe. She joined the organisation in 2020 as Head of Policy and Advocacy.

She holds an MSc in Gender, Media and Culture from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MA in Publishing and Journalism from LUMSA University. She has previously worked at SOLIDAR, coordinating the work on social Europe, and at Volonteurope, focusing on active citizenship and equality. She also worked at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) as well as in several communications positions. 

Mathieu de Poorter is the President of CEDAG, the European Council of associations of general interest. CEDAG aims to structure European associations as providers of services of general interest and actors of the civil society. CEDAG is acting to bridge national association with EU institutions on topics such as social economy, social services, the recognition of non-profit organisations and, the role of associations in civil dialogue and civil society. CEDAG is founding and active member of Social Economy Europe and of Social Services Europe, as well as a member of the Social Platform. 

Tina Divjak is the head of advocacy at CNVOS. She has been working on different issues of NGO development from 2003. She has been focusing on enabling environment for NGOs – legislation, public funding, public participation; transparency and accountability of NGOs and quality assurance system of NGOs.

She has authored or co-authored several analyses and publications dealing with different aspects of NGO development and also works as a consultant in several other countries, mostly in the Western Balkans region. 

Xavier Dutoit is an activist and entrepreneur working on the intersection of technology and democracy. His unique software for online signature collection enabled a dozen of European Citizen Initiatives, including 5 ECIs that successfully collected over a million signatures. As a co-founder of WeMove Europe, Xavier has helped empower millions of Europeans to actively participate in shaping European democracy and civic space.

In 2019, Xavier co-created Fix the Status Quo, and developed Proca, a powerful and secure online suite of campaign tools. This platform has powered campaigns led by over 90 NGO coalitions, involving more than 350 non-profit organizations across 39 languages. Through Fix the Status Quo, millions of supporters have engaged with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the European Commission, and corporations, advocating for a more progressive Europe. 
 

Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot is Director for Youth, Education and Erasmus+ at the European Commission's Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. She is in charge of European cooperation on higher education, schools and youth policy, managing Europe's flagship programme for education, training, youth and sport Erasmus+ with a budget over EUR 26 billion 2021-2027. She launched and manages the European Solidarity Corps, an EU youth volunteering programme, and coordinated the 2022 European Year of Youth.

She launched flagship actions under the European Education Area and the EU Youth Strategy, such as European Universities, Teacher Academies and DiscoverEU. She has previously held various positions within the European Commission in the field of strategy and investment in education and training, employment and social policy, European Semester, European cohesion funds, European Social Fund, cultural policy and statistics. She studied economics, international business, political science and EU affairs, in Sweden, France and Belgium, including an Erasmus student exchange. She is an Eisenhower Fellow. Twitter: @sophiabrussels

Davide Ferrari (Head of Research & partner - EUmatrix) has a background in cognitive sciences and European public affairs and graduated top of his class at the specialised Master program at the Maastricht University. Davide coordinates qualitative and quantitative research related to EU decisions and international developments. He enjoys exploring the intricacies of socio-political and inter-cultural interactions and is passionate with data and stats from all spheres of life. Having lived in several European countries, he speaks Italian, English and some French. davide.ferrari@eumatrix.eu.

Janis Fifka from Germany has been an active volunteer in youth organisations and non-profits for almost 15 years. Since 2020 he sits on the international board of the European Youth Parliament, namely the Governing Body. In 2011, when he was still attending highschool, he participated in EYP for the first time. Soon he started organising youth events himself and nowadays he deals with the network's external communication, strategic development and educational vision. Besides EYP, he is a member of the board of the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe and the Young European Federalists Germany. Janis Fifka works in the field of civic education as well as an assistant to a member of the German Bundestag. 

The European Youth Parliament (EYP) is a peer-to-peer educational programme whose mission is to inspire and empower a young generation of informed, open-minded, responsible, and active citizens that shape society and drive impact. With non-formal and peer-led activities, the EYP provides young people spaces to develop opinions on current topics, build intercultural understanding and friendships across borders, and learn skills. The EYP engages with almost 20,000 young people in more than 350 activities organised in 40 countries. In 2024 the EYP will be hosting the Local European Youth Event in Berlin in collaboration with the European Parliament.

Giuseppe Guerini is Member of the EESC (European Economic and Social Commitee) since September 2010 has been dealing in particular with the social economy and social enterprises, employment and labor and finance for SMEs and social enterprises. He is spokesperson for the Social Economy category of the ESSC.

President of CECOP-CICOPA Europa the European Confederation of Industrial Cooperatives and Social Cooperatives, representing some 50,000 companies with more than 1.3 million workers in Europe, member of the Board in CICOPA and Cooperatives Europe.

Since 2010 until  June 2018, he has been a president of Confcooperative-Federsolidarietà  (association representing 6,200 social cooperatives, social enterprises in Italy).

He has been a social entrepreneur since 1988, he subsequently had executive roles in several cooperatives.

He has been an administrator in many social cooperatives and consortia and in a Cooperative Credit Bank. For 4 years he was a member of the Board of Directors of Banca Popolare di Bergamo of the UBI Group.

He is a member of the board of the AICCON research Center of the University of Bologna.

From 2012 to 2015, he was chairman of the Entrepreneurial & Territory Unit Committee, which brings together 10 small and medium-sized enterprise associations in the province of Bergamo. He is also a member of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture and Crafts Industry in Bergamo

In May 2014, Jan Willem Goudriaan was elected General Secretary of the European Federation of Public Services Trade Unions (EPSU) at the 9th EPSU Congress. He was re-elected at the 10th EPSU Congress Dublin in June 2019.
He started in the Dutch public services trade union AbvaKabo-FNV in 1989. In November 1992 he started to work with EPSU. He was EPSU's Deputy General Secretary from 1997 to 2014.
He pioneered the social dialogue with the employers in the electricity, gas as well as local government sector and was instrumental to establish the social services social dialogue committee. Together with the trade union delegations he negotiated European Works Council agreements and transnational company agreements including with Europe's leading energy and water companies including a groundbreaking deal on improving equality and equal pay in GdfSuez. He actively promoted the social dimension of the Energy Community for Southeast Europe and has been an active campaigner against the privatisation of water companies in the EU amongst others. He proposed and was vice-President of the first ever successful European Citizens' Initiative on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation which collected 1.9 million signatures.
He is a member of the ETUC Executive Committee as well as the Executive Board of Public Services International, the global trade union federation of public services unions.
 

Judith Hermann is a policy officer for sustainability policy at the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, a network for NGOs working on various aspects of sustainable development. Her areas of work include bringing civil society perspectives into German and international sustainability policy, the Sustainable Development Goals, the legal implementation of sustainability policy and the connection between sustainability and alternative economic approaches.

Luca Jahier,
EESC member

View his profile on the membners' portal

Dr. Angela Jain is a senior project manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany, where she leads the New Democracy project. She has worked in the field of citizen participation and deliberative democracy for more than 15 years, both as a researcher and a practitioner. Between 2021 and 2023, she developed a smart city strategy for the city of Berlin, where she was deputy head of the digital transformation unit in the Berlin Senate Chancellery. Her academic background is in spatial planning and she holds a PhD on sustainable mobility from the Humboldt University in Berlin. Angela Jain is a member of the international network Democracy Research & Development.

Violeta Jelić is a Member of the European Economic Social Committee since 2013. Since 2015 until today she serves as the EESC Employers' Group Vice-President and in 2023 she was appointed President of the EESC´s Ad hoc Group on the European Citizens´ Initiative.

In the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, which represents the interests of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, she is for 14 years. For the last 11 years she in the position of advisor for International cooperation and EU, and also in position of general Secretary of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts.

From 2000 to 2009, she gained experience working with international humanitarian organizations, associations and civil society. Also, she is a professor of sociology and actively participates in several local associations with a focus on social issues.

Ms. Assya Kavrakova is the Executive Director of the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) - http://www.ecas.org/ - an international non-profit association, based in Brussels, with a pan-European membership and more than 30 years of experience in empowering citizens to exercise their rights and campaigning for an inclusive, transparent and democratic Europe.

With twenty-five years’ experience in senior management positions leading national and international teams of experts and NGOs, Assya has thorough knowledge of the European Citizenship, EU law, EU structural and Cohesion Policy, Schengen regulatory framework, EU external policy decision-making, EU enlargement policy and leverage, European Rights framework, EU civic participation formal and informal mechanisms. She has an extensive knowledge of SEE civil society and regional development issues and in-depth knowledge of the post-accession state of affairs in the ten new member states from CEE.

Keen promoter of digital empowerment of citizens, with a forward-looking attitude towards digital democracy and digital management, Assya has a Certificate of the Solvay Brussels school of Economics and Management for a QiLeader (Leading authentically in digital times) and is acknowledged as one of the 21 Digital4Development influencers to be followed in 2021 by the European Digital Development Alliance. She is a member of the Chancellery of the European Citizen's Prize of the European Parliament 2020 - 2024.

Assya Kavrakova is also a member of the Board of EUobserver - https://euobserver.com/ - a not-for-profit, independent online newspaper.

Olga Kikou is Head of the EU office of Compassion in World Farming. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts and worked in international organisations in the non-profit sector and in research and planning. Having managed the Volunteer Programme for the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games, she became involved in raising awareness on the importance of citizen participation. Olga is involved in advocacy work at EU level on key interests concerning the interlinked areas of animal welfare, food and farming, raising the profile of these issues on the policy sphere. She also engages with civil society organizations and other stakeholders, exploring synergies and developing joint strategies to influence decision making processes in the above areas. Olga is substitute representative of the Citizens’ Committee for the End The Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative.

Sergey Lagodinsky, born in 1975 in Astrakhan, Russia, is a German Member of the European Parliament in the Greens/EFA Group. He is Vice-Chair of the Legal Affairs committee as well as Substitute Member of the Civil Liberties/Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs committees. He is rapporteur for the report on the directive on European Cross-Border-Associations, as well as the coordinator of the Greens/EFA campaign “Defend Civil Society”.

Christian Lahusen is professor of sociology at the University of Siegen in Germany. He is devoted to the analysis of European societies and European integration, and has directed and participated in a number of national and international research projects on topics relating  to contentious politics, civil society and social exclusion, most of them with a European and comparative perspective.

Pascal Leardini is Deputy Secretary-General and Chief Operating Officer of the European Commission. He joined the European Commission in 1994 after having working as the lawyer specialised in the EU matters in the private sector. Since then, he hold different positions within the institution including being the Director in charge of the Relations with the other Institutions and the Director in charge of Institutional and Administrative Policies in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission.

LEFÈVRE, Christophe, 54 years old, French, MBA specialized in Insurance

National representative at the EESC of the French Confederation of Management - General Confederation of Executives (CFE-CGC), former responsible for European and international affairs

• Member and former President of the European Citizen Initiative since 2015
• INT Single Market, Production and Consumption Section member (Bureau member)
• ECO Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion Section Member
• Conference on Future of Europe EESC Executive Committee/ad-hoc group member

Member of the Board of Directors of Think Thanks like Confrontations Europe, Europe & Entreprise, Icosi, AFOIT (French association of ILO), President of the European Federation of Managers & Managerial Staff of the Insurance Sector (AECA), and currently working in a reinsurance Company while being also Secretary of its European Worker’s Committee. 

Maxi Katharina Leuchters, is member of the EESC since November 2022

Studied in Münster, Strasbourg and London and holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Since 2019 Head of Division for Corporate Law and Corporate Governance at I.M.U. (Institute for Codetermination and Corporate Governance) of Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, Germany

Focus of work: Corporate co-determination in banks and insurance companies. 

Since 11/2020 member of the Supervisory Board as well as a member/speaker of the Credit and Risk Committee of a cooperative credit institution, the PSD Bank Rhein Ruhr eG, Düsseldorf.

Since June 2023 member of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank AG, Frankfurt, 2^nd biggest private bank in Germany. 

Since November 2022 member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels

Mikael Leyi is the Secretary General of SOLIDAR, a European and global network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working to advance social justice through a just transition in Europe and worldwide. SOLIDAR voices the concerns of its member organisations to the EU and international institutions by carrying out advocacy actions, project management and coordination, policy monitoring and awareness-raising across its different policy areas.

Academically, Mikael Leyi is a Political Scientist, with a vast professional background both in competences and geographically speaking he has worked in the 5 continents with European and international organisations of the trade union and popular education movements, as well as the institutions of the EU, OSCE and the UN. Developing an in-depth knowledge of the labour movement's various organisations, political priorities, and activities, and the experiences of democratisation, industrialisation and welfare expansion in Sweden, Europe and internationally.

Elisa Lironi is the Programme Director for European Democracy, working at the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) since 2015. She develops and leads ECAS’ European Democracy focus area by implementing EU projects and services related to Digital Democracy, Understanding Populism and Civic Engagement. She conducts research specifically on e-participation practices in Europe and one of her latest publications includes the book chapter “Crowdsourcing EU Legislation: Harnessing the Power of Digital Democracy” (2021, ECPR Press).  Elisa leads Civil Society Europe’s Digital Transformation Cluster that brought CSOs proposals to the Conference on the Future of Europe and continues to feed into the EU’s priority of “A Europe fit for the digital age”. Since 2018, she is the ECI Expert and Project Manager of the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum, working with Secretariat-General of the European Commission on developing and implementing this online collaborative platform.

Julie Majerczak is the Reporters Without Borders Representative to the European Institutions. She has represented the international press freedom NGO at the EU level since May 2016. Before joining RSF, Julie was a journalist for 16 years. She moved to Brussels in 2002 to report on EU affairs for the French daily newspaper Libération for which she worked for ten years. She also reported for the French daily newspaper Le Parisien, RTL radio and the online media Contexte. Before that, Julie worked in politics as an MEP assistant and as a political adviser to a French environment minister. Born in Paris, she has a Master in Law and is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris.

Annelies Mertens,
Division of Water Sciences at UNESCO

Annelies Mertens is from Belgium and acts as a Youth Advisory Board member of the FLOW (Future Lives with Oceans and Water) project at Volonteurope, which is dedicated to increasing the understanding of the young generation’s connection with water bodies. In her role, she supports the activities of FLOW, providing insights and thoughts to enhance their impact. She has a scientific background in Bioscience Engineering and has been developing her expertise in Water Resources Management since graduating in 2018. Presently, she is an associate project coordinator within the division of Water Sciences at UNESCO, where her focus lies on hydrological systems and climate change adaptation.

Tilly Metz is a Green MEP from Luxembourg with a passion for animals and a keen interest in health. She represents the Greens/EFA Group in the Committees on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Transport and Tourism, Agriculture and Rural Development and is Vice-President of the Subcommittee on Public Health. Until December 2021, she chaired the Committee of Inquiry related to animal welfare during transport. Protecting the most vulnerable in our society has always been an important goal of Tilly Metz' work as an MEP. In 2019, she received the "EU for animals" award for her commitment to animal rights and welfare. For the second half of the European Parliament’s mandate, she is chairing the Intergroup on Animal Welfare.
 

Christian Moos, Member of the Organizations of Civil Society Group, is the European Representative of the German Federation of NGOs „Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerschaftliches Engagement“, Secretary-General of Europa-Union Deutschland and a Board Member of the European Movement Germany. He works in a managerial function for the DBB German Civil Servants Association which he represents in the EESC.
Moos‘ work for the EESC focuses on topics related to democracy and participation, the rule of law, institutional and international questions and external relations to the USA. 

View his profile on the members' portal

Vasiliki Mustakis is the Participatory Democracy Coordinator of the European Democracy team at the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS).

Vasiliki maintains and monitors the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum on behalf of and under contract with the European Commission. Before joining ECAS, Vasiliki was an intern for ECAS’s European Democracy team. During her studies, Vasiliki has conducted research on European civic identity, specifically the effect of the Euro on this identity. She holds a Master’s Degree in European Politics and Policy (University Collection London, London) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government and Economics (Smith College, USA). 

Alexandrina NAJMOWICZ has a legal background and extensive track record of international cooperation, working for twenty years in the third sector and not-for-profit environment in Romania, France and at European level. She is currently Secretary general of the European Civic Forum, a transnational network of about 100 associations across Europe, working to protect civic space, enable civic participation and build civil dialogue for more equality, solidarity and democracy in Europe. In this role, she leads different campaigns and initiatives aiming to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations to stand and act for these values, defend citizens’ rights and participate with more impact in the decision-making process. She has been Co-chairwoman of the CSOs Convention for the Conference on the Future of Europe initiated and coordinated by Civil Society Europe, and member of the CoFoE plenary. She is member of Civil Society Europe Board.

Marilyn Neven,
Programme Manager, IDEA’s EU liaison work in Brussels

Marilyn Neven is leading International IDEA’s EU liaison work in Brussels as a Programme Manager. Her main role is to reinforce International IDEA’s relations with the European Union as a key partner of International IDEA across the world. Through her work on advocacy on democracy and fundraising, she contributes to increasing the EU’s focus on democratic governance and enhancing the Institute’s profile and visibility at European Union level, with International IDEA’s Member States and among democracy actors in Brussels. Her programmatic work focuses on initiatives on digitalization and democracy including online political campaigning and democratic innovation, and political empowerment of women. Before joining International IDEA in 2015, Marilyn worked in the European Parliament and the Belgian government.
 

Kalypso Nicolaidis is professorial Chair of Global Affairs at the EUI School of Transnational Governance in Florence and Emeritus professor at Oxford University. She chairs the Programmes on Transnational Democracy and Global Peace Tech, and convenes the EUI  inter-disciplinary cluster on Transnational democracy in the 21st century including the EUI Democracy Forum. She is also a founder of the Democratic Odyssey project. She has been working for three decades on the ebb and flow of European democracy, focussing on the potential for horizontal trans-national engagement between peoples and political cultures as ‘demoi-cratic deliberation’.

She participated in the COFE citizens’ panels as expert advisor and explores the use of immersive debating and teaching through the ”theater of recognition” to stimulate social imaginaries of participatory democracy (see play “Waiting for the Citizens”). Her last books are: A Citizen’s Guide to the Rule of Law - Why We Need to Fight for the Most Precious Human Inventions of All Time (with Adis Merdzanovic,  2021) and Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit (2019). Her website: http://kalypsonicolaidis.com/

Maria Nikolopoulou,
Member of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions and President of the Association for the Development of Time Banks

EESC member, Workers' Group (Group II)

Ingeborg NIESTROY, Project Coordinator and Scientific Project Lead of the H2020 project REAL DEAL – Reshaping Citizens’ Deliberation for the European Green Deal, based at the RIFS – Research Institute for Sustainable Development. Previously she was member of the Steering Group of SDG Watch Europe. She has worked on policies and governance for sustainable development at the interface of science, policy and society, at national, subnational and EU level, in Europe and internationally.

Vassilis Ntousas is Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow for GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy. His research interests lie in European foreign policy and the European Union’s global engagement. Prior to joining GMF, he was the Senior International Relations Policy Advisor at the Foundation for European Progressive Studies in Brussels, where he led the foundation’s global research, advocacy, and strategic convening work. In 2019–2020, he held the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Academy fellowship at Chatham House, where he remains an Academy Associate with the institute’s Europe program.

He is the author of several policy papers and regularly comments on global affairs for international media outlets. He is also the co-editor of two books published by Routledge, The European Union and China’s Belt and Road: Impact, Engagement and Competition (2021) and EU Climate Diplomacy: Politics, Law and Negotiations (2018).

Ntousas holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a BA in International Relations and Politics from the University of Sheffield.
 

Márta Pardavi is co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a leading human rights NGO based in Budapest, Hungary. A lawyer by training, she has recently been focusing on the threats to the rule of law and civil society space in Hungary and in the EU. She also co-leads the Recharging Advocacy for Rights in Europe (RARE) programme, which equips human rights defenders to build stronger organisations and alliances for joint action on civic space and rule of law in the EU.

Márta serves on the boards of PILnet and the International Partnership for Human Rights, and on the advisory board of the Re:constitution project. She has been awarded the 2018 William D. Zabel Human Rights Award from Human Rights First, Civil Rights Defender’s Civil Rights Defenders of the Year 2019 award and was chosen to be a member of POLITICO28 Class of 2019. In 2020/202, she was a Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance in Florence, Italy.

Sandra Parthie, Head of Brussels Office/ Head of European Affairs of the German Economic Institute (IW Köln) and president of the EESC’s Section on the Internal Market, Production and Consumption (INT).

Sandra studied political sciences and economics at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany and the Université de Montréal, Canada. 

From 2006-2011 she was the head of office and political advisor to a German Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Environment Committee. Her work focus was on environment, climate and energy policy. In 2011 she joined French-multinational company Alstom as the Director for EU Regulatory Affairs, with a focus on renewable energies and grid technology. 

Since March 2015 she leads the Brussels Liaison office for private German economic think tank ‘IW’ (Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft/ German Economic Institute) focusing on the EU’s economic policies.

Chiara Piccolo was born and grew up in Napoli (Italy) She always had a deep interest in pedagogy, philosophy, and psychology. 

She graduated in Educational Sciences in Napoli then she moved to Brussels to attend a post graduate Master degree in European Studies organized by the Université Libre de Bruxelles together with the Belgian- Italian Chamber of Commerce. 

She started working as pedagogical expert at the Social Cooperative “Il Grande Albero” in Naples coordinating project for social inclusion of children living in disadvantaged and dysfunctional contexts. In Brussels, she gained an extensive experience of 10 years as project coordinator of EU funded projects in the field of education and training and social inclusion, before joining Learning for Well-being Foundation (L4WB).

Currently, she is the Head of European Affairs at the Learning for Well-being Foundation and the Director of the Alliance for Childhood European Network Group.

Chara is also a member of the EC Expert Group on supportive learning environments for groups at risk of underachievement and for supporting well-being at school.

Mr Cristian Pîrvulescu is a Romanian Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), from Group III ("Civil Society Organisations"). Since 2020, he is the President of the EESC's Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law Group. Mr Pîrvulescu is a renowned democracy activist in Romania. A political scientist, he is Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, National School of Political Studies and Administration in Bucharest. He regularly contributes to Romanian and international media on democracy-related topics.

Arno Pons is director since 2017 of the Think-tank Digital New Deal, a foundation dedicated to the creation of a European and humanist digital. Author of government reports on trusted digital technologies (trusted cloud, trusted AI, trusted data, etc.). In 2021, he founded the Do-tank Digital New Deal activity, dedicated to cooperation issues to help companies structure industries into digital ecosystems via technological alliances. In 2022, he launched the first Do Tank initiative by co-creating Themis ("tourism dataspace"). He had previously founded several start-ups (Checkfood-food waste, Medicimo in Canada, etc.), and also taught at SciencesPo on the issues of digital sovereignty linked to the centralisation of power by Big Tech.

Stéphanie Poppe is a representative and one of the organisers of the European citizens’ initiative ‘Ensuring a dignified reception of migrants in Europe’. This ECI calls for the development of a common asylum policy.  Stéphanie is currently the senior policy officer at the International and Europe Department of the City of Renne, as well as the project leader for Labo Europe Rennes. Stéphanie also holds a PhD in European Law from Université de Rennes.
 

Max Priebe is a sociologist interested in social change, innovation, and transition processes. As a researcher, lecturer and project manager, he focuses on strategic foresight, participation and reflexive learning to move policy. Previously, Max studied regional science, sociology and futures studies in Berlin and Berkeley. Since 2021, he has been engaged in several projects concerning the institutionalisation of strategic foresight in government, advising the German Chancellery, among others.

Albert Raedler,
DG TAXUD, European Commission

After his studies in Business and Economics in Germany and a master in French taxation in Paris, Albert Raedler started his career in tax consulting in international tax matters. Albert Raedler joined the Commission in 2003 in the field of direct tax policy, and after assignments to the infringement units for state aid and direct taxes rejoined the direct tax policy field in 2020. He deals mainly with cross-border direct tax issues for citizens.

Dominic Richardson, is the managing Director of the Learning for Well-being Institute, a global research ‘start-up’ working to promote a more holistic appreciation of child well-being in public policy and practice.  For almost a decade, Dominic led two of UNICEF’s global research teams, education and social policy and economic analysis at the Office of Research – Innocenti, where he oversaw work on cash transfers and cash plus programmes (including gender responsive social protection), social expenditure and ECD policies, the Innocenti Report Card Series, and global research on family policies and child development and well-being. Dominic previously worked with OECD Social Policy Division on a broad range of studies covering child well-being, evaluating family policies, integrating human services, and social impact investment. 

Dominic has led or co-authored multiple reports on comparative child well-being in high-income countries, including studies evaluating the content and quality of international surveys of school children in high and middle- income countries, studies of children’s life skills development in middle-income settings, and studies of teacher absenteeism and motivation in low-income settings. His most recent work on child well-being ‘What Makes Me?’ is a review of global literature on age-related child development of innate human skills. Dominic was awarded the 2018 Jan Trost Award (lifetime achievement) for Outstanding Contributions in International Family Studies by the National Council for Family Relations in the United States.

Michael Ristaniemi is a legal and policy officer at the European Commission, DG GROW, whose work focuses on corporate sustainability and responsibility, as well as on the social economy. Prior to joining the European Commission, he worked as a lawyer and sustainability director in industry, and has been a board member at several non-profit organisations. He holds a PhD in law from the University of Turku. 

Sebastian Rodriguez, Campaign strategist

After the Brexit referendum, I quit my job in the City of London and started my own company, aiming to help pro-European organisations achieve their goals. I became the trusted advisor of Europe's largest campaigns and organisations.

I currently run campaignplaybook.eu, the community of pro-European campaign professionals who are writing the playbook to win campaigns

Alexandrina Robu is an experienced project manager and EU Affairs coordinator both on the national and European level. She is specialised in energy security and lobby, Eastern Partnership, negotiations and is a strong supporter of gender equality. She joined JEUNE in 2013 as Board Member and became the Chair of the Women Committee in 2017. Now, she is the Vice-President of the young entrepreneurs organization.

Riccardo Rossella works as Coalition and Campaign Officer at Social Platform and Civil Society Europe, where he coordinates the campaign Civil Society for EU, calling on better recognition, support and engagement of European civil society ahead of the upcoming EU elections. Riccardo has several years of experience in campaigning and advocacy on democracy, economic inequalities and climate change.
 

Piotr Sadowski, who considers himself to be first and foremost a European, is Secretary General of Volonteurope. He has over 15 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies and policies for active citizenship, participatory democracy, human rights, and social justice across Europe. He advocates for European values on behalf of organised civil society vis-à-vis political institutions, social partners, and business interest groups, in the EU and the Council of Europe. Former President of Social Platform, he is currently Vice President of Lifelong Learning Platform, Board Member of Civil Society Europe, and Elected Member of the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe INGO Conference, with a particular remit on safeguarding social rights throughout Europe. He is a member of the European socialist and democratic family, and partners with other progressive European political movements. He identifies himself as a gay man and is an activist with the LGBTQIA+ community across Europe.

Dafne Sgarra is passionate about innovation and sustainable development, and deeply interested in European policies and funding programmes to support youth participation and digitalisation. After a Minor in European Studies at Maastricht University and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations at the University of Turin, she earned a Master’s Degree in Public Economics and Finance – Double Degree programme between Italy and Switzerland.
 In 2019 she interned at the Executive Agency for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) of the European Commission, where she was supporting the Evaluation and Monitoring sector and collaborating with the Learning and Development team. After this experience in Brussels, she worked as EU Project Manager in Turin and in Venice. Dafne also volunteered at AIESEC Switzerland in 2018 and she is also an alumna of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
Dafne joined ALDA in 2022 as Project Manager and Hub Coordinator in the fields of youth empowerment and digitalisation.

Renate Schroeder is the Director of the European Federation of Journalists, In 1993 she joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and since 2003 she works for the EFJ. Advocacy at EU and Council of Europe level; presentation of EFJ at international meetings, lectures and and fact-finding media freedom missions; member of juries of journalistic prizes, assistance in several EFJ expert groups including on freelancers,   media literacy and digital journalism, cover her work-load in the small dynamic Brussels office.

Renate Schroeder studied International Relations and Political Science at Boston University (Bachelor’s Degree in 1988) and in Berlin at the Free University (Masters in 1992). She worked at the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Brussels before she joined the EFJ.

Civic leader, expert in the field of associations and foundations, enabling  environment for the third sector,  enlargement policy and Western Balkans. BA in History, University of Bucharest; MA in International Relations, Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, University of Bucharest; MA in Southeast European Studies: Politics, History, Economics, supported by the European Union under the Stability Pact at the University of Athens; Marshall Memorial Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the US, Washington DC.

View his profile on the members' portal

Graham Smith is Professor of Politics at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster and a specialist in democratic innovation – new forms of public participation in political decision making. He has a particular expertise in participatory climate governance and is founding chair of the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) funded by the European Climate Foundation. His publications include Democratic Innovations: Designing Institutions for Citizen Participation (Cambridge, 2009) and Can Democracy Safeguard the Future? (Polity, 2021). 

Colette Solomon is the Director of Women on Farms Project and passionate feminist. She has a Master’s degree awarded with Distinction and a PhD, both from the University of Sussex. Under Colette’s leadership, the Women on Farms Project was honoured in South Africa with the ‘Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’ 2015 Award and in 2018, the London School of Economics awarded the Women on Farms project the prestigious ‘Action for Equity Award’. Together with farmwomen activists, Colette is working towards advancing the labour, housing and health rights of farm workers and dwellers on South-African farm farms. In July, Colette received an Honorary doctorate from the Univerity of Cape Town for her lifelong fight for gender justice and dignified lives for farm workers and dwellers.”
 

Furkan Sorkuncuk is a Project Coordinator at Volonteurope and a European Climate Pact Ambassador. He has a legal background and is committed to fostering social justice and climate action across Europe through EU-funded projects. Furkan works on several European projects and handles youth participation and communication in FLOW Project, a Horizon EU project that focuses on human-water relations of the young generation. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Galatasaray University and is pursuing a Master of European Studies at the University of Regensburg.

Erika Staël von Holstein is the Chief Executive at Re-Imagine Europa (RIE), a leading non-partisan think tank, has been instrumental in shaping innovative political ideas going beyond national, party of personal interests, placing the citizen at the heart of European discourse. With over a decade of experience connecting science, policy, media, and society, she pioneered RIE’s R.E.F.R.A.M.E. Methodology to depolarize conversations and build trust in the public sphere. In the past five years, she has led Future4Citizens, a series of civic debates to create a collective European voice, and has developed NODES – the first Narratives Observatory combating Disinformation in Europe Systemically. Since 2023, she co-hosts the 'ReImagine TALKS' podcast, engaging influential thinkers to reimagine universal topics. As a fellow at PlusValue, she brings her expertise on social innovation to address democracy, polarization, and media issues. Notably, she played a role in supporting Luc Van den Brande's Committee for the Report on the "Outreach towards Citizen" Strategy. 

Jérôme Stefanini leads the IT team of the European Citizens' Initiative for the last 8 years. He is responsible for the Commission Central Online Collection System, the ECI Organiser account application and the File Exchange Service. He contributed to the drafting of the current ECI regulation for its IT aspects. Jérôme supports the organisers of European Citizens’ Initiatives and liaises with the different stakeholders (Citizens, Member States representatives, Solutions providers, European Commission directorates (for eID, Security, GDPR, Secured Hosting…)).

Alice Stollmeyer is the Founder & Executive Director of Defend Democracy, a nonpartisan NGO defending democracy from foreign, domestic and technological threats. Alice has a background in social studies of science, technology and society. A former energy policy adviser and digital strategist, she now works on democracy, sharp power (aka hybrid threats) and technology. Alice has lived and worked in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, and increasingly travels across Europe and beyond for her work. She is in Politico's #Power40 top influencers who are most effectively setting the agenda in politics, public policy & advocacy in Brussels.

Laura Sullivan is a feminist activist and former executive director of WeMove Europe, a one-million member digital campaigning organisation focused on transforming the EU through people power. She has spent 22 years in Brussels campaigning for social and environmental justice, with shorter stints living and building bridges with campaigners in Senegal, Brazil and Peru. A former MEP assistant, Laura later spent ten years with ActionAid International as a campaign manager and as Regional Director for Europe and the Americas. During that time, she was Vice President of the Board of Concord, Europe's main global social justice network. She has an MA in Governance and Development specialising in civil society participation.

Hanna Surmatz is Head of Policy at the Philanthropy Europea Association Aisbl (Philea) since 2022.  She has been leading the work at the European Foundation Centre Aisbl towards a favourable operating environment for foundations and philanthropy since 2004. Her main responsibilities include monitoring and mapping/analysis of relevant policy developments that affect foundations’/funders operating environment in Europe and beyond; co-ordination of benchmarking exercises; and facilitating information exchange on relevant legal and tax law matters through publications and events and engagement with policymakers and academia on that topic. Between 2001 and 2004 she was employed by the Association of German Foundations (Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen) in Berlin, where she worked on policy and international matters. She studied law at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster, Germany and at the University of Poitiers, France and worked as assistant researcher at the University of Münster for several years. She also served on the board of the European Center for Not for Profit Law (ECNL) for two terms and has since 2017 been the representative of the philanthropic sector in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Private Sector Consultative Forum (PSCF) and since 2019  in the OECD Tax Business Advisory Group. In 2021 she became a member of GECES the European Commission expert group on Social Economy. She also represents Philea in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) CSO Liaison Group and together with ONCE foundation in the Social Economy Europe board. 

Vitor Teixeira joined Transparency International EU in 2017. He works in the EU integrity team, where he focuses mainly on issues related with the transparency and accountability of the EU Institutions. Prior to joining Transparency International EU he worked as Advocacy Policy Officer in Brussels promoting better health in Europe, as Project Manager for Transparency International Portugal in the area of local government transparency, and as a registered nurse. Vitor holds a MSc in International and European Relations from Linköping University, a BSc in European Studies from Maastricht University and a BSc in Nursing from Coimbra University.

Beth is a respected environmental leader. Most recently, she has been instrumental in working with a coalition of NGOs to save the last wild rivers of Europe. In March 2023, the Albanian government took the historic step of signing a commitment to create the Vjosa Wild River National Park, after working in close partnership with Patagonia and civil society.
 
She joined Patagonia from her position as Deputy Chief Executive at Client Earth, an environmental NGO with a unique approach – using the power of the law to create systemic change. A passionate defender of nature, she came to the NGO sector following a sabbatical spent as a crew member of the Sea Shepherd campaign ship, confronting trawlers and whale fisheries in Antarctica.
 
Beth grew up in Tokyo and, as a teenager, her love of oceans drove her to study marine engineering. She then went on to study a Masters in Business Administration at Harvard and worked as a marketing director for nearly 10 years before moving into the environmental sector.

Gabriel N. Toggenburg works at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) where he is heading the Sector Human Rights Structures and Mechanisms. He has been working at FRA since 2009 and functions amongst others as the contact point for the agency’s Scientific Committee. Gabriel studied law, holds a PhD of the EUI in Florence and is an Honorary Professor for European Union and Human Rights Law at the university at Graz.
 

Sotiria Tsalamani holds a master’s degree in Educational Sciences. Her experience revolves around Project Management in the non-profit and private sectors, where she has been involved in the management of educational projects funded by various donors. She is strongly interested in developing innovative educational material and training for youth and adults in the EU and Africa that aims to foster personal and professional development. Her expertise is based mainly on the broader field of education and lifelong learning, including digital literacy, social inclusion of marginalised groups and active citizenship.

Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General of ALDA - the European Association for Local Democracy since 1999, has a long experience in promoting local democracy, empowerment, civil society participation and good governance in Europe, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean area. Mrs. Valmorbida is a senior European advisor for local development, with a focus on the implementation of participatory processes for urban regeneration. She manages a network of 300 members composed mainly of local authorities and civil society groups in over 45 countries in Europe and beyond.

Antonella Valmorbida is a board member of the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and a member of the advisory board of the Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development (UFSD), Armenia. She was Chair of the EPAN working group of CONCORD until 2016, Chair of the Committee on Democracy and Civil Society of the NGO Conference of the Council of Europe from 2008 to 2011 and Coordinator of the Subgroup on Local Government and Public Administration Reform of the Civil Society Forum for the Eastern Partnership. In 2012-13, she was a board member of CIVICUS - the Global Alliance for Citizen Participation. 

Antonella Valmorbida has an academic career at the University of Padua, Italy, and has published two books on local citizen involvement to promote democracy and several articles. Antonella Valmorbida is a native French and Italian speaker and is fluent in English and Russian.

Maarten Van Alstein, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Flemish Peace Institute, a centre for conflict and peace research funded by the Flemish Parliament, Brussels. Maarten's research focuses on conflict transformation, polarization and peace pedagogies.

Daniela Vancic, is the European Programme Manager at Democracy International since 2017 and responsible for all activities related to the European Citizens’ Initiative. She collaborates with ECAS under the Secretariat-General of the European Commission on developing and implementing the ECI Forum, consults ECI related stakeholders, and offers tailor-made campaigning and fundraising advice to ECI organisers.

Daniela develops the European projects and campaigns of Democracy International and manages European wide efforts to strengthen direct democracy and citizens’ participation in the EU. She monitors democratic trends and developments such as the Conference on the Future of Europe and advocates for better democratic implementation including in advocating for a strong follow up. Daniela maintains Democracy International’s extensive network of European organisations, partners, and stakeholders.

Vincent Vandersmissen, attaché at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Directorate-General European Affairs and Coordination (service E1), Democracy and Institutional Affairs. 

Mr Vandersmissen has a legal background. He obtained a (Belgian) law degree at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) as well as a LLM in International and European Law at the Institute for European Studies (IES, now the Brussels School of Governance).  He started working as a lawyer in commercial law after law school and after that he also worked as a political advisor in the Belgian Federal Parliament. 

Herlinde Vanhooydonck works for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament as a policy advisor in the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI). Her main field of expertise consists of company law and associations law. In that capacity, she has been working closely with rapporteur Sergey Lagodinsky on the European Parliament's legislative resolution regarding a statute for European cross-border associations and non-profit organisations, as well as on the European Commission's proposal for the ECBA Directive for which she is the chief technical negotiator.

Herlinde continues to feel part of civil society as former Social Platform policy officer and through her volunteer work.

David Van Reybrouck has been described as ‘one of the leading intellectuals in Europe’ (Der Tagesspiegel). His highly-acclaimed books on colonial history, Congo and Revolusi, have become international bestsellers. His essay Against Elections: The Case for Democracy was translated into over twenty languages and drew praise from former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. A pioneering advocate of deliberative democracy, David is also one the most versatile literary authors of his generation. His plays Mission and Para have toured internationally, and his poetry has culminated into Rain Requiem, a tribute to climate victims.

Nataša Vučković is ALDA Vice President and member of the Governing Board, representing Center for Democracy Foundation (CDF), Serbia.

Since 1994 she works on head position at the CDF – Founder, Secretary General and Executive Director. She has a great experience in overall management in non-profit organizations. She has great experience in financial planning, fundraising and cooperation with key donators for the organization, but also for design/implementation and evaluation of projects.

Topics that interest her the most are democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights, European integration and European values, human rights and socio-economic rights. Ms Vučković represents CDF in the National Convention of the EU (NCEU) as a coordinator of the Working group for Chapters 2 and 19 (migration of workers and employment and social policy).

She got a long experience in governmental and regulatory branch, since being a member of National Parliament, Republic of Serbia, as well as, member of Committee on European Integration, Committee on Judiciary, Foreign Affairs Committee. Moreover, she was a president of the Committee on European Integration.

Nataša Vučković also was a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France for Turkey. She has published articles and analysis and has lectured and hold trainings at various institutions and organizations, including Regional School for Public Administration (ReSPA), particularly in the field of EU integration of the Western Balkans, rule of law, human rights, parliamentary procedures, as well as in the non-profit management.

Mathias Zachau: Political consultant at the Danish NGO Nyt Europa, Board member Danish branch Rethinking Economics. He's involved in organizing initiatives aimed at enhancing citizen and stakeholder engagement in economic issues. He advocates for new economic thinking and the empowerment of citizen voices in economic debates.