European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

Karima Delli from the French party, Europe Écologie–Les Verts, is one of the youngest Members of the European Parliament. She is the ninth of thirteen children, and has written about her modest upbringing and its effect on her ecological commitments in her book, ‘La politique ne me fait pas perdre le nord’ (Politics have not made me lose sight of the North). First elected in 2009, Delli has remained a committed activist during her tenure though work at Jeudi Noire (Black Thursday), a group dedicated to helping young people find housing, and Sauvons les Riches (Save the Rich), which demands the introduction of a maximum European income. She is a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, and a substitute

Damien English is an Irish politician with extensive experience in economic policy, housing, and enterprise development. First elected to the Dáil Éireann at just 24, he has played a key role in shaping Ireland’s business and housing policies over two decades. He previously served as minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, overseeing policies to support small enterprises and economic growth. Before that, English was minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, focusing on housing supply and planning reforms. He also held the role of minister of State for Skills, Research and Innovation, working to strengthen Ireland’s knowledge economy. Throughout his career, English has served as a Fine Gael spokesperson on various portfolios, including justice, enterprise and finance. He remains active in public policy discussions, with a focus on economic development, housing and business innovation.

María is a Spanish politician who currently serves as the Spanish Secretary of State for AI and Digitalisation since summer 2024. Prior to that role, she was Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures. González Veracruz formerly served as a Member of the Congress of Deputies for the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). María’s background is in biochemistry, having earned a degree in the subject with research experience in molecular genetics. She entered politics at an early age, becoming Secretary-General of the Young Socialists for the Region of Murcia in 2003, and was appointed Secretary for Housing and Quality of Life in the Federal Executive Committee of the party in 2007 when she was elected as Member of the Regional Assembly of Murcia. In the 2011 general election, María was elected to the Congress of Deputies, working as Secretary of Innovation and New Technologies in the PSOE Federal Executive.

In his current role of Executive Director of the ESTDEV, Klen Jäärats is responsible for managing and implementing Estonia’s international development cooperation and humanitarian assistance projects. Previously, he served as director of the EU Secretariat in the Estonian government for over a decade, where he coordinated and developed all EU policy and acted as chief European affairs adviser to three different Estonian Prime Ministers. A career civil servant, Jäärats started out in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, rising quickly to the position of Head of the Refugees Department. In this capacity, he dealt with a variety of NGOs and international organisations, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Jäärats also worked at the Estonian Permanent Representation to the EU, where he dealt with many issues related to the preparation, ratification and implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Ricardo Baptista Leite is the CEO of Health AI – The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health, a nonprofit dedicated to helping countries develop regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence in health care. He is also the founder and president of the UNITE Global Parliamentarians Network for Global Health, which connects policymakers from 110 countries. Ricardo is a city councillor in Sintra and previously served four terms as a member of Parliament in Portugal, where he contributed to the health and foreign affairs committees. Committed to community service, Ricardo volunteered as a medical doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic at his hometown hospital in Portugal and joined a humanitarian mission at the Lviv Regional Hospital in Ukraine during the first summer of the war. He was recognised in 2015 by Friends of Europe as a European Young Leader (EYL40), a programme highlighting emerging leaders shaping Europe’s future.

Sander is a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. He was formerly a Member of the European Parliament with the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, and Vice President of Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (The New Flemish Alliance). In the European Parliament, Sander was Vice Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and a member of Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Sander has previously worked for the Belgian Ministry of Interior Affairs in the migration office, and as a scientific researcher at the Law faculty of Catholic University Leuven.

In the European Parliament, Eva Maydell is the vice-chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the United States. Eva was the main Parliament rapporteur on the Regulation on Charges on Cross-border Payments as well as worked on several legislative files, part of the Digital Single Market Strategy – including the e-Privacy Regulation and the Directive for the Supply of Digital Content. She was also rapporteur for the EPP Group on the implementation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the New Skills Agenda and the Influence of technology on the future of the financial sector (FinTech).

Eva has been awarded the European Parliament’s MEP of the Year Award twice. She has also been included in FT’s own ‘New Europe 100′ ranking of CEE’s emerging change-makers, European Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and others.

Throughout an extensive and wide-ranging career in international organisations and institutions, Sandro Mendonça’s work has focused predominantly on the economics of innovation and industrial strategies. Mendonça is a Fellow of The German Marshall Fund of the United States and was a Visiting Fellow at King’s College London. In addition to serving as a board member of the Portuguese Communications Regulator (ANACOM), Mendonça was a science officer at the official Ibero-American Programme for Science and Technology (CYTED).  He has published in major international journals and has taught doctoral programmes in mainland China, namely Guanzhou and Chengdu. Sandro’s research has been used by various international organisations, including the United Nations, the European Commission and the US Senate. Mendonça was named a European Young Leader (EYL40) in 2015.  

Michał Olszewski is a Board Member in charge of investments at PGNiG TERMIKA, Poland’s leading natural gas company. He previously served as deputy mayor of Warsaw, and has spent the entirety of his professional life in public service. Olszewski began his career working as a senior expert in the Office of the Committee for European Integration, while studying at Warsaw University. He rapidly rose to become Head of the EU Funds Department for the City of Warsaw and simultaneously became Chairman of the European Policy Commission in the Association of Polish Cities. Olszewski is also responsible for metropolitan cooperation in the Warsaw Functional Area and currently is Chairman of the Warsaw Metropole Association.

Hanke is currently serving as the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Dutch government. She is a former military officer, former vice-governor at the Province of Utrecht. As a member of the Dutch parliament, Hanke served as the Christian Democratic Appeal party’s spokesperson on health and defence issues, while also focusing on local government, medical law, psychiatry and sports. Prior to her career in politics, Hanke attended the Dutch Royal Military Academy (KMA), where she undertook officer training and specialised as an artillery commander. She went on to serve in Afghanistan as a tank platoon commander, where she was promoted to acting field officer, assisting the Director of Operations of the Land Forces Command Staff. She has also worked in the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations as a senior policy officer and is avid hockey player, who won the Rabobank Premier Division national indoor hockey championship in 2005.