Achilles Skordas
Achilles Skordas has taught international law at the Universities of Athens, Bristol, and Copenhagen, and is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. His areas of research include international law, geopolitics, international dispute settlement, and migration law and policy. He is the co-editor (with P. Koutrakos) of the book 'The Law and Practice of Piracy at Sea - European and International Perspectives', Hart Publ., 2014, the editor of the 'Research Handbook on the International Court of Justice', Elgar Publ., forthcoming (2020), and co-editor (with L. Mardikian and G. Halmai) of the book on 'Economic Constitutionalism in a Turbulent World', Elgar Publishing (forthcoming 2020).
Amina Bouayach
Ms. Amina Bouayach is President of the Moroccan National Human Rights Council (CNDH), an independent Human Rights body Fully compliant with Paris Principles. Prior to that she has served as Ambassador of Morocco to Sweden and Latvia and also served as Vice-President then Secretary General of International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). She was the first woman to chair a Human Rights organization in Morocco (the Moroccan Organization for Human Rights or OMDH) for two successive terms and was member of several international bodies at regional and international levels: International Humanitarian Law Commission and MENA Regional Forum for the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). Moreover, Ms Bouayach was a member of the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF), the Arab Organization for Human Rights, the NGOs Committee for the Reform of the League of Arab States and the Freedom of Association Working Group in the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (2009-2011).
Antonio Vitorino
On 29 June 2018, António Vitorino was elected as the tenth Director General of the International Organization for Migration by its Member States, taking office on 1 October 2018. António Vitorino has over 27 years of international and national political and academic experience, which brought him consistently in touch with the migration context. He served as European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, from 1999 to 2004. Prior to joining the European Commission, António Vitorino served as Deputy Prime Minister of Portugal, from 1995 to 1997. His solid political background includes tenures as Portugal’s State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs (from 1983 to 1985), member of the Government of Macau in charge of Administration and Justice (from 1986 to 1987), member of the Portuguese Parliament (from 1980 to 2007), member of the European Parliament (from 1994 to 1995), where he chaired the Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee in charge of Migration, Asylum, Justice and Fundamental Rights. During these years António Vitorino crafted leadership, management and negotiations skills at the highest level and developed in-depth knowledge of global and national migration contexts and related policy challenges. He served as Judge of the Portuguese Constitutional Court from 1989 to 1994. Aside from the extensive political and public service experience, António Vitorino is also an experienced lawyer and a renowned academic. For more than 25 years he served as Assistant Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law, International Human Rights Law, European Union Law on Justice and Home Affairs at the Lisbon Law School and Lisbon Nova University. A fond promoter of civil society and private sector engagement, António Vitorino contributed to the work of prestigious think tanks and foundations. He was President of Notre Europe/Jacques Delors Institute in Paris (from 2011 to 2016), Board member of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington, D.C. (from 2005
Antti Peltomäki
Antti Peltomäki is the Head of the Commission Representation in Finland. He was previously the Deputy Director-General in the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SME's. He joined the European Commission in July 2006. After having graduated from the Helsinki University (Master of Laws), Mr Peltomäki started his professional career at the Helsinki University of Technology in 1986. Then he occupied, amongst other, the positions of Counsellor of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament, Officer in the EFTA Brussels office, Special Adviser in the Finnish Ministry of Justice, State Under-Secretary in the Finnish Prime Minister's office and finally State -Secretary for EU Affairs in the Prime Minister's office.
Ari Valila
Work experience in the European Institutions since 2003 (European Court of Auditors 2003-2009 (Team Leader Auditor); Secretariat-General of the European Commission 2009-2017 (Inter-Service Policy Coordinator); DG Migration and Home Affairs 2017-2019 (MFF Coordinator).
Ave Lauren
Ave Lauren is currently National Coordinator for Estonia at the European Migration Network (EMN). She holds a Ph.D. in Economic Geography from the University of Cambridge, where her work focused on highly-skilled immigration to the United States, particularly Silicon Valley. Prior to joining the EMN, Ave worked in a number of research positions internationally, including a Fellowship at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Her expertise includes highly-skilled migration, labour market integration, identity politics, global cities, technopoles and global mobility.
Berndt Körner
Berndt Körner, as of 4 January 2016 Frontex’s Deputy Executive Director. Berndt Körner was born on 21 April 1961. He graduated in Law at the University in Graz. He started his professional career in 1991 as a civil servant working in the Department for Migration in the Government of the Province of Burgenland. In 1994, Mr. Körner became a legal expert in Austria’s federal chancellery. Two years later, he joined the Ministry of Interior, where he was a member of a team preparing Austria’s accession to Schengen. At the ministry, Mr. Körner worked with Austria’s neighbours on various border control issues and negotiated several bilateral agreements leading to the opening of new border crossing points. He later headed the Ministry of Interior’s Department for General Security Matters and then the Department for Migration, Visa and legal aspects of Border Control. In 2010, he joined the Council of the EU, where he worked as a seconded national expert for Schengen evaluation until 2013. For nearly two years before taking up his post at Frontex, Mr. Körner served in Albania within the PAMECA IV-Project as an expert on Integrated Border Management. PAMECA IV was an EU funded technical assistance project assisting key Albanian law enforcement agencies in their process of approximation to the EU-Acquis by offering expertise drawn from different EU Member States.
Boldizsár Nagy
Boldizsár Nagy has been teaching international law and refugee law for decades. He was a founder of the European Society of International Law and is a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Refugee Law, the European Journal of Migration and Law and the Refugee Law Reader. Further details, including the bibliography and many of his publications and talks at www.nagyboldizsar.hu
Catherine Woollard
Catherine Woollard took up the position of Secretary General of the ECRE (the European Council on Refugees and Exiles) in 2016. ECRE is a pan-European alliance of 104 NGOs in 41 countries working to protect and advance the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons. ECRE’s work covers litigation, advocacy and communications.
Dan Rotenberg
Dan Rotenberg has been working for the European Commission since 1994. He joined the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs in 2015. He is Deputy Head of Unit for Irregular migration and Return policy. In that capacity, he has been notably in charge of the EU readmission policy. Before 2015, Dan occupied several positions in the Directorate General for Agriculture and in the Directorate General for Trade and has been also posted at the EU Delegation in Washington DC between 2007 and 2011. He graduated from Sciences-Po Paris in 1990 with a master of political sciences.
Daniel Thym
Daniel Thym holds the Jean-Monnet-Chair of European, International and Public Law at University of Konstanz and managing director of the Research Centre Immigration & Asylum Law at the same university after having previously worked for the Walter-Hallstein-Institute for European Constitutional Law at Humboldt-University in Berlin. He serves as an editor of the ‘European Law Journal’ and is a principal investigator of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Cultural Foundations of Social Integration’ at the University of Konstanz. Daniel Thym regularly appears as an expert witness in the home affairs committee of the German Bundestag, contributes to the pan-European ‘Odysseus Academic Network’ of legal experts in immigration and asylum law and He has published widely on diverse issues of European law, with a special focus on immigration, citizenship, asylum, constitutional affairs and external relations.
Demetrios Papademetriou
Demetrios G. Papademetriou is the Migration Policy Institute’s (MPI) Distinguished Transatlantic Fellow and Convener of the Transatlantic Council on Migration, a signature initiative of MPI that meets bi-annually (now in its 11 th year) and brings together senior officials and prominent experts to discuss critical migration matters. Dr. Papademetriou founded the Washington-based MPI, where he served as President from 2002 to 2014; he also founded and served as President of the Brussels-based MPI Europe from 2011 to 2018. He is President Emeritus of both institutions. He has published more than 280 books, monographs, articles and research reports on migration and related issues, advises senior government officials, foundations, and civil society organizations in dozens of countries and is co-founder and Chair Emeritus of Metropolis. He also convened the Regional (North American) Migration Study Group from 2011-2014 and has chaired the World Economic Forum’s Migration Council, the OECD’s Migration Group, and the Open Society Foundations’ International Migration Initiative.
Dennis Khakzad
Advisor – Division M4, Asylum Law and Asylum Procedures, Federal Ministry of the Interior; Building an Community
Despina Chatzimanoli
Dr Despina Chatzimanoli, LL.M. is Senior Legal Expert at the European Banking Authority (EBA). She advises on EU institutional issues and a wide range of regulatory topics. She worked at the EBA’s predecessor, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), advising on the transition to becoming an EU authority. Previously she worked for the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), an international organisation, a Greek publishing house and in private practice. Despina is a graduate of Athens Law School, holds an LL.M. from University College London (UCL) and a Ph.D. from the European University Institute (EUI), Florence. She was visiting fellow at NYU Law School and the Universities of Barcelona and Florence, visiting Lecturer at King’s College London and taught in various law departments in the UK, France and Italy. She speaks Greek, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. She has written about European financial regulation and is the author of an English-Greek legal dictionary.
Dessislava Choumelova
Dessislava (Dessy) Choumelova is heading the Unit on Demography, Migration and Governance at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Italy. She has gained experience in migration policy formulation and the nexus migration – development cooperation while advising the Directors responsible for "Europe, Eastern Neighbourhood and Middle East" and "Strategy, Policy and International Cooperation" at the Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection at the European Commission in Brussels. Prior to that, Ms. Choumelova served as a member of the private office (cabinet) of Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva and recently on a diplomatic assignment at the EU Delegation to South Africa in Pretoria, dealing with trade and global issues. Ms Choumelova is an international business lawyer trained in Sofia and London. Before joining the EU civil service, she has spent more than a decade working on electronic communications, media and IT legal and regulatory issues and enforcement of EU competition law. Inside the European Union institutions, her career has spanned legislative work at the European Parliament, anti-trust enforcement, policy coordination and international relations at the European Commission. D. Choumelova speaks Bulgarian, English, French, Russian and Spanish. @choumde ?KCMD
Eiko Thielemann
Eiko Thielemann is an Associate Professor in European Politics and Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on EU- and comparative policy-making, in particular with regard to immigration and refugee policies. He is the director of the LSE Migration Studies Unit and LSE’s graduate studies programme in International Migration and Public Policy (IMPP). He is also a Global Associate Professor at New York University (NYU), a board member of the Journal of Refugee Studies and a founding member of the IMPALA migration policy database.
Elise Muir
Prof. dr. Elise Muir is Head of the Institute for European Law of the KU Leuven and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (LLM in European Legal Studies, Bruges). Before starting at the KU Leuven, Elise was a tenured Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University and Associate Director of the Maastricht Centre for European law. She has also been a Visiting Lecturer at Sciences Po Lille, at the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation as well as at EDHEC-Espème in Lille. She studied law both in France and in the UK (Maîtrise, LLB & LLM) before commencing her postgraduate studies in European law at the College of Europe in Belgium (LLM, top law student). Elise has subsequently become an academic assistant in this programme. She has been a visiting researcher at Columbia Law School (Fulbright grantee), the European University Institute and the Fondation pour l’innovation politique before completing her PhD at the University of London in 2010 under the supervision of Professor Takis Tridimas. Elise Muir is a member of the Editorial Board of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law as well as a member of the Scientific Board of European Papers.
Elspeth Guild
Elspeth Guild is Jean Monnet Professor ad personam at Queen Mary Univer-sity of London and emeritus professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. She is also a partner at the London law firm, Kingsley Napley. She furthermore is a visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges. She is the co-editor of the European Journal of Migration and Law and the book series Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy in Europe both published by Martinus Nijhoff (Brill)
Filippo Grandi
Elected by the General Assembly for a five year term, Filippo Grandi became the 11th UN High Commissioner for Refugees on 1 January 2016. He leads UNHCR, which operates in 137 countries providing protection and assistance to more than 70 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced people, and stateless persons. Grandi, an Italian national, has been engaged in international cooperation for 35 years and holds degrees in modern history and philosophy, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Coventry.
Francesco Maiani
Francesco Maiani is Associate Professor of EU Law at the University of Lausanne. His research interests include EU constitutional law, the law of the relations between the EU and its neighbours, as well as EU and International migration law. He is a member of i.a. the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, the ODYSSEUS Academic Network and the NCCR “On the Move”.
Gibril Faal
Prof. Gibril Faal is a multidisciplinary business and development executive. He is a Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Co-Founder and Director of GK Partners, which advises businesses, governments and institutions across the world. He is the Vice Chair of Bond, the platform of UK NGOs working on international development, and an Advisory Council Member of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, New York. His expertise and experience include: International and Sustainable Development; Migration, Diaspora and Development; Responsible Business and Social Enterprise; Ethical, Islamic and Development Finance; Negotiations and Diplomacy; Policy Development and Implementation; Programme Development and Implementation; Organisational Management; Corporate Law and Governance; Research and Evaluation; Executive Training and Board Development. He has 30 years experience as analyst, researcher, trainer, consultant and adviser, and served as director and trustee on various boards. In 2004, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and part-time magistrate, and in 2014 was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to international development, having been nominated by DFID. He has delivered keynote addresses at the UN General Assembly, and served as technical expert on negotiations for the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).
Giulio Di Blasi
Giulio Di Blasi is a Member of the Cabinet of the High Representative / Vice-President for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, responsible for migration and human rights issues. Before joining the High Representative&?39;s team, he was Head of Department for the implementation of Hotspots in Italy and Greece at the Directorate General of Internal Affairs of the European Commission. Prior to this post, he was Head of Policy Coordination within the same Directorate-General, working directly on the development of the European Agenda on Migration. Mr Blasi has been an official of the European Commission since 2011 and has always been concerned with migration and asylum issues with a focus on the Mediterranean.
Hanne Beirens
Hanne Beirens is Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe. She specializes in European Union policies related to asylum and legal pathways to protection, unaccompanied minors and other children on the move, labour migration and the EU funding landscape on migration and other policy areas Prior to joining MPI as Associate Director in 2015, Dr. Beirens worked as a Lead Managing Consultant for ICF Consulting, where she focused on impact assessments, feasibility studies, and evaluations for the European Commission, with a particular focus on EU asylum and migration policy and EU financial instruments. Earlier, Dr. Beirens worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Applied Social Studies of the University of Birmingham, evaluating services, organizations, and community-based initiatives pursuing the integration of asylum seekers, refugees, and third-country nationals. She also has worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and as an independent consultant for the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO). She holds a master's degree in race and ethnic relations (with distinction) and a PhD in sociology and ethnic relations on the participation of minors in armed conflict, both from the University of Warwick (UK).
Henrik Nielsen
Henrik Nielsen has been working for the European Commission since 1998 and with justice and home affairs issues since 2000. He is currently Head of Unit for Asylum in DG Home Affairs and has previously led the units for International coordination as well as Border Management and Schengen. Mr Nielsen is a Swedish citizen and holds a Master degree in law and a Bachelor degree in economics, both from Uppsala University.
Hugo Brady
Hugo Brady has advised European Council President Donald Tusk on migration and internal security matters over the course of 30 European summits focused on these issues. He represents the President on the Council's Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) mechanism, which coordinates the EU's operational response to the migration crisis. Hugo is double-hatted as a member of the President's communication team, where he works on speeches and intellectual outreach. As cabinet lead on Britain and Ireland, and a long-time professional observer of Britain's EU debate, he also deals with Brexit in the context of preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland. He previously worked at the Irish foreign ministry, the Centre for European Reform in London and Brussels, the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris; and was a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics from 2013-2015.
Ilke Adam
Ilke Adam is a Political Science Professor at the Institute For European Studies (IES) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (main affiliation). She coordinates the Migration, Diversity and Justice research cluster at IES, as well as the VUB interdisciplinary platform on Migration and Minorities (BIRMM). Her research interests include immigration and immigrant integration policies, multiculturalism, citizenship, discrimination, sub-state nationalism and comparative public policy. She published many books and articles on these topics and is regularly consulted by policy-makers, civil society leaders and the media. Ilke Adam currently works on research projects and prepares publications on: the multi-level governance of immigrant integration ; the external dimension of EU immigration policies (EU-Africa cooperation); the Europeanization of immigrant integration; integration and citizenship of Turkish, Moroccan and Sub-Saharan African Belgians and anti-racist activism.
Inma Vazquez
Inma Vazquez is a lawyer by background, with a Master’s degree in European Law, and has been MSF’s representative to the EU and NATO, based in Brussels, since 2015. She has 25 years of professional experience, most of them in humanitarian aid. She worked 15 years in the field in main humanitarian organizations such as Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Action contre la Faim (ACF), and with the EU Humanitarian Aid department (DG ECHO). Ms Vazquez has been in charge of large field operations and worked in a variety of contexts ranging from complex emergencies (Angola, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Middle East) to natural disasters (Honduras or Madagascar) or transition situations (Nicaragua, Guatemala, East Timor and Zimbabwe). She has combined field experience with assignments at headquarters, where she has been actively involved in advocacy and policy analysis.
Iris Goldner Lang
Prof. Dr. Iris Goldner Lang is a Jean Monnet professor of EU law and holder of the UNESCO Chair on Free Movement of People, Migration and Inter-Cultural Dialogue at the University of Zagreb - Faculty of Law. She was a John Harvey Gregory Visiting Professor of Law and World Organization and a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School in 2015/2016. In June/July 2017, as a Visiting Researcher, she held a series of lectures at the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinic. In June/July 2018, she was a Visiting Academic at University College London (UCL). As a British Government Chevening Scholar, she earned her LLM degree at the London School of Economics. She did part of her doctoral research at the LSE and as an Ernst-Mach Scholar at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. She is one of the academic coordinators of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “EU’s Global Leadership in the Rule of Law”. She has been the leader of two Jean Monnet Modules "EU Migration Law and Policy" and "EU Internal Market Law". She is the president of the Croatian Society for European Law (FIDE branch) and the Croatian representative in the Odysseus Monnet Network for Immigration and Asylum. She is editor-in-chief of the Croatian Yearbook of European Law and Policy. She is the editor of three books and the author of a number of articles, chapters in books and a book entitled "From Association to Accession: How Free is the Free Movement of Persons in the EU?".
Jean-Christophe Dumont
Jean-Christophe Dumont has been the Head of the International Migration Division in the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD since 2011. He joined the OECD Secretariat in 2000 to work on international migration issues. He oversees the OECD annual flagship publication on migration, the International Migration Outlook, and numerous publications on the economic impact of international migration, as well as on migration management and the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in OECD countries. He has also worked on migration and development issues and on the international mobility of health workers. He holds a PhD in development economics from the University Paris IX-Dauphine and was a research fellow at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.
Jean-Louis De Brouwer
Jean-Louis De Brouwer is Director of the European Affairs Program at the Egmont Institute.He joined the Institute in October 2019, after retiring from the European Commission where, as a director, he was successively in charge of immigration,asylum,visas and border policies ( DG Justice and Home Affairs),the implementation of the EU2020 agenda and employment policies (DG Employment,Social Affairs and Inclusion) and humanitarian aid operations and policies (DG European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations).He has Master Degrees in Law,Sociology and Public Administration/International Relations from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL).Before joining the European Commission, he held different positions in the Belgian civil service (Ministry of Economic Affairs,Ministry of Home Affairs) and was Director General of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.He has been teaching Public Law,Political Science and EU Politics at the Saint Louis University of Brussels (USL-B) and the Catholic University of Mons (FUCAM).He is nowadays a lecturer in International Relations Theories and on “An Area of Freedom,Security and Justice “ respectively at the UCL and the USL-B.He is also in charge of a course on Immigration and Humanitarian Policy at the College of Europe of the Parma University.
Jean-Pierre Cassarino
Jean-Pierre Cassarino is Senior Research Fellow at the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair of the College of Europe (Natolin Campus) where he directs the Natolin Academy of Migration while teaching and developing research on how migration affect bilateral and multilateral patterns of cooperation. He is also a research associate at the Tunis-based Research Institute on the Contemporary Maghreb (IRMC, Tunisia). As of February 2020, he will hold the Chair on Migration Studies at the Institute for Advanced Studies IMéRA, Aix-Marseille University (France). His publications and major interests focus on the expansion of international regulatory systems and bilateral/regional patterns of cooperation, and on the diffusion and internalization of norms and practices pertaining to the “governance” of international migration, especially with reference to MENA and African countries. URL: http://www.jeanpierrecassarino.com/
Jens Vedsted-Hansen
Jens Vedsted-Hansen served as a member of the Danish Refugee Appeals Board 1987-94 and again 2013-16, and is currently a member of the Equal Treatment Board. At the international level, he was member of the Management Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) 2012-17. During 2016-17 he acted as lead expert for the preparation of judicial training material on asylum procedures within a project undertaken by the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ-Europe) for EASO. Since 2018 he is member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in respect of Denmark.
Jorma Vuorio
Director General of the Migration Department, Ministry of the Interior of Finland
Kees Groenendijk
Kees GROENENDIJK is emeritus Professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), founder and research fellow of its Centre for Migration Law and member of the Standing Committee of Experts on international immigration, refugee and criminal law (Meijers Committee). He is an honorary member of the Odysseus Network of Experts on European Migration and Asylum Law and member of the Board of Editors of the journal Asiel- & Migrantenrecht. He has published on the social and legal status of immigrants, EU and national migration law, legal integration of immigrants and nationality law. For his publications see: http://www.ru.nl/law/cmr/research/publications-author/groenendijk/
Kristiina Kumpula
MA 1986, Finnish Red Cross Secretary General 2004-, Advisory Board of the Civil Society Policy Chair 2017-, Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health Chair of the Council 2012-18, RCRC EU Office Co-Ordination Group Chair 2014-15, 2019-
Kristina Stenman
LL M from the University of Helsinki in 1991. She worked as asylum lawyer at the Refugee Advice Centre 1991-2006, and was member of the Executive Committee of ECRE in 1994-1996. She participated in the organizing of ECRE´s lobbying towards the Tampere Summit in 1999. During 2006-2007 when she worked as researcher at the Institute of Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University, she represented ÅA/Finland in the Odysseus Network. In 2011-2016, Kristina worked as Head of the Integration Unit at the Ministries of the Interior (2011), and Employment and the Economy (2011-2016). Since May 2016, she is Mayor in Jakobstad/Pietarsaari, a town where some 9 % of the population has immigrant background.
Laura Corrado
Laura Corrado has been working since 2001 at the European Commission, where she has been dealing with a variety of issues related mainly to Justice and Home Affairs policies (Schengen, borders and visa policies, data protection, immigration). She is currently the Head of the Legal Migration and Integration Unit in DG HOME. She graduated in International Law at the University of Perugia (Italy) and obtained afterwards a ‘Master in European Political and Administrative Studies’ at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). Before joining the Commission, she worked as Assistant in International Law and International Organisation at the University of Perugia and then as Researcher and Lecturer on EU-related matters at the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht (The Netherlands).
Lilian Tsourdi
Lilian is an Assistant Professor and Dutch Research Council grantee at the Law Faculty of Maastricht University, as well as a visiting professor at Sciences Po Paris. She is a member of the coordination team of the Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe, the ‘Odysseus Network’. Lilian was previously a Departmental Lecturer in International Human Rights and Refugee Law at the Refugee Studies Centre of the University of Oxford, a Max Weber Fellow at the Law Faculty of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence; a researcher at the Migration Policy Centre of the EUI, the Institute for European Studies of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and the Centre Charles De Visscher for International and European Law of UC Louvain; as well as an advisor for a Member of the European Parliament. She obtained her PhD from the Law Faculty and the Institute for European Studies of the ULB. She has published her research widely in important publishing houses and journals (e.g. Human Rights Law Review, Common Market Law Review). Her monograph on the constitutional foundations and administrative governance of the EU asylum policy is forthcoming in Oxford University Press.
Lyra Jakuleviciene
Dr. Lyra Jakuleviciene is an international and European Union law professor at Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania). Over 20 years of her professional experience combines research, training and international consultancies on human rights, asylum and migration, EU law issues, including impact assessments and evaluations. She held various positions at UNHCR and UNDP. Prof. Jakuleviciene is a member of Odysseus academic network on asylum and immigration and an author of a book on refugee law and over 40 articles in asylum and migration field. Currently, she serves as the Dean of the largest Law School in Lithuania.
Mari Kiviniemi
Mari Kiviniemi is the Managing Director of the Finnish Commerce Federation since January 2019. Prior to taking office she worked as a Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD. Her previous positions include Prime Minister of Finland, Minister for Public Administration and Local Government and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development. She also served as a Member of Parliament from 1995 to 2014. She studied economics at the University of Helsinki and holds a Master's degree in Social Sciences.
Maria Gavouchidou
Mrs Maria Gavouchidou is working in the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) since last 4 years as a Team Leader of the International Cooperation on Returns team in the European Centre for Returns. Prior her position in Frontex, she was serving in the Hellenic Police for 13 years dealing with the migration file in her entire career. Among the main topics she dealt with during her career were the development of the HOTSPOT mechanism in Greece, the development of the EASO tool for the Access to Procedure, the development of Greek structures and procedures to facilitate the implementation of return procedures and the development of the readmission mechanism for the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement . The European Centre for Returns, in which Mrs Gavouchidou is currently working, is mandated to support Member States to enhance the efficiency of their national systems and conduct efficient, safe, orderly and dignified returns.
Marie De Somer
Dr. Marie De Somer is Head of the Migration and Diversity Programme at the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels. She is also a Guest Professor at the KU Leuven (Belgium) and at Sciences Po in Paris. Her publications and research interests relate to migration and asylum law, with a specific focus on human rights issues, citizenship-related questions and the role of courts. Marie previously worked at Maastricht University, and at the Centre for European Policy Studies. She has also worked as an independent consultant for the European Commission. She holds a PhD from Maastricht University and master degrees from the London School of Economics and the KU Leuven.
Michael Spindelegger
Mr. Michael Spindelegger has extensive experience in international relations through his work in the Federal Government of the Republic of Austria. From 2008 to 2013 he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and from 2013 to 2014 as Minister of Finance. Additionally, he was Vice Chancellor and leader of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) from 2011 to 2014. In January 2016 he was appointed Director General of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
Michele Amedeo
Michele Amedeo is the Head of the Centre of Thematic Expertise on Migration at the European Commission, Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement (DG NEAR). He has been leading on stepping up EU efforts in addressing the migration crisis across the Mediterranean in the past two years. From 1998 to 2000, he managed the EU Multi-Beneficiary Environmental Programmes to prepare Central and Eastern European countries for EU membership. In 2001, he became Deputy Head of Office for the United Nation Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in China. In 2003, he directed the Programme for Environmental Protection of the Italian Ministry of Environment in China. In 2004, he returned to the European Commission as Head of the Operational Section to the EU Delegation in Benin, where he remained until 2008. From 2009 to 2011, he was Global Risk Advisor to the Director General for Enlargement and was later responsible for the coordination of EU funding instruments for the Enlargement countries (Western Balkans and Turkey) and the EU Neighbourhood. Mr Amedeo holds a MSc in Environmental Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, a MSc in Civil Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, and a General Management Certificate from the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. He is a visiting professor on international cooperation and the author of articles on global challenges, migration, and the EU in the world.
Mireille Paquet
Bio: Mireille Paquet holds the Concordia Research Chair on the Politics of immigration and is an associate professor of political science at Concordia University. He research focuses on immigration politics in Canada, on bureaucratic policymaking in the immigration sector and on immigration policy innovation. He work has been published in journals such: Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration. She is the author of Province Building and the Federalization of Immigration (University of Toronto Press, 2019) and the co-editor of Citizenship as a Regime: Canadian and International Perspectives (With Nora Nagels and Aude-Claire Fourot, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018)
Nina Gregori
Nina Gregori is the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), based in Malta. She took over her duties on 16 June 2019. Ms. Gregori previously worked at the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia for over 20 years, occupying the Senior Management post of Director General (or Deputy Director General) for over a decade, responsible for asylum, migration, integration and internal administrative affairs. She was actively involved in the drafting of Slovenian positions for dossiers on migration, asylum, the Schengen area and visas for the relevant working bodies of the European Union since 1999. During the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2008 she chaired the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum (SCIFA), in which she was also a national delegate until becoming the Executive Director of EASO. Ms. Gregori has participated in more than 80 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial meetings as leader (in the absence of the Minister) or as a member of the Slovenian delegation, and has been a member of the Slovenian delegation in meetings of the European Council. Ms Gregori also served as a national delegate in the Expert Working Group Migration at the OECD and as a member of the Advisory Board of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). Long a member of the Slovenian Interdepartmental Commission on Human Rights, she was a permanent member of various delegations of Slovenia in procedures and instruments of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Ms. Gregori has been actively involved in the development and work of EASO since its beginning. She was a member of the Agency’s Management Board from 2015 until taking up her duties as the Executive Director. She has a University degree in Political Science from the University of Ljubljana.
Ola Henrikson
Ola Henrikson is the Regional Director of IOM’s Regional Office for the EU, Norway and Switzerland. Ola has substantial knowledge of global and EU migration issues stemming from more than 25 years of experience in the asylum and migration sector at the national and international levels. Prior to joining IOM in 2019, Ola was the Director General for Migration and Asylum at the Swedish Ministry of Justice. He has also served in several executive positions, including Director of the Department for Migration Policy in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also headed the Swedish Delegation in the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum (SCIFA) of the Council of the European Union from 1999 to 2018. Other international assignments include the World Economic Forum and the Global Commission on International Migration. Ola holds a LL. M. from Stockholm University.
Oliver Seiffarth
Oliver Seiffarth is working since 2016 as the deputy and currently also as the acting Head of the Schengen and Borders Unit in DG Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) of the European Commission. Previously he has been working in DG HOME on the development and establishment of the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) and on EU funding programmes such as the Schengen Facility and the Kaliningrad Transit Programme. Before joining the Commission in 2004, he worked as a Schengen expert in the Ministries of Interior of Austria, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and Poland as well as legal advisor for asylum seekers at Caritas and non-governmental organisations.
Paavo Lipponen
Born 1941 in Finnish Lapland. Educated at Dartmouth College (USA), U. of Helsinki. International Secretary of Social Democratic Party. Director, Finnish Institute of International Affairs 1989-91. SDP Chairman 1993-2005. Prime Minister 1995-2003, Speaker of Parilament 2003-2007. Author of several books. Several domestic and international prizes. Presently working on Arctic affairs and chairing two Consulting firms.
Ralf Lesser
I'm the (Deputy) Head of Unit for European Asylum Law and European Asylum Procedures in the German Ministry of Interior since 2017. I'm in charge of both operational issues under the current Dublin-III-Regulation and the CEAS-reform (including, of course, the Dublin reform which I negotiate myself in FoP SCIFA as German representative). Also, my unit deals with the disembarkation and relocation of migrants rescued at sea and was negotiating the temporary emergency mechanism concluded in Malta by Germany, France, Italy and Malta with the support of the Finnish Presidency.
Sayed Razawi
Imam Razawi is a theologian, religious leader and Chief Imam of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society. A Visiting Scholar at the Strathclyde Business School and an Associate at the Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, he is an ambassador for ‘Glasgow The Caring City”, and on the Oxfam Zakat Advisory Panel GB. He was also one of the two advisors appointed by the Home Secretary for the Independent Sharia Review commissioned in 2016. Internationally he is on the advisory board of the Islamic Reporting Initiative (IRI). He is also a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders (ECRL) and on the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the United Nations (UN).
Sergo Mananashvili
Dr. Sergo Mananashvili is Senior Advisor, Migration Dialogues and Cooperation, at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), where he has worked since 2016 first as Advisor on Return and Readmission and then as an Inception Manager and Pillar II coordinator at the European Return and Reintegration Network (ERRIN). His previous positions include Research and Project coordinator at the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute and Research Officer in the European Law Unit at the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. He holds Master’s and PhD degrees in European and International (refugee) Law from the Europa-Institute of the Saarland University.
Sophie Magennis
Sophie Magennis is Head of the Policy and Legal Support Unit at UNHCR’s Bureau for Europe in Brussels. Prior to her appointment, she was UNHCR’s Head of Office in Ireland. Previously, she was Head of Policy and Legislation at the Irish Ombudsman for Children’s Office and Administrator of the Irish Human Rights Commission. She co-founded Human Rights Consultants in 2000. Prior to that, she served as Deputy to the Irish Ambassador to the Council of Europe. She has worked with the Council of Europe as Legal Consultant to the Monitoring Unit of the Secretary General and as a Legal Expert at the Council of Europe’s Section for Equality between Women and Men. She is an Attorney and Counselor at Law at the New York State Bar and holds a European Masters Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation from the European Inter-University Centre in Venice, Italy.
Tanja Fajon
As a convinced European, Mrs Tanja Fajon has been a member of the European parliament since 2009, currently serving her third term. A journalist by profession and correspondent from Brussels for national television she has been actively following European politics for almost 20 years. Mrs Fajon has been a member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) since the very beginning and has been the focus of her work. As the Rapporteur she has dealt with many key issues and negotiated on visa liberalisation for the Western Balkans, Schengen reform and Smart borders package, as well as the revision of the Common European Asylum System (Qualifications Regulation) for which famous Brussels-based news outlet Politico listed her among top 40 MEPs who matter in 2015 and 2016.
Tapio Luoma
The Most Rev. Dr. Tapio Luoma assumed office on June 1st, 2018. Before his election as Archbishop Luoma worked as pastor in several parishes in Southern Ostrobothnia for 25 years and as Bishop of Espoo from 2012 to 2018. In 2000, he was awarded the title of the Pastor of the Year in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Luoma holds a doctorate from the University of Helsinki and his doctoral dissertation, "Incarnation and Physics: Natural Science in the Theology of Thomas F. Torrance", was published in the AAR Academy Series by Oxford University Press in 2002.
Thomas Huddleston
Thomas is MPG’s Research Director. Thomas joined MPG in 2006, and since 2018, he coordinates research and communications. On behalf of MPG, he chairs the EU’s migrant education network (SIRIUS) and the quarterly migration meetings of the EU NGO Platform on EU Asylum and Migration (EPAM). He is also the coordinator of MPG’s Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), the European Website on Integration (EWSI), the VoteBrussels campaign and the Transatlantic Migrant Democracy Dialogue.
Torsten Moritz
Dr. Torsten Moritz studied Political Sciences in Bonn and Berlin, he obtained his Ph D at the Free University in Berlin. He has researched political transformation in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Having been active in European ecumenical youth networks in the 1990ies , he served as General Secretary of the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe 1999-2002. Having worked at the organisation since 2003, he is since August 2018 General Secretary of the Churches´ Commission for Migrants in Europe.
Tamás Molnár
Tamás MOLNÁR (1980) studied law in Budapest (Master of Laws) and Brussels (LLM on EU law), and holds a PhD in public international law (Budapest). He also passed the bar exam in Hungary in 2010. Since September 2016, he has been working as a legal research officer on asylum, migration and borders at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna. His areas of expertise with respect to the FRA’s work include: fundamental rights of irregular migrants; return and readmission, including detention; anti-smuggling; EU asylum acquis and visa policy as well as horizontal issues of public international law. Before joining FRA, he worked for a decade in various ministries in Hungary in the fields of international and EU migration law and their domestic implementation (drafting legislation, negotiating treaties, negotiating in EU Council working parties etc.). He is also a visiting lecturer on international (migration) law at the Institute of International Studies at Corvinus University of Budapest (adjunct professor 2003-2018) and the Faculty of Law at the University of Szeged (since 2014). He has published widely in the fields of international law, EU migration law, and statelessness (see the full list at https://vm.mtmt.hu//search/slist.php?lang=0&AuthorID=10032231). He recently completed a four-year postdoctoral research project titled 'Understanding interactions between EU and international migration law, in particular in the field of expulsion of aliens' (financed through a research scholarship awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences).
Vincent Chetail
Vincent Chetail is Professor of International Law, Director of the Global Migration Centre and Chair of the International Law Department at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva). He is also President of the Directory Board of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights as well as Editor-in-Chief of Refugee Survey Quarterly (Oxford University Press). He regularly serves as a consultant for governments, NGOs and international organizations and he has been visiting professor in various univeristies (including Harvard Law School, King's College London, European University Institute and University of Paris II Pantheon). He has led over twenty research projects on migration and refugee protection, an area where he has published extensively (including 20 books and over 60 articles, reports and book chapters).
Vladimir Simonak
Vladimir Simonak has been responsible for European and international affairs at the Slovak Ministry of Interior since 2010. After a few years of leading the coordinating and policymaking unit at the Ministry, he relocated to Brussels in early 2015 to lead the Home Affairs Unit at the Slovak Permanent Representation, a position in which he continues to this day. The responsibilities in Brussels included the overall coordination of the 2016 Slovak EU Council presidency, in an environment shaped by political controversies related to migration policy.
Willemijn Tiekstra
Willemijn is Master of Laws and has completed her Masters in International and European Law at the University of Groningen. At the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands, she works on the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), reports on developments regarding the Central Mediterranean Route and follows international processes related to the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Prior to working at the Ministry of Justice and Security, Willemijn was a research fellow at Clingendael, Netherlands Institute of International Relations.