"40 under 40" - European Young Leaders - Rome Seminar

Summary

During the two-day “40 Under 40” – European Young Leaders seminar, the participants tackled the important issues of youth unemployment, migration, and foreign policy, among others, and ended the seminar with a visit to the Vatican to discuss the role of the religious establishment in the future of the European Union.

The 6th seminar, which took place in Rome, brought together a diverse and dynamic group of young Europeans to discuss key issues in European affairs.

“The time is coming for a new generation of leaders to take over in the EU,” noted Guillaume Klossa, President of EuropaNova, addressing the European Young Leaders. “We have to think of the future and how to manage it collectively.”

European Young Leaders seminar - Rome

About

About

The “40 UNDER 40” – European Young Leaders, organised by EuropaNova and Friends of Europe, is a unique, inventive and multi-stakeholder programme that aims to promote a European identity by engaging 40 of the European Union’s most promising individuals in initiatives that will shape Europe’s future. The “40 UNDER 40” represent the future of European leadership, coming from all around the continent, with a wide array of backgrounds like politics, business, civil society, arts and culture, academia and the media. The programme was launched in 2011, with the support of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission. Seminars have already taken place in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Athens.

Schedule

Schedule

Arrival of participants and welcome dinner
Continue to DAY 2
OPENING: INTRODUCTION & WARM-UP
Expand OPENING: INTRODUCTION & WARM-UP

Welcome by

Alessandra Cattoi

Councillor to the Mayor of Rome in charge of Education, Youth and Equal opportunities

Opening remarks

Guillaume Klossa

President of EuropaNova

Geert Cami

Co-Founder and Secretary General of Friends of Europe, and Co-Founder and Co-Secretary General of the Africa-Europe Foundation

BUSINESS EXERCISE: LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION SKILLS: CHALLENGES & STRATEGIC TENSIONS
Expand BUSINESS EXERCISE: LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION SKILLS: CHALLENGES & STRATEGIC TENSIONS

Negotiation is a strategic skill for managers, administrators, civil servants and many other professions. The world in which we live is full of conflict and situations in which the art of negotiation and dialogue can be an asset to address new and complex challenges. This workshop adopts an innovative pedagogical approach, providing opportunities for participation and striking a balance between theory and practical skills

Facilitated by

Francesco Marchi

Director of the “Negotiators of Europe” programme at the Institute for Research and Education on Negotiation (ESSEC)

Lunch
SESSION I: RESHAPING EUROPE: A 2015-19 AGENDA FOR THE EU INSTITUTIONS
Expand SESSION I: RESHAPING EUROPE: A 2015-19 AGENDA FOR THE EU INSTITUTIONS
  • Defining the social, economic and international priorities that should top the agenda
  • Where do member states agree and disagree on the new EU agenda?
  • In the wake of the European elections, will there be a rebalancing of powers between the EU and national authorities?

Young Leader contributions

Blazej Moder

Managing Director of EC1 Lodz – City of Culture and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

Irene Tinagli

Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), Trustee of Friends of Europe and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

Moderator

Paul Taylor

Senior Fellow for Peace, Security and Defence at Friends of Europe

Closing remarks

Sandro Gozi

Italian Undersecretary of State for European Affairs

Coffee break
SESSION II: TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYEMENT
Expand SESSION II: TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYEMENT
  • Can anything be done at European level, to reduce youth unemployment?
  • What can be expected of the 6 billion Youth Employment Initiative covering 20 member states?
  • Is enough being done to support new entrepreneurs?
  • Should policymakers concentrate more on streamlining labour markets, and leave job creation to companies?
  • What reforms to Europe’s education systems would improve the prospects of young people?

Young Leader contribution by

Nicolas Petit

General Manager & COO, Microsoft France

Continue to DAY 3
WORKSHOPS ON MIGRATION, FOREIGN POLICY AND TERRITORIAL DISCREPANCIES
Expand WORKSHOPS ON MIGRATION, FOREIGN POLICY AND TERRITORIAL DISCREPANCIES

The “40 UNDER 40” will take part in 3 workshops on specific theme-oriented case studies to identify the key questions and make recommendations for actions at a European level. An expert on each topic will take part in the workshops.

      Workshop n°1: Integration of migrants and EU effective policies

      Malcolm Byrne

      Irish Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Rokhaya Diallo

      Journalist, Writer, Filmmaker and 2013 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Workshop n°2: The European Union as a foreign policy actor

      Denis Simonneau

      Director of International and European relations

      Mary Fitzgerald

      Non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and Trustee at Friends of Europe

      Workshop n°3: Bridging Europe’s North – South gap

      Michel Martone

      Professor of Law at Teramo University and 2013 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Wouter Verschelden

      Author and Chief Executive Officer at NewsMonkey and 2017 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Coffee break
      Lunch
      SESSION III: INVESTMENT IN EUROPE’S FUTURE AND THE 3 % GOLDEN RULE
      Expand SESSION III: INVESTMENT IN EUROPE’S FUTURE AND THE 3 % GOLDEN RULE
      • Can member states invest in their own and Europe’s futures while respecting the 3% public deficit rule?
      • What public sector areas should be given top priority for investment and current spending? And which should be reined in?
      • Can the calls in some EU countries for education and culture to be spared from spending cuts be needed?

      Young Leader contributions

      Sony Kapoor

      CEO of the Nordic Institute for Finance, Technology & Sustainability, Professor at the European University Institute (EUI), 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40) and Trustee of Friends of Europe

      Yuriy Vulkovsky

      Independent Expert and Consultant and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Moderator

      Tobias Piller

      Italy correspondent of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and President of the Foreign Press Association in Rome

      Coffee break
      CONCLUSION: HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST EUROPE’S POLITICAL APATHY AND THE “40 UNDER 40” FOLLOW-UP PROGRAMME
      Leisure time & transportation to the venue
      Dinner
      Continue to DAY 4
      Visit of the Maxxi Museum (optional) / Departure of participants
      Speakers

      Speakers

      Photo of Alberto Alemanno
      Alberto Alemanno

      Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris, Founder of The Good Lobby, Trustee of Friends of Europe and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Alberto Alemanno

      Alberto Alemanno is a leading voice on the democratization of the European Union. He’s currently the Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and at the University of Tokyo School of Public Policy. His research has been centred on how the law may be used to improve people’s lives, in particular through the adoption of power-shifting reforms countering social, economic, and political inequalities within European societies and beyond. He is a regular contributor to Le Monde, Bloomberg, Politico Europe, Forbes, and Il Sole 24 Ore, and his scholarly work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times, as well as Science and Nature.

      Photo of Geert Cami
      Geert Cami

      Co-Founder and Secretary General of Friends of Europe, and Co-Founder and Co-Secretary General of the Africa-Europe Foundation

      Show more information on Geert Cami

      Geert Cami co-founded Friends of Europe, the action-oriented think tank, in 1999. As Secretary General, Geert mainly deals with the strategic development of Friends of Europe, he coordinates the work of the high-level Boards involved in the governance of the organisation and chairs the Leadership meetings. He oversees both the financial health and the successful running of the organisation and its flagship initiatives, and focuses on the expansion and the activation of Friends of Europe’s vast network of trustees, European young leaders and other senior political, corporate, media and societal contacts and partners throughout the world.

      Geert also is a founding member of the Boards of both the Africa-Europe Foundation, and of TownHall Europe (the Davignon Centre for New Leadership).

      Geert headed the European conference organising, press relations and publishing company Forum Europe for more than ten years, and managed the revival of one of Belgium’s finest architectural examples of Art Nouveau, after creating La Maison de l’Europe in the prestigious 100-year-old Bibliothèque Solvay.

      At the outset of his career, Geert worked for a few years in the humanitarian office (ECHO) at the European Commission, as deputy in the newly set-up information and communications unit. His focus was mainly on raising the profile of the EU’s humanitarian efforts throughout the world, through publications and media initiatives such as exhibitions, television debates or Humanitarian Days in Member States.

      He also worked for two music programmes at Belgian public Radio 1, and very briefly as a teacher and TV journalist.

      Photo of Paul Taylor
      Paul Taylor

      Senior Fellow for Peace, Security and Defence at Friends of Europe

      Show more information on Paul Taylor

      Paul Taylor is a Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe and the author of the think tank’s European Defence Cooperation report series. He previously spent four decades working for Reuters as a foreign correspondent in Paris, Tehran, Bonn and Brussels, as bureau chief in Israel/Palestine, Berlin and Brussels, as chief correspondent in France, as diplomatic editor in London, and finally as European affairs editor. Taylor’s assignments have included covering the Iranian revolution, the Cold War Euromissile crisis, the 1991 Gulf War, German reunification, the Maastricht summit, France in the 1990s, EU enlargement, the Eurozone crisis and the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt.

      Blazej Moder
      Blazej Moder

      Managing Director of EC1 Lodz – City of Culture and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Blazej Moder

      Blazej is Managing Director of EC1 Lodz, a cultural hub which hosts cultural, educational and business events in Poland’s third largest city. It also houses three museums dedicated to science, the heritage of motion pictures and the phenomenon of comics and video games art. Blazej is an expert in project management, with over a decade’s worth of experience in project development, implementation and operation. He is the former managing director of the New Center of Lodz, a large urban redevelopment programme aimed at revitalising the area around the Lodz railway station to create a new multifunction city centre. He has also previously served in a number of key executive roles in various regional and local public utilities companies and business environment institutions. Blazej currently serves as an advisor to the Board for International Affairs of the Civil Development Forum.

      Photo of Irene Tinagli
      Irene Tinagli

      Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), Trustee of Friends of Europe and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Irene Tinagli

      Irene Tinagli is an Italian economist and politician who has been serving in the European Parliament since 2019. Before coming to Brussels, Tinagli was a Member of the Italian Parliament, sitting on the Committee on Public and Private Employment and on the Committee on Infancy and Childhood. She also taught Management and Organisation Design at the Carlos III University in Madrid and worked as an expert for the European Commission on creativity and innovation. In Italy, Tinagli served as an advisor to the Minister of Culture, the Minister of Education and the Minister of Justice.

      Photo of Alain Le Roy
      Alain Le Roy

      French Ambassador and former Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS)

      Show more information on Alain Le Roy

      Alain Le Roy is a French diplomat. He previously served as Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, Senior Counsellor at the Cour des Comptes, French Ambassador to Italy, and as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, among others.

      Photo of Malcolm Byrne
      Malcolm Byrne

      Irish Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Malcolm Byrne

      Malcolm Byrne is an Irish politician for the centrist Fianna Fáil party (ALDE) and served in local government before entering parliament. He is his party’s spokesperson on further and higher education, research, innovation and science. He speaks and writes regularly on regulating technology as well as the importance of the arts, sport and community volunteerism. He served on the Senate Brexit Committee. Previously, Malcolm worked as the head of communications and public affairs at the Higher Education Authority, the statutory agency in Ireland that allocates public funding to higher education and advises the government on higher education and research policy. Having worked for various lobbying and representative organisations throughout his career, Byrne was also the first commercial manager at myhome.ie, Ireland’s most successful property website. Outside of his professional career, he has completed 37 marathons, including another Dublin marathon last week.

      Rokhaya Diallo
      Rokhaya Diallo

      Journalist, Writer, Filmmaker and 2013 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Rokhaya Diallo

      Rokhaya is a human rights activist committed to anti-racism work. She is currently the Host and Co-Editor of “Egaux, mais pas trop” (Equal, but not too much), a series of reports on diversity issues in France, and has previously held a number of noteworthy positions in the television field, basing her work primarily on social and political issues. The Founder and former president of Les Indivisibles, a French organisation that uses humour and irony to fight racism, Rokhaya is also a published author, scriptwriter and award-winning director of several documentaries. She is a member of several NGOs and organisations that base their work on social awareness and also sits on the board of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) Foundation. In 2012, she received the COJEP International Award for her work against racism and discrimination.

      Mary Fitzgerald
      Mary Fitzgerald

      Non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and Trustee at Friends of Europe

      Show more information on Mary Fitzgerald

      Mary Fitzgerald is a researcher and analyst specialising in the Mediterranean region with a particular focus on Libya. She has consulted for a number of international organisations including in the areas of peacebuilding and civil society. She has worked with the International Crisis Group (ICG), the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) among others. She is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King’s College London and an Associate Fellow at ISPI in Milan. Mary has also worked on wider initiatives with UNESCO, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the British Council and other cultural organisations. Her writing has appeared in publications including Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Guardian.

      Michel Martone
      Michel Martone

      Professor of Law at Teramo University and 2013 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Michel Martone

      Michel is Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Law at the Law Faculty of Teramo University, Professor at the Italian National School of Government and Visiting Professor of Labour Law at the Law Faculty of L.U.I.S.S. Guido Carli University in Rome. Michel was appointed Deputy Minister for Labour and Social Policy by Prime Minister Mario Monti in November 2011, a position he held until Spring 2013. He previously served as Legal Advisor to the Minister for Public Administration and Innovation and to the Minister of Employment and Social Affairs, and has represented Italy in the Board of Directors of Eurofound. He is a registered barrister at the Court of Rome, and in 2009 he and his brother founded the law firm Martone & Martone. Michel is a member of various think tanks, an editor for newspapers and specialised journals on labour and economic issues, and the author of many publications on labour law.

      Photo of Wouter Verschelden
      Wouter Verschelden

      Author and Chief Executive Officer at NewsMonkey and 2017 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Wouter Verschelden

      Wouter is the founder of Newsmonkey.be, a social media tailor-made news website, partly funded by a successful crowd-funding action. In 2013, he made a documentary and book about the future of the news business: Stop The Presses: the Golden Age of Journalism starts now. The documentary was partly based on his experience as the Editor-in-Chief of De Morgen that he managed for over 2 years. Before that, he worked at De Standaard, as a political journalist, and won several Belfius-press prizes. During that period he acquired his passion for politics and the inner workings of the system, which resulted in a fiction series about Belgian politics that he co-wrote for television and that will air in Belgium. He holds an MA in Political Journalism from the Columbia School of Journalism in New York. He also has a Master in Business from the Vlerick Management School in Ghent and a Masters in Politics at Ghent University and Université de Bretagne Occidentale.

      Sony Kapoor
      Sony Kapoor

      CEO of the Nordic Institute for Finance, Technology & Sustainability, Professor at the European University Institute (EUI), 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40) and Trustee of Friends of Europe

      Show more information on Sony Kapoor

      Sony Kapoor is an influential economist, financial sector expert and development practitioner, who has made a substantial contribution to financial reform and tackling the euro crisis. He currently leads the Nordic Institute for Finance, Technology & Sustainability, which promotes a fair, efficient and sustainable allocation of human, financial and natural capital, and is a Professor of Climate, Geoeconomics and Finance at the EUI. Kapoor is the Chairman and former managing director of the RE-DEFINE think tank, which advises the EU, central banks, large investors, governments, regulators and multilateral institutions on economic, fiscal, investment and financial policy. He serves as an advisor to the UCL European Institute and the UNEP on green finance. Previously, Kapoor worked for ICICI, India’s largest investment bank. He also co-founded the International Tax Justice Network and Europeans for Financial Reform and Finance Watch, as well as launched the inter-governmental Illicit Finance Task Force.

      Yuriy Vulkovsky
      Yuriy Vulkovsky

      Independent Expert and Consultant and 2014 European Young Leader (EYL40)

      Show more information on Yuriy Vulkovsky

      Yuriy is independent expert and consultant, who until recently has served as Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Culture. Prior to this, he was a Country Manager for Bulgaria of the International Foundation “Reach for Change” which supports social innovators and social entrepreneurs in 18 countries at 3 continents. He has more than 20 years of experience in the non-governmental sector in Bulgaria and Europe working for the capacity building of the independent social and cultural organisations, as well fighting for government transparency and effectiveness. He believes that the change starts from bottom up and the innovation emerges from the periphery, not from the center. German Marshall Fund and Salzburg Global Seminar Alumni. Member of the Strategy Group of the European Initiative “A Soul for Europe”.

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