European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

Andrei Popoviciu is an award-winning investigative journalist and foreign correspondent from Romania covering human rights, humanitarian crises, migration and conflict. He has worked across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Much of Popoviciu’s recent work has focused on allegations of human rights violations involving EU funds. His report exposing the “outsourcing” of European border enforcement to Africa won the Migration Journalism Award at the 2024 European Press PRIZE. Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, El Pais and Le Monde are among the international media featuring Popoviciu’s reporting.

Vasilisa Stepanenko is a Ukrainian video journalist and correspondent for the Associated Press (AP), based in Kyiv. Focused on human rights and social justice amid the war in Ukraine, she was one of the few international journalists to remain in Mariupol during its siege, capturing images that played a crucial role in urging international leaders to open a humanitarian corridor. Stepanenko and her team won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the reporting from Mariupol and investigations of war crimes in the city committed by Russia, making her one of the youngest recipients of the award. She was also the field producer of “20 Days in Mariupol”, a documentary exposing the human cost of the war, which won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Documentary.

Fatma is a Belgian journalist and news anchor, specialising in justice and criminal law. She has worked at VRT for over a decade and currently hosts the “Het Journaal” evening news programme on the Flemish broadcaster’s main channel, One. In the documentary series, “De Cel Vermiste Personen” (“The Missing Persons Cell”), Fatma dives into the work of the federal police unit that investigates disappearances. Her television programme, “Mij overkomt het niet” (“It does not happen to me”), explores guilt and grief through a series of interviews with people that have unintentionally caused a deadly accident. Fatma also speaks with the families, judges, prosecutors and social workers involved in the tragic events. Throughout its first season, the programme attracted almost 900,000 viewers each week. A former newsreader at Studio Brussel and Radio 1, Fatma began her professional career as an editor at Reyers Laat, a late-night talk show on Canvas, a VRT channel.

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.

Boštjan is a journalist, author and playwright. He is currently a foreign correspondent with Slovenia’s largest daily newspaper, DELO. He has also written for major international media outlets including The New York Times, BBC World, POLITICO and the Atlantic Post. An experienced war reporter, Boštjan has covered major events ranging from conflicts in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to natural disasters in Southeast Asia. He has so far published three books including 21st Century Conflicts: Remnants of War(s) in 2012, which was a national best-seller in his native Slovenia and was also published in the US.

Jon is one the best-known political bloggers and commentators on all things EU politics and Brexit. His commentary on his blog (jonworth.eu) and Twitter account (@jonworth) are well known in Brussels and EU circles. His work around Brexit and especially his famous Brexit diagrams have been featured in international media, including The New York Times and ARD. Jon is a Visiting Lecturer on politics and online communication at the College of Europe in Bruges. He also leads workshops at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the University of Maastricht and the Italian School of Public Administration in Rome. The Founder of Trains for Europe, a campaign that demands the European Union take action on the issues surrounding long distance rail travel in Europe, Jon is an experienced campaigner, having previously organised a number of online campaigns for United Kingdom politicians and the Atheist Bus Campaign.