Participants

Sophia Wiegand studies Global Energy and Climate Policy at SOAS in London. She is a board member of Generation Climate Europe and is a member of the Climate Emergency Working Group of the European Students Forum (AEGEE), which she coordinated for the past year. She has been the youth delegate of the European Economic and Social Committee to COP26 and COP27.

Diana Lenzi is a young farmer from Tuscany where since 2008 she manages her family’s winery. She cultivates and processes grapes to make Chianti Classico wines, olives for EVO and ancient grains for flour and pasta. Diana has been involved and active in Confagricoltura (ANGA) since 2012, when she founded the section for Siena of which she was President for 6 years. Since then she has been President at the regional level and Vice-President at the national level from 2015 to 2019. Following that she became ANGA delegate for CEJA, targeting her experience at EU level. She is since 28 June 2021 CEJA’s President.

Harry Dalton is originally from Brighton, UK. He is currently studying for an undergraduate degree in "Economics with Environmental Studies" at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He has been working with GCE on the European scene for around two years, with a focus on the circular economy, within which his current focus is on food.

Lariza Castillo is originally from Paraguay, she holds a master in Sustainable Territorial Development from the KU Leuven. She is passionate about the agri-food system transition and is particularly interested in rural development and social inclusion initiatives. She has been working on the topic of Sustainable Agriculture with GCE, focusing on empowering young farmers in Europe.

Carolina Franziska Pichler is an Italian student, currently living in Vienna for her agricultural studies and working part-time at an organic farm. Her passions are sport and working with and in nature, which led her to her job in organic farming. She has an interest, curiosity and enjoyment in the diversity of all living things, especially cultivated plants and their usage in society, and a particular interest in sustainable food security, which she considers essential for the future vitality of generations and the world.

Tobias Schied is a 19 year old young second-job organic farmer from the swabian alb in southern Germany. He works for climate justice and agricultural justice with Fridays for Future and La via campesina.

Born on 6 December 1954; Master’s degree in law, graduated from the University of Łódź, Department of Law and Administration (1977). Judge in a regional court, a provincial court and the Polish Court of Appeal (1980-1993); seconded to the Polish Supreme Court (1990-1991). Member of the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland (1990-1993); Judge at the Tribunal of State (1991-1993); Member of the Sejm – the lower Chamber of the Polish Parliament (1993-1995); President of the Polish Supreme Audit Office – NIK and Member of the board of EUROSAI - the European organization of supreme audit institutions (1995-2001); Deputy Speaker of the Polish Sejm (2001-2004); Member of the European Parliament for three terms (2004-2016); Member of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals since his first term in 2004, and Chair of the Intergroup since 2014. Five-time author and co-author of commentary on the Polish Penal Code; author of more than 100 articles and publications on criminal law in various legal journals in Poland and author of articles on socio-legal issues. Member of the European Court of Auditors from 7 May 2016 to 30 November 2019: assigned to Chamber I “Sustainable use of natural resources”; Member of the Audit Quality Control Committee from 14 June 2018. Appointed as EU Commissioner responsible for the agriculture portfolio as from 1 December 2019 for a five-year term.

Jennifer Cavarra is from Italy and holds a master's degree in International Cooperation on Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage. Jennifer is the Project Co-lead on Intergenerational Justice at Generation Climate Europe and her aim is to enhance youth participation and engagement in the environmental decision-making process.

Maroua Ameziane has been mentoring young leaders and startupers (400+) for more than 6 years now. She is a Multi-Award Winner and Nominee, she received a royal award from Her Majesty, The Crown Princess of Denmark in the UNDP Youth Summit. She founded a humanitarian club in her school where she conducted two major projects of SDG 3 and SDG 13 which mobilized hundreds of people and she won the “Lions Governor Recognition award” 6 months after being appointed as president-founder. In addition to that, she was also nominated by UK Talents for the award “she has no limits community maker” after impacting more than 300 young leaders through World Merit Rabat. She was named “Merit Success Leader” in the Global World Merit Summit, “UN Food Systems Summit Hero” during FAO Food systems Summit and NextGEN under 30+ by Oklahoma State University.

Currently, She is a Sustainable Development Project Manager, in charge of sustainability community engagement of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. She is the lead of UM6P Sustainable Development Ambassadors Program mobilized 373 students with 19 ambassadors in its 1st edition and now 40 SD ambassadors from 19 schools in its 2nd edition. Moreover, she was in charge of the UN COY16 Youth Statement of UM6P, the first and only statement in Morocco that highlighted Moroccan youth demands and commitments in the COP26 negotiations which resulted in receiving the international recognition from YOUNGO as a climate Hero for the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. She is a part of the AASHE advisory council, a strong activist for youth and women empowerment participating in various UN consultations for the Advancement of Agenda 2030, Climate Justice and Gender Equality.

Anastasiya Serhyeyeva is a recent Master's graduate in International Cooperation at the University of Turin, Italy. Currently, she is working as a Junior Officer at the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Secretariat, an office of the Food Policy department of the Municipality of Milan that helps more than 250 cities around the world implement urban food policies and promote a fairer and climate-friendly world. She lives in Italy, but is originally from Ukraine and speaks four languages.

Born in 1962, Peter Schmidt's first occupation was cheesemaker. Later on he was a regional officer of the NGG trade union (Food and Catering Union, affiliated to the DGB) for 27 years, in charge of dairy industries and bakeries. Since 2014 he has been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)'s Group II (Workers). From 2015 to March 2018, he was the president of the EESC's Permanent Study Group on Sustainable Food Systems. From April 2018 to September 2020, he was the president of the EESC's Sustainable Development Observatory and one of the three EESC members steering the work of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, a joint initiative by the EESC and the European Commission. Since October 2020, Peter is the President of the NAT Section of the EESC, responsible for Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment.
 

Chiara Savanco is a student currently enrolled in the LL.M of ‘Law and Sustainable Development’ at the University of Milan. She started getting involved in climate debates and policy while at University in the U.K, as a member of Chatham House’s ‘Future Conversations’ platform, and in Milan she strives to spread climate awareness in her uni and beyond through the student society  ‘Diciassette’, inspired by the UNSDGs. Her areas of interest are global inequalities, the energy transition, and  climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. She loves practicing outdoor sports like sailing, hiking and climbing, and wants to work for a future where, among other things, each will be able to use and enjoy the resources offered by our planet.

Martina Razzaboni has been volunteering with SDSN Youth Mediterranean for more than two years, becoming the Network Coordinator in April 2022. She works as a Policy Officer for the European Federation of National Associations of Measurement, Testing and Analytical Laboratories (EUROLAB) and has joined other youth organisations in the field of climate action, as Generation Climate Europe and The Green Fix. The topic of sustainable food systems is very relevant both in her job and volunteering activities, as well as from a personal point of view (as an Italian expat living in Belgium).

Simon Guerin Sanz After living in the rural areas for 17 years, Simon specialized in European affairs. He started his political activism in French MRJC on agricultural and youth participation topics. Today, he is a volunteer for MIJARC Europe within the agriculture and sustainability commission. His main interests are the transformation of rural areas, agroecology and ecological transition.

Henrik Arhold French-German, has been a climate activist since 2019. He is Project Lead on the Youth Climate & Sustainability Roundtables at Generation Climate Europe and studies European Studies at KU Leuven.

Katrīna Leitane has almost 10 years of experience in the youth field when she started as a volunteer in a local youth centre and now a member of the EESC. She participated in Erasmus trainings and had developed several Erasmus+ projects concerning youth participation. Now, she is looking forward to involving more youth in the EESC and establishing fruitful cooperation aiming to improve the life quality of youth in the EU. She is the President of the Coordination Group for the European Year of Youth. She is the Rap of the EESC Opinion on the EU Youth Test. is Alumni of the Young Elected Politicians 2020 programme launched by the Committee of Regions; Member of the Nation Working Group for the European Union Youth Dialogue and the National Working Group for the European Year of Youth, Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia.

Antje Gerstein Managing Director of the German Retail Federation (HDE), is in charge of driving sustainability for the retail sector and heads the Brussels office of HDE. Furthermore she is member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

She is supervising advocacy and public affairs on consolidated positions on behalf of the German retail sector vis-à-vis European Institutions as well as the German Federal Government. She puts emphasis on developing jointly with HDE’s membership appropriate answers to a society that pays more and more attention to all dimensions of sustainability, environment and climate impact. Even when views with stakeholders are opposed, she is determined to secure constant dialogue and a fair balance of interests, a skill she acquired in her previous positions in numerous negotiations with trade unions.

Before joining HDE in 2017 she was for eight years Managing Director with the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and Permanent Delegate of BDA within BUSINESSEUROPE. Previously, she has supervised International Social Policy as Deputy Director of the "European Union and International Affairs" department of BDA and was the delegate of the German employers at the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva.

After her studies of Geography, Regional Planning and Rural Development at the universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart, she graduated with a master degree in Geography. Always internationally interested, she held positions at the Carl Duisberg Society, the European Commission and a consulting firm for European funded projects in Cologne and Brussels.

She is married, has two grown up children and a dog and travels between Berlin and Brussels

Marietheres Kleuter is German and currently living in the Netherlands. She is a PhD student, on the interface of plant breeding, biobased economy and protein transition. She grew up on a farm connected to her from early onwards with agriculture and its connected fields. Since three years she is member of the agricultural board within a German Youth association called KLJB. They raise their voice for young people from the rural areas on topics such as: Agriculture of the future, sustainable forestry and rural development.