Frontpage

Christian Danielsson is the Director-General in DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations with extensive experience in foreign affairs and external relations both at national and European levels. From January 2011 to October 2013 he served as Deputy Secretary-General in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission. In the period from 2008 to 2010 he served as the Ambassador in the Permanent Representative of Sweden to the EU. From January 2007 to September 2008 he was acting Director / Director in DG Enlargement managing and coordinating the accession process with Croatia, Turkey and North Macedonia (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia at the time).

Darko Brkan is the president of civic association “Why not”, a Bosnian NGO that promotes civic activism, government accountability, and the use of technology and digital media in deepening democracy, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also acts as the President of the Board of the regional network Action SEE, member of the Board of TransparenCEE network in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as a member of the International Advisory Board of ePanstwo Foundation from Poland. A leading civil society activist, he began his career in civic activism more than 19 years ago. He is the member of the Advisory Board for the Open Government Partnership for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is also a member of the Board of the Human Rights Foundation and Foundation “Ekipa”, as well as a founding board member of the Centre for Election Studies.

Dr. Srđan Cvijić is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, a premium European think tank and part of one of the largest private philanthropic organisations in the world. He leads the Open Society Foundation’s advocacy in Europe on several foreign policy portfolios, including EU enlargement, Western Balkans, Turkey and North Africa. Previously he was a senior diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia. He also worked as advisor for the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, European Policy Centre and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Johannes Hahn has held various management functions in different sectors of the Austrian economy and industry, including as CEO of Novomatic AG for 5 years. Between 1992 and 1997 he was Executive Director of the Austrian People’s Party office in Vienna, becoming Deputy Chairman of the Party in 2002 and Chairman in 2005. A member of the Regional Parliament of Vienna from 1996 to 2003, he became Federal Minister for Science and Research in 2007. He was the European Commissioner for Regional Policy from 2010 to 2014, and since November 2014 he is the Commissioner in charge of the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.

Serbeze Haxhiaj has been working as an investigative journalist and news editor in Kosovo and for international media for 20 years, dealing mainly with the most pressing issues such as corruption, human rights, security issues, religious extremism, terrorism and war crimes. She is currently an editor at Radio Television of Kosovo and a journalist of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). She has previously worked for the daily newspapers Rilindja, Zeri, Lajm and Koha Ditore. She was the correspondent in Pristina of the French Courrier des Balkans and recently had her articles published in The Financial Times, Der Standard, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Al Jazeera. Her articles were published also in some of the main newspapers in Europe. For her reporting on war crimes, organised crime, corruption,
human rights and violence against women, Serbeze has been awarded 12 times by various local and international organisations.

Valerie Hopkins is the Financial Times’ South-East Europe correspondent, covering Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and the Western Balkans. Before moving to Budapest, she worked extensively in the Balkans, with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and as a freelance journalist. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Politico, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Reuters, OpenDemocracy, Mother Jones, and more. She has a Master of Arts in
Political Journalism from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and a B.A. in International Relations (focus on Russian and Post-Soviet Studies) from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Mihailo Jovović, editor at large and journalist with Vijesti, the most influential Montenegrin newspaper, covering politics, crime, intelligence and justice affairs, writing and mentoring investigative stories. Until October 2018, he was editor in chief, political editor and international news editor. Born in 1962, lawyer by education, bass player in free time.

After the parliamentary elections in 2012, Duško Marković was re-elected as the Deputy Prime Minister for Political System, Interior and Foreign Policy and Minister of Justice. In 2013 he was Deputy Prime Minister in the same area, and the Minister of Justice and Human Rights. During 2014 and 2015, he was Acting Director of the Ministry of Culture. After the election of new ministers in the Government, in March 2015, he continued to serve as the Deputy Prime Minister for Political System, Interior and Foreign Policy. In 2015, he was elected as the Vice President of the Democratic Party of Socialists. During 2016, he also served as the Head of the Ministry of Interior. He holds the post of the Chairman of the National Security Council. He was elected Prime Minister on 28 November 2016.

Vitomir Ognjanović is a co-founder of Simplicity, an online business solutions company, and a co-founder of Južne vesti, a regional online portal best known for investigative journalism. He and his team have been working with medias on development of sustainable business models in “hostile” environments based on the experiences they have within Južne vesti and Simplicity. The team that he leads, successfully cooperates with more than 50 media, local and international organisations and institutions. Becoming a rare independent media in Serbia Južne vesti and Simplicity are recognised as a valuable regional partner of BBC, IREX, OSCE, USAID, FCO, SIDA, BIRN and several other institutions.

Aivo Orav graduated in 1992 from the Estonian School of Diplomacy. Since 2016 he is the Ambassador and Head of EU Delegation in Montenegro. From 2012 to 2016 Ambassador, he was the Head of EU Delegation in North Macedonia. For one year, he was the Ambassador to Lebanon, residing in Turkey and from 2008 to 2012 the Ambassador in Azerbaijan to Turkey. He also got training in Disarmament and Security Policy Course at the Marshall Centre as well as a UN Disarmament Fellowship Programme in Geneva, Vienna and New York.