26 October 2017

© European U

nion, 2017

Speakers (in alphabetical order)

Svetlana AcsScientific Officer, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European Commission

Szvetlana Acs graduated at Szent Istvàn University in the field of Economics and Social Sciences. She obtained her PhD in Agricultural Economics at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. She has worked for the JRC - European Commission since 2009, for different institutes (in Seville, Brussels and Ispra). Her main specialisation lies in quantitative policy analysis based on economic modelling. In 2016 she joined the team of the Competence Centre on Modelling and is currently actively contributing to the development of MIDAS.

Daniel AlbrechtScientific Officer, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionDaniel Albrecht has worked on optical physics, image processing, mathematical modelling, and applied statistics. His main field focus is on sensitivity analysis of model output, a discipline where statistical tools are used to interpret the output from mathematical or computational models, and on the application of sensitivity analysis methodologies to the entire evidence-generating process of the EU policy-making process. He is currently working on Model Quality and Sensitivity Analysis providing support to the EU policy process and to the modellers,. He is carrying out research in the field of sensitivity analysis.

Román ArjonaChief Economist, Directorate-General Research and Innovation, European CommissionRomán Arjona is Chief Economist at the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation of the European Commission. He previously served in the Spanish government as Secretary-General for Science, Technology and Innovation. Before joining the Commission he was adviser to the Spanish State Secretary and the Spanish Minister for Science and Technology. Mr Arjona worked for the European Investment Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as for the OECD as an economist. He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s High-Level Advisory Group of the Europe Inclusive Growth and Competitiveness Lab and of the Global Agenda Council on New Growth Models. Román holds a Masters’ degree in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence

Anne BucherChair, Regulatory Scrutiny Board, European CommissionAnne Bucher was appointed chair of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board in 2016. She holds a Master degree in statistics from the Ecole Nationale de Statistique et Administration Economique - Paris, a Master in economics from the University Paris I-Sorbonne, and received a PhD in applied macroeconomics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She joined the European Commission in 1983. She has held positions in various Directorates-General before she was appointed Director in the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media in 2008. From 2011 she served as Director for Competitiveness and Structural Reforms in DG ECFIN, and in 2016 became Acting Deputy Director-General, Directorate-General for Financial and Economic Affairs.

Dan-Claudiu ChirondojanDirector, Space Security and Migration, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionDan Chirondojan is Director of the Knowledge Production Directorate for Space, Security and Migration in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, its in-house scientific service. The mission of the Directorate is to focus on aspects regarding emergency preparedness, disaster risk management, cyber security, data protection, space infrastructures as well as study of migration. Prior to that, for five years he was Director of the Ispra Site Management in JRC, being responsible for the management of infrastructure and services for the site of Ispra, Italy (the third largest site of the Commission). Before joining the European Commission, he spent 17 years in the private telecommunications sector in Romania, being in charge with operations and development of the infrastructure associated with the radio and fixed networks, business continuity planning, security risk assessment and crisis management. Between 1997 and 2001, he held various positions in the Romanian public administration in the area of ICT regulations, regional implementation of Government policies and civil protection. Mr. Chirondojan holds a degree as Engineer in Electronics and Telecommunications at Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania and an MBA in “Economies in Transition and Managing Global Companies” at Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Giovanni De SantiDirector, Sustainable Resources, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionGiovanni De Santi is the Director of the Directorate for Sustainable Resources in the, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Previously he was Director of the Directorate Competences. He also held a position as Director of the Institute for Energy and Transport. The Institute represented the reference centre of the European Commission for research in the energy field and sustainable transport. He has been working for the European Commission since 1985. He holds a PhD in Fluidodynamics and is author of many peer reviewed publications in high-level scientific journals and he is Chairman of many international conferences.

Luis Delgado SanchoActing Director, Growth and Innovation, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionLuis Delgado holds a MEngSc degree in Agricultural Engineering specialising in rural engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a MSc in Economics. Luis joined the Commission in 1987 as an Administrator in DG AGRI, working in different common market organisation and on the implementation of rural development policies and of the structural funds. He was the deputy permanent representative of the Commission to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome and he has been member of the cabinet of Commissioner Oreja..In the JRC he has been responsible for the activities regarding techno-economic analysis on sustainable production and consumption, clean technologies, waste policy, product policy, sustainable use of resources and the interrelations between technological change, scientific developments, environment, the economy and policy approaches. He has been Head of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive.

Rolf DiemerHead of Unit, Directorate-General Mobility and Transport, European CommissionRolf Diemer is head of the unit “Economic Analysis & Better Regulation” at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport. The unit supports all better regulation processes and notably the impact assessments and evaluations of the DG. It is responsible for the White Paper on transport, provides economic analyses on all transport-related issues (e.g. on competitiveness, decarbonisation or new mobility patterns) and compiles transport statistics. Economic modelling and scenario-building for transport policies and related issues form another core task. The unit is also a key contributor to various economic governance processes at EU level from a transport perspective (European Semester etc.). Before he was head of the units in charge of indirect taxes/excise duties and VAT respectively, with inter alia the main responsibility on the reform of energy taxation in the EU. He holds a PhD in applied economics

Wolfgang HillerDirector, Impact Assessment and European Added Value, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, European ParliamentWolfgang Hiller is currently Director in the European Parliament’s Research Service responsible for Impact Assessment and European Added Value. His responsibilities also include foresight activities, both in general as well as regarding Science and Technology.. Having graduated from Vienna University of Economics, he worked inter alia as speechwriter and specialist in the Economic Coordination Department at the Federal Chancellery in Austria before joining the European Parliament in 1992. Prior to his appointment to his current function on 1 January 2016, he held various positions within Parliament’s services and the European Commission, including as Head of the Parliament’s office in Vienna, the Secretariat for the Conference of Presidents and as a member of the Secretary-General’s private office in charge of inter-institutional relations and relations with national parliaments.

Alexander ItalianerSecretary-General, Secretariat General, European CommissionAlexander Italianer received a graduate degree in econometrics and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). He joined the European Commission in 1985. Worked in the cabinets of President Santer, Commissioner Verheugen, Commissioner Telička and President Barroso, and was also director for International Economic and Financial Affairs between 2002 and 2004. From 2006 to 2010 he served as Deputy Secretary General in charge of the Better Regulation Agenda and Chairman of the Impact Assessment Board. After a period as Director-General of Directorate-General Competition (2010- 2015), he was appointed in September 2015 as Secretary-General of the Commission.

Sven LangedijkHead of Unit, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionSven Langedijk is Head of the Modelling, Indicators and Impact Evaluation Unit at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy. Prior to taking up a research position in January 2013, he headed the European Commission team responsible for developing, negotiating and monitoring the EU-IMF financial support and economic adjustment programme for Ireland. Until 2010, he contributed to the development of the EU fiscal governance framework and the Stability and Growth Pact and was editor of the Commission’s annual flagship report on Public Finances in EMU.

A.J.G. (Ton) MandersChief Scientist, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment AgencyA.J.G. (Ton) Manders is head of the department Information, Data and Methodology at Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). Since 2015 he acts as the chief scientist of PBL. Ton Manders has a degree (MSc) in both physical engineering and economics. Special fields of expertise are economic modeling, scenario analysis and climate policy. Ton Manders contributed to IPCC, various working groups of the Energy Modelling Forum (EMF), the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) and UNEP’s Global Environmental Outlooks. He was responsible for PBLs input in the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050. He was author of the PBL report Green Gains. Lately, he supervised a major scenario project for the Duthch economy and the human environment (WLO, jointly with CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis).

Philippe MonfortDirectorate-General Regional and Urban Policies, European CommissionPhilippe Monfort has a PhD in Economics from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium. After a post-doctorate stay at Harvard University, he became Professor at the Department of Economics of UCL. His teaching and research concentrated in the fields of macroeconomics, international economics, European integration and economic geography. Philippe has produced a number of scientific contributions in these domains which led to publications in international journals. In 2008, Philippe Monfort joined the European Commission as policy analyst within the Directorate General for Regional Policy. He is now in charge of several files among which the development of economic models for the simulation of policy scenario related to the EU Cohesion Policy. In this context, Philippe Monfort currently participates to the development of a regional dynamic general equilibrium model which incorporates many features of the New Economic Geography as well as some environmental aspects. This particular project is a joint undertaking of the JRC and DG REGIO.

Giuseppe MundaCompetence Centre on Modelling, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionGiuseppe Munda is scientific officer at the Modelling, Indicators and Impact Evaluation Unit of the Joint Research Centre, Ispra site. He was professor at the Department of Economics and Economic History (1994-2015) and deputy director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (2009-2012) at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. He got his Ph.D. in Economics and Econometrics (1993) at the Free University of Amsterdam. He is member of various international scientific committees. He has participated in various European and national research projects. He has authored numerous, highly cited scientific articles and book chapters on economics, decision theory and environmental studies. He has also written two books on Multi-Criteria Evaluation

Michal NaroznyImpact Assessment Unit, Secretariat General, European CommissionMichal Narozny is an economist and econometrician. He had been working as a university teacher of micro- and macro-economics in Wroclaw, Poland, before joining in 2005 the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. In DG ECFIN he first worked as a country desk officer for Poland and later on in a horizontal unit being responsible for coordinating economic forecasts for EU Member States and for analysing the economic situation in the EU. Since 2014 Michal has reinforced the Impact assessment unit at the Secretariat-General of the European Commission where he follows IAs from DGs CNECT, ECFIN, ENER, JRC, CLIMA and OLAF, as well as oversees methodological issues linked to quantitative methods and administrative burden and – last but not least – ‘soft’ policy instruments in the EU law-making.

Bernard NaudtsRegulatory Scrutiny Board, European CommissionBernard Naudts is a member of the Commission’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board. The Board issues opinions on the quality of all impact assessments and major evaluations. A legislative proposal cannot proceed for Commission adoption without a positive Board opinion on its impact assessment.As an economist by training, he first worked in economic research and banking. After joining the Commission in 1993, he did economic country analysis, mainly in preparation of the EU membership of the Central European candidate countries. Afterwards, he took management responsibility for implementing the internal organisational reform of the Commission (policy and budget planning, evaluation, impact assessment, internal control, internal audit…) in several DGs. Just before joining the Board, he worked on the implementation of the Erasmus+ programme.

Michael ObersteinerProgramme Director, Ecosystems Services and Management, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)Michael Obersteiner is Program Director of the Ecosystems Services and Management Program (ESM) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. His research experience stretches from biophysical modeling in the areas of ecosystems, forestry and agriculture to economics, finance and integrated assessment, climate mitigation and adaptation, nutrient management, biodiversity conservation, water management, and food security, as documented in his publications record.Dr. Obersteiner has been a consultant giving science-based policy advice using quantitative modelling techniques to a number of national and international organizations, including inter alia the European Commission, WWF, OECD, and other national and international institutions. He is author of over 250 scientific papers covering many disciplinary science fields.

Nicole OstlaenderCompetence Centre on Modelling, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionNicole Ostrlaender holds an MSc in Landscape Ecology and a PhD in Geoinformatics. She is specialised in interoperability in distributed architectures and standardisation. She has worked for many years in the area of multi-disciplinary research, combining natural and computer science. Since 2013 she leads MIDAS, an inventory of models for enhanced transparency and traceability of models in use for policy-making.

Megan RichardsDirector, Directorate-General Energy, European CommissionMegan Richards is Director of Energy Policy in DG Energy (ENER) of the European Commission since 1 April 2017. She has a bachelor of science, bachelor of laws and master of public administration degrees. She has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Africa, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, the government of Canada, and private law firms. In 1991, she joined the European Commission and has worked on programmes to support SMEs, research and innovation, including regulatory, legal, financial and contractual issues. From September 2006 - April 2009 she was director of resource management in the Commission’s Joint Research Centre; from May 2009 was in the Commission’s DG CONNECT, holding positions of director of General Affairs, director of Converged Networks and Services, director Coordination, and acting Deputy Director General and Principal Adviser. From 2013-2014 she was EU Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Eckehard RosenbaumCompetence Centre on Modelling, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionEckechard Rosembaum studied economics at Constance University and received an MPhil and a PhD in economics from Cambridge University. After working for several years in the Federal Ministry of Economics, he joined the Commission in 2007. Initially, he worked in DG ENTR as a country desk officer and since 2012 in DG JRC, undertaking research on sustainability, Green Growth and baseline scenarios.

Paul SmitsHead of Competence Centre on Modelling, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionPaul Smits is the head of the European Commission’s Competence Centre on Modelling, which is hosted by the Modelling, Indicators and Impact Evaluation Unit of the Joint Research Centre. He has degrees in medical electronic engineering and applied physics, and received a PhD in computer science from the University of Genoa, Italy, in 1998. Since then he has been with DG JRC working on a range of research topics involving pattern recognition, data management and analysis, interoperability and standardisation, applied primarily to environmental issues. From 2006 to 2013 he was leader of the team responsible for the technical aspects of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE Directive 2007/2). In that context he chaired various working groups with the Member States, including the Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA) Working Group on Spatial Information and Services. As of 2013 he has been closely involved in the development of the corporate modelling inventory MIDAS. He holds the secretariat of the Inter-Service Group on Modelling Inventory. He is a Marie Curie Fellow.

Vladimir ŠuchaDirector-General, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionVladimir Šucha is Director-General of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, its in-house scientific service. He was Deputy Director-General of the JRC between 2012 and 2013. Prior to that, he spent 6 years in the position of director for culture and media in the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, he held various positions in the area of European and international affairs. Between 2005 and 2006, he was director of the Slovak Research and Development Agency, national body responsible for funding research. He was principal advisor for European affairs to the minister of education of the Slovak Republic (2004-2005). He worked at the Slovak Representation to the EU in Brussels as research, education and culture counselor (2000-2004). In parallel, he has followed a long-term academic and research career, being a full professor in Slovakia and visiting professor/scientist at different academic institutions in many countries. He published more than 100 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals.

Piotr SzymanskiDirector, Energy, Transport and Climate, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionPiotr Szymanski studied physics at Warsaw University, and went on to complete a PhD in experimental particle physics at the Institute for Nuclear Studies in Swierk, Poland. He worked as a research associate at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK and the J-W Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, Germany as well as a Staff Member at the European Organization for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a habilitation in physics and is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific papers in various fields of particle physics. He was also Head of the Department for Interdisciplinary Applications of Physics at the Institute for Nuclear Studies in Swierk, Poland. Dr. Szymanski was Director of Nuclear Safeguards at the European Commission in Luxembourg, which is responsible for the verification and inspection of the non-diversion of nuclear materials at all civil nuclear installations within the European Union. Nominated JRC Director on 1 July 2016, he leads the Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate.

Xavier TroussardActing Director, Competences, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European CommissionXavier Troussard is Acting Director of the “Competences” Directorate at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.. He is also leading the “Foresight, behavioural insights and design for Policy” Unit in the same Directorate and manages this multidisciplinary team as policy innovation laboratory - the EU Policy Lab. Xavier joined the Commission in 1989 at the DG for Information, Communication, Culture and Audiovisual where he represented, among others, the EC in the negotiation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. As Head of the ’Culture policy, diversity and Intercultural dialogue’ Unit in the DG for Education and Culture and later as Acting Director he developed various strategies for the culture and creative industries and contributed to the shaping of the EU Creative Europe Programme and managed its MEDIA sub-programme. Xavier graduated in Law and General Administration from the University of Rennes (France) and from the College of Europe in European Studies (Bruges, Belgium).

Tom Van IerlandHead of Unit, Directorate-General Climate Action, European CommissionTom van Ierland joined the Commission in 2006. Within DG Climate Action he is head of unit C1, dealing with Strategy and Economic Assessment. This unit is closely involved in the development of the overall climate change policy framework both at the EU and international level and the economic modeling underpinning it. He started his career at the Belgian’s Federal Planning Bureau in 1999 where he focused on emission trading. He was a member of cabinet of the Belgian Federal Minister for the Environment. He worked 2 years as consultant for Price Waterhouse Coopers. He has a broad experience both in the international negotiations on climate change as well as in the development of EU Climate Change policies. He holds academic degrees in Applied Economics, Environmental Economics and Computer Sciences from the University of Leuven and University College London.

Lúcio Vinhas de SouzaAdvisor, European Political Strategy Centre, European CommissionLúcio Vinhas de Souza was invited to join the EPSC from Moody’s in New York, USA, where he was until March 2015 Managing Director and Chief Economist. Before that, he coordinated the economic analysis and forecasting for Developed Economies at the World Bank in Washington, where he co-authored the flagship “Global Economic Prospects” publication. Previously, Dr. Vinhas de Souza was Head of the Russia and Belarus Desk at the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission, and before that he was Coordinator of Research Area at the Kiel Institute for World Economics in Germany. His first work experience was as an international economist at the United Nations Secretariat in New York. Dr. Vinhas de Souza has been a visiting researcher and visiting fellow at a number of institutions, including the Central Banks of Estonia and Germany, the New Economic School in Moscow and the European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics in Brussels. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Master and Bachelor degrees in economics from the New University of Lisbon in Portugal.

Stephen WhiteDirectorate-General Environment, European CommissionStephen White is an economist working in the Unit for Sustainable Development Goals, Green Finances and Economic Analysis at the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission. He first studied Economics at the University of Edinburgh, and then Environmental and Resource Economics at the University College London. He worked as an economist for the UK Civil Service on modelling of housing finance, modelling securitisation of debt, modelling forecasts of higher education expenditure and then on water issues including the setting of tariffs and modelling price caps. In 2001, he was one of the authors of the first guidelines on how to do Impact Assessment at the European Commission. He currently co-ordinates Better Regulation activities of environmental policy: meaning ex-post evaluations and ex-ante Impact Assessments as part of the European Commission’s ambitious approach. This requires assessment of the links between the environment and the economy (and social issues), preferably in a quantified or monetised way and so includes providing support for modelling across DG Environment.

#EUmodelling

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/modelling

Connected https://connected.cnect.cec.eu.int/groups/isg-mi