State of Europe 2014 - A new action plan for Europe

Etienne (Stevy) Davignon is one of the few statesmen in Europe who has been actively involved in EU affairs from the beginning, from his early role as Chief of Staff to Paul-Henri Spaak to today. He has held high-level positions in both the public and private sectors, including as Vice-President of the European Commission, President of the Société Générale de Belgique, first President of the International Energy Agency and through various board mandates.

As the Chair of the World Health Organization (WHO) Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development, Mario Monti spearheads attempts to rethink health policy priorities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. A distinguished economist and Italian lifetime senator, Monti has cemented his reputation as a committed supporter of the single currency and a talented negotiator, leading a government of technocrats in the wake of the Italian debt crisis in late 2011. He chaired the High-Level Group on Own Resources, a consultative committee of the European Union, aimed at proposing new forms of revenue for the European Union’s budget, which resulted in the final ‘Future Financing of the EU’ report arguing for new tax sources.

Bruno Macaes is a former Minister of European Affairs in Portugal and represented his country in Brussels during the eurozone crisis, the first Ukraine war and Brexit. He has published four books since 2018, mostly focused on geopolitics, China, Russia, and technology. Bruno has a doctorate in political science from Harvard and has recently held fellowships at Renmin University in China and the Hudson Institute. Since 2020 he is a fellow at the Wilfried Martens Centre in Brussels and since 2022 a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book, Geopolitics for the End Time, was published in September 2021

Ulrike is the founder and director of the European Democracy Lab, a think tank dedicated to the future of European democracy, which emphasises the European common good and the transnationalism of all European policy beyond the nation state. Ulrike is also professor of European policy and the study of democracy at Danube University Krems. She is also a regular commentator and writer on European and transatlantic affairs and author of “Why Europe must become a republic: A political utopia”.

Joaquín Almunia is an experienced politician, who is currently a Visiting Professor at LSE and Sciences Po Paris. As the commissioner responsible for competition policy at the European Commission, he led efforts to control the state aid granted to banks during crisis and to ensure fair competition between businesses and companies. Prior to that, Almunia was responsible for economic and monetary affairs during Barroso’s first mandate as European Commission president.

Kress leads Sanofi Pasteur MSD, a French joint venture based in Lyon since 1994, develops and markets, in 19 countries throughout Western Europe, a wide range of vaccines offering protection at all stages of life, enhancing the research portfolios of its two shareholders, the French Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, and the American Merck.

Valdis Dombrovskis is a Latvian politician with a distinguished career at both the national and European level. In his current portfolio at the European Commission, he is responsible for the euro, social dialogue, financial services and the Capital Markets Union. In Latvia, he was his country’s longest-serving head of government with three terms as prime minister. He also served as Finance Minister, was a Member of the Latvian Parliament and was elected twice to the European Parliament.

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.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is a Dutch politician who notably served as the 11th Secretary-General of NATO. He also previously worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch delegation of the NATO headquarters in Brussels. He now works as President of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) of the Netherlands, an independent body which advises government and parliament on foreign policy. Furthermore, he was appointed to the Pieter Kooijmans Chair for Peace, Law and Security at Leiden University.

With a rich political career spanning more than 20 years, Terron previously served as Spanish Secretary of State for Migration, Secretary for the European Union of the Government of Catalonia, and Member of the European Parliament. As President of Instrategies, Anna Terron offers strategic support to institutions, organisations and companies on managing diversity, immigration, asylum and international mobility. She is advised European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström on migration and Mediterranean issues. She currently serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of the United Nations University’s Institute on Globalisation, Culture and Mobility.

Judah is the author of the book ‘Fragile Empire: How Russia fell in and out of love with Vladimir Putin’ and a visiting fellow at the European Stability Initiative in Istanbul. His reporting from across Russia – including on the Georgian War in 2008 and the Kyrgyz uprising of 2010, has been featured in several journals and newspapers.

Rubin is a scholar in Residence at Oxford University and frequent commentator and analyst on world affairs and US foreign policy. He served under President Clinton as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and chief spokesman for the State Department. He was also a top policy adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and acted as a special negotiator during the Kosovo war to secure the demobilisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

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.