Ambassador Thomas Hanney is an Irish diplomat. He currently serves as Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the European Union. Previously, he held positions such as Ambassador to Austria, Deputy Permanent Representative in Brussels, and Joint Secretary of the North South Ministerial Council, working with both Irish government and Northern Ireland Assembly members. With extensive experience in international affairs, Ambassador Hanney has represented Ireland with distinction in various diplomatic roles. 

Since March 2022 Arnoldas Pranckevičius serves as Lithuania’s Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the EU. Previously he worked as Lithuania’s Deputy Foreign Minister (2021-2022) responsible for European affairs and trade as well as Head of European Commission Representation in Lithuania (2016-2020). Before joining the Commission he spent 11 years at the European Parliament (2006-2016), serving as Foreign Policy Adviser to EP Presidents Martin Schulz and Jerzy Buzek, advising them on Russia, Eastern Partnership, Western Balkans and Asia, coordinating the work of Cox-Kwasniewski special mission in Ukraine, working in the Committee for Foreign Affairs and Interparliamentary delegations. In 2004-2005 he was Domestic Policy Adviser to Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus. Holds EU affairs MA from Sciences Po Paris and international relations BA from Colgate University, USA.

Daniel Freund has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Greens since 2019. His main issues are transparency, democracy, the fight against corruption and the future of the EU. He is a a member of the Constitutional and Budgetary Control Committee. He leads the Greens’ work on the conference on the future of the EU, negotiates on the independent ethics authority and chairs the cross-party working group against corruption. 

Alin Mituța is a Romanian Member of the European Parliament in the Renew Europe group, currently sitting, among others in AFCO, ITRE, REGI & AGRI committees.

He was also a member of the Conference on the Future of Europe, where one of his priorities was to create a permanent consultation mechanism for EU citizens, so that citizens are regularly consulted in EU decision making, and not just in elections time.

He was State Secretary and Head of Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Romania between 2016 and 2017.

Alin was also an executive director and founder of one of the largest Romanian platforms dedicated to strengthening citizens participation in public life, Platforma România 100, who counted some 40.000 members shortly after its creation.

He also founded Europuls, an NGO encouraging public debate on EU affairs in Romania.

Domènec Ruiz Devesa has a degree in Law and Economics from the Carlos III University, in Political Science and Sociology from the UNED, and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University, with a specialty in European Studies, and a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Economic Growth and Sustainable Development by UNED. He has been a consultant for several international organizations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, or the Union for the Mediterranean, as well as international consultant for Oxford Policy Management and Family Health International, and think tanks such as Fundación Alternativas, and Fundación Sistema.

He has been an advisor to the Minister of the Presidency (2011), an advisor to the Spanish Socialist Delegation in the European Parliament (2014-2018) and deputy head for Political and Parliamentary Affairs in the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. He is currently the Vice-President of the Union of European Federalist and a member of its Federal Committee and a member of the Executive Board of the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement. In 2019, he was elected Member of the European Parliament, where he is the spokesperson for the Constitutional Affairs Committee and a  member of the Culture and Education Committee. He also carries out his parliamentary responsibilities from the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, as well as in the inter-parliamentary delegations with the Republic of Iraq, of which he is Vice-President, beside the delegations of Mashreq and Palestine.

Ms. Ronzitti is the General Secretary of SGI Europe, a position she has held since May 2012. With a background in law, she joined SGI Europe as a legal advisor in 2003 and rose through the ranks. During her time as Head of Social Affairs from 2005 to 2009, she represented SGI Europe in various negotiations and agreements on important labor-related matters at the European level. In addition to her role at SGI Europe, she served as the Director of HOSPEEM, the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers Association, from 2005 to 2010. In her current position as General Secretary, she oversees the management of the organization, including policy-making, external representation, communication, and staff management. She is focused on positioning public services as a vital component of the EU’s post-COVID-19 recovery and shaping the future of the European Project. Ms. Ronzitti has also been actively involved in the REFIT Platform and currently serves as a member of the Fit4Future Platform. She has represented SGI Europe in the Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe and holds a position on the Board of the European Movement International, where she was elected Vice-President in 2020.

Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen is the Director-General for Communication in the European Commission.

A former Chief Spokesperson of the Commission, she took up this position in March 2019, after having served as Deputy Secretary-General and Chief Operating Officer since March 2018.

Prior to that, she was a Director in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication, in charge of the Commission’s Representations in the Member States.

Pia studied Business Administration and Modern Languages at the Copenhagen Business School and Political Science at the Institut d’études Politiques de Paris.

Alexandre Alaphilippe is the executive director and co-founder of the EU DisinfoLab. Since 2017, he has coordinated work on some of the organisation’s largest investigations into Information Operations linked to Russia, India and China, and is a member of a number of working groups in Brussels and Washington DC linked to platform regulation, transatlantic relations, and hybrid threats, where he emphasises the role of civil society in maintaining democratic values. He has published papers for the Brookings Institution and his work has been featured on CNN, BBC, Le Monde and Politico.

Asha Allen is Advocacy Director for Europe, Online Expression & Civic Space for the Centre of Democracy and Technology, Europe Office, where she coordinates the organisation’s engagement on issues related to content moderation, free expression, civic space and the protection of fundamental rights. She coordinated advocacy for the EU Digital Services Act, European DemocracyAction Plan and the ongoing Directive on Violence against Women. Asha is an award-nominated policy specialist on eradicating online gender-based violence, having worked with the OSCE, UN Women, World Wide Web Foundation and creator of the #HerNetHerRights II: Prevent, Protect Promote Campaign.

Laura Maria Cinquini is an Italian cultural anthropologist with a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Bologna University. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the same field at the same university. She completed an Erasmus internship in Germany where she co-organized a Chinese art exhibition at the Landesmuseum of Hannover. In 2022, she participated in the 4th Citizen Panel of the Conference for the Future of Europe, where she worked on the migration topic. She was subsequently appointed as an ambassador of her panel and collaborated with other citizens, trade unionists, representatives of civil society, members of national parliaments and of the three European institutions on this issue. She continues to to work with her fellow ambassadors to advocate for and advance their proposals in several areas. 

Elias is a European and Human Rights activist from France. He is the Former President of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) and has represented young people in several capacities, including within the French Union of Jewish Students and the French Scouting Federation at a global level. He is well versed in advocacy strategy, research, and policy analysis and has experience in combating racism and online hate speech. Elias holds an M.A. in International Relations, Conflict & Security from the University of Kent.

Caroline Greer is Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at TikTok, managing the Brussels office. Caroline has over 20 years of public policy and regulatory experience in tech and telecoms, in both the public and private sector.  

She started her career with the Irish telecoms regulator, moving on to work for the Irish government with a focus on broadband policy, and subsequently working for domain name registries in both Ireland and the UK. Prior to joining TikTok, Caroline was Head of European Public Policy at the U.S cybersecurity company Cloudflare, and she was also the Director of Public Policy for the European telecoms trade association, ETNO.  

Finn Heinrich is Division Director for European Transformations at Open Society’s Europe and Central Asia Programme. Before joining OSF, Finn acquired 20 years of programmatic and research experience working with international NGOs in the fields of governance, democracy and civil society, such as CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Transparency International and Democracy Reporting International. Finn studied social sciences at University of Mannheim and Johns Hopkins University and holds a doctorate in political science from FernUniversität Hagen, Germany. Currently, his specific interests are on how to leverage civic participation and democratic processes to make the major digital and socio-ecological transformations across Europe effective, just and sustainable.

Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik, a member of Warsaw Bar. She specialises in healthcare law, especially the Pharmaceutical Law, the Reimbursement Act and the Act on Medical Activity. Recommended for many years by Polish (Rzeczpospolita and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna) and international (Chambers Europe, Who’s Who, PLC Which Lawyer) rankings as the best specialist in pharmaceutical law in Poland.
Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik is also a co-founder of the Lege Pharmaciae Foundation, a non-governmental organisation formed to analyse and hold a public debate on defects in legal regulations in the healthcare sector. Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik works with the Civic Legislation Forum at the Stefan Batory Foundation on the introduction of European lawmaking standards in Poland. She advises patient organisations pro bono, including the Polish Coalition of Cancer Patient Organisations, the Alivia Foundation and the Federation of Polish Patients.
She is a member of the Forum for Dialogue. One of the initiator and organiser of the #solidarityintruth action. Member of the #WolneSądy (#FreeCourts) initiative defending independence of the Polish judiciary.
A winner of the title “Female advocate of the year 2017” for her pro bono and civic activity.

Camino Mortera-Martinez is head of the Brussels office at the Centre for European Reform. Camino works on EU justice and home affairs, with a particular focus on migration, data protection, internal security, criminal law and police and judicial co-operation. She also covers Spain’s foreign and European policies.

Prior to joining the CER, Camino worked in several projects for the European Commission, as part of the justice and home affairs team of a Brussels-based consultancy. She was particularly involved in projects dealing with free movement of persons, criminal and civil law, counter-terrorism (including aviation security), police and judicial co-operation and international private law. Camino has also worked at a law firm in Spain, at the European Commission in Brussels and at an international German company in Berlin, Barcelona and Brussels.

Camino is a qualified lawyer and holds a Master’s Degree in Law by the University of Oviedo (Spain), an Exchange Diploma in Legal Studies by Cardiff University (UK) and a Master of Arts on EU Political and Administrative Studies by the College of Europe (Belgium).

She is a regular contributor to media in Europe and the US and has given evidence to the UK Parliament.

Evelyne joined ILGA-Europe in 2005. Before becoming Executive Director, she was Policy Director – coordinating advocacy work with the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. For example, she led ILGA-Europe’s campaign and lobbying work around the EU’s anti-discrimination directive.

Prior to joining ILGA-Europe, Evelyne worked with the UN High Commission for Human Rights, the Council of Europe and human rights NGOs in Canada. Originally from Canada, Evelyne holds post-graduate degrees in history, political science and European studies.