Europe's challenges in 2018:Ten issues to watch

Thursday 11 January 2017 | 13:30 – 15:00 hoursLibrary Reading Room, 5th floor, Altiero Spinelli Building (ASP 05D)

European Parliament, Brussels

SPEAKERS

Ramón Luis VALCÁRCEL SISO, a Member of the European Parliament since2014, is Vice-President responsible inter alia for the Members' Research Serviceand the Library, for STOA, and for Information Policy, Press and CitizensRelations. He is member of the Committee on Regional Development,Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and Delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. He holds a degreein the History of Art from the University of Murcia and began his career as aProfessor in History of Art. He moved into politics in 1982 and has beenPresident of the Partido Popular in the Murcia region since 1991. He held theposition of President of Murcia for almost 20 years (1995-2014), having won 5consecutive regional elections with an overwhelming majority. He representedMurcia in the Committee of the Regions for nearly two decades, where he wasVice-President of the EPP Group and President of the Committee of theRegions (2012-2014).

Etienne BASSOT has been the Director of the Members' Research Service atEPRS since 2014. Before that, he directed the Policy Department of theEuropean Parliament’s Directorate-General for External Policies. The Members'Research Service responds to specific requests from individual Members forinformation, analysis and research and provides briefing notes and otheranalysis and research for Members collectively on policies and issues. Withinthe Parliament, Mr Bassot has previously held positions in the secretariats ofthe Committees on Internal Market and on Development. He served as advisorto former European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine from 2005 to 2007.

Joanna APAP is currently a Policy Analyst at the External Policies Unit of theMembers' Research Service, where she deals primarily with questions related tohuman rights as well as the Maghreb countries. She has joined the EuropeanParliament in 2005 and has worked with the Committee on Internal Market andConsumer Protection (IMCO) and in Policy Department C dealing withCommittee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). Prior to joiningthe EP, Joanna has been the Head of the Justice and Home Affairs Section atthe Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). During both her academic andprofessional career, she has collaborated with various research institutes,NGOs, academia as well as international organizations and has been involvedin various trans-European and international projects.

European Parliamentary Research Service

Roundtable discussion

Jesús CARMONA is Head of the Citizens’ policies unit (CPOL) in the Members’Research Service, EPRS, dealing with EU constitutional affairs, migration andsecurity issues, among other things. He has a Law Degree from the Universityof Granada, Spain, and holds a Masters’ in European Law from the UniversitéLibre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Carlos III University in Madrid. He has more than20 years’ experience in different EU institutions, mainly the EuropeanCommission and the Council of the EU. Before joining the EuropeanParliament in 2015, he was Head of Cabinet of the President of theCommittee of the Regions, and previously spokesperson of the formerPresident of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy.

Naja BENTZEN is a policy analyst at the External Policies Unit in the MembersResearch Service, EPRS, where her work focuses mainly on Ukraine, Moldova,Belarus, Arctic issues and strategic communication/disinformation. Prior tojoining EPRS, Naja worked as a media analyst at the US Embassy in Vienna,Austria. Before that, she spent eight years writing and travelling as the Centraland South Eastern Europe-correspondent of Denmark's leading weeklynewspaper Weekendavisen, and has received the Milena Jesenská Fellowshipfor Journalists at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna.

Denise CHIRCOP is a policy analyst on education at the European ParliamentResearch Service. She worked as a translator with the European Economicand Social Committee, from 2006. Previously, she lectured at the Universityof Malta and published a number of papers in the area of sociology ofeducation. She also participated in the training of kindergarten assistants andchild carers and assisted in the evaluation of a literacy programme for youngchildren and their parents. Denise was chair of one of the working groups onthe implementation of the national minimum curriculum between 1999 and2000. She has taught at both lower and upper secondary levels. Denisestudied education both at the University of Malta and the Universita' degliStudi di Firenze.

Nora MILOTAY is a policy analyst at the European Parliamentary ResearchService, working on issues of European social policy at the Economic PoliciesUnit. She joined EPRS in November 2015 after having worked on severalaspects of education policy, particularly in relation to schools, in Hungary andthen for many years at the European Commission. From 2010 onwards shehas built up European policy cooperation within the field of early childhoodeducation and care that has gained an increasingly important role within theEurope 2020 Strategy. Her main areas of interest at EPRS are issues ofinequality, governance and social innovation. A historian by training, sheholds a BA Hons. from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, an MA from theCentral European University, Budapest and a PhD from the University ofCambridge.

Piotr BAKOWSKI is a policy analyst in the Members Research Service (MRS)specialised in Justice and Home Affairs issues. He has been involved as anauthor or peer reviewer in most of the MRS publications on migration,security and crime. He holds a degree in law from the University of Poznań(Poland) and also studied at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague(Netherlands).

Enrico D'AMBROGIO is a policy analyst at the External Policies Unit in theMembers Research Service, EPRS. He focuses mainly on Japan, the KoreanPeninsula and South Asia. Before joining the EPRS he was working at theEuropean Parliament's Directorate General for Communication, where he waspress officer for the Italian sector and the Committee on ConstitutionalAffairs, acting head of the Information Office of the European Parliament inRomania, administrator at the Coordination of the Information Offices, webeditor at the Audiovisual Service. He studied Political Sciences at theUniversity of Rome 'La Sapienza' and holds a Post-graduate Diploma inEuropean Studies from the University of Coimbra, a master's degree inInternational Development Agents from IFOA (Reggio Emilia) and a master'sdegree in European Community Law and Economics from the University ofRome 'La Sapienza'.

Magdalena SAPAŁA holds a PhD in economics with a specialisation inEuropean integration. She is an expert on the EU budget and EU cohesionpolicy and works as a policy analyst in Budgetary Policies Unit of theEuropean Parliamentary Research Service. Her experience includes positionsas a research professor and lecturer at the Institute for European Studies ofthe Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and at the European StudiesDepartment of the Poznan University of Economics in Poland. Magdalena hasalso worked as an adviser to the Member of the European Parliament, and asa trainer, expert for think tanks, business and public administration at alllevels. Magdalena is an author and academic editor of numerous publicationson different aspects of EU cohesion policy and the EU budget.

Christian SCHEINERT is an economist and works as a policy analyst inEconomic Policies Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service. Hisprevious position in the EP was that of an adviser for the European People’sParty, in charge of European economic governance issues and the euro. Hefollowed the work of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON),the Subcommittee on Monetary Affairs, the Special Committee on theFinancial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS), the Article 13 Conference relatedto the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (TSCG), and theConvention on the Future of Europe.

Eva-Maria POPTCHEVA is a policy analyst in the Members' Research Serviceof the EPRS. She holds a Law Degree from the Albert-Ludwigs-University inFreiburg and a PhD in Constitutional Law from the Universidad Autónoma deBarcelona, where she worked as a lecturer in European and ConstitutionalLaw. She is author of several publications on EU citizenship, inter-institutionalrelations and parliamentary law.

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