Second Plenary – ‘The future of the European Rural Policy’
Mr. Hugo Morán Fernández, Secretary of State for the Environment. Ministry for the Ecological Transition of the Government of Spain
Intervention: ‘Environment, the best guarantee for the future of rural territories’
The Secretary of State for the Environment, under the authority of the Minister, directs and coordinates the implementation of the department’s competencies in relation to the formulation of climate change and environmental policies. It also represents the Minister in matters within its competence, including those with international projection, promoting the achievement of the objectives and the execution of the projects of its department, controlling their compliance, and supervising the activity of the executive bodies attached to it.
Hugo Morán knows politics from the local to the national. It is no coincidence that he was a councillor in the City Council of Lena (Asturias) between 1987 and 1995 and mayor of the same between 1995 and 2007. Among other positions, he has been president of the Consortium for the Development of the Central Mountain of Asturias (1998-2001) and president of the Asturian Federation of Councils (2001-2007). Member of the Board of Directors of the Sanitation Board of the Principality of Asturias (2001-2007), he was also president of the Rural Development Group of the Central Mountain of Asturias (1998-2007) and member of the Economic and Social Council of the Principality of Asturias (2001-2007).
Director of the Government Relations Office with the General Council of the Principality of Asturias (2007-2008), Morán was elected deputy for Asturias in the 9th Legislature, and spokesman for the Environment of the Socialist Parliamentary Group. He has held different positions in as many Congresses of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE): federal secretary of Environment and Rural Development, federal secretary of Territorial Planning and Sustainability and federal secretary for the Ecological Transition of the Economy.
Mr. Jonás Fernández Álvarez, Member of the European Parliament and member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Jonás Fernández Álvarez (Oviedo, 1979) is a member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. He belongs to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, where he is coordinator for the European Socialist Group. He is also an alternate member of the Committee on Budgets.
Jonás Fernández Álvarez holds an Executive MBA from IESE Business School (2010-12), a master’s degree in Economics and Finance from CEMFI-Banco de España (2002-04) and a degree in Economics from the University of Oviedo (1997-2001). He has complemented his training with a program in Advanced Econometrics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2006) and the Senior Executives in National and International Security at Harvard University (2016).
In the professional field, the author joined Solchaga Recio & asociados in 2005 as an economics and international politics analyst, a consultant chaired by Carlos Solchaga. Three years later, he became head of the Research Department and in 2014 he was appointed Chief Economist of the company. He has combined this work with teaching at the Carlos III University (2007-10) and several entrepreneurial activities. In addition, he regularly collaborates in the media (El País, Cinco Días, La Nueva España, etc.).
In the political sphere, Jonás Fernández was previously Secretary General of the Socialist Youth (JS) in Oviedo (1998-2000) and was part of the executive of JS Asturias (2000-01). During his university years, he was also a member of the Faculty of the University of Oviedo. More recently, he has participated in the design of the electoral programmes in several Legislative Elections, was economic policy advisor to the CEF-PSOE (2004-05) and is a collaborator in different national and international foundations. In addition, he was selected to attend the Political Leadership Program of the Aspen Institute, chaired by Javier Solana and the 2016 Workshop in Global Leadership at Harvard University.
Ms. Beata Adamczyck, Policy Officer at Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the Europen Commission
Beata Adamczyck is a policy officer in the European Commission, specifically in the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Unit F.1 – Conception and Coherence of Rural Development.
Mr. Guillaume Cros, Vice-President of the Regional Council of Occitania, Committee of the Regions (CoR)
Guillaume Cros is Vice-President EELV (Greens) of the Occitan Regional Council (FR) in charge of European affairs, structural funds, development cooperation, evaluation and foresight. It is in charge of refugee assistance, student mobility and international solidarity.
Rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the future of the CAP, he is working to build a common agricultural policy which is fair, supportive and sustainable and which meets the expectations of farmers, citizens, but also territories and, in particular, the rural world.
Mr. John Bryan, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
John Bryan is Member of the European Economic and Social Committee since February 2015. Within the EESC John Bryan is member of the Group Diversity Europe and president of the Farmers’ category. As EESC Member his main areas of interest have been agriculture, external relations, food safety and regional policy. Recently he has drafted as rapporteur or co-rapporteur EESC opinions on ‘The CAP legislative proposals’ and ‘The future of food and farming’ as well as an evaluation report on ‘The Impact of the CAP on Generational Renewal’.
John Bryan was the 13th President of the Irish Farmers’ Association and began his four-year term on January 12th 2010. During his time as president John Bryan also served as a vice president of COPA with responsibility for trade. John also served as Chairman of IFA Kilkenny. John is married and with two children and runs an intensive beef suckler farm in Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny.
Mr. Hannes Lorenzen, President of the Agricultural and Rural Convention 2020 – ARC2020
Hannes Lorenzen has been civil servant at the European Parliament from 1985 until 2019. He has mainly worked as senior adviser to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament with specific tasks on CAP reforms, rural development, food security and quality, organic farming, agro-ecology and climate change. From 2014 to 2018 he was the responsible staff person at the Committee on Agriculture and Rural development for negotiations with EU Commission and Council on the new EU regulation for organic farming.
He has an MA degree in Rural Development Sociology with a postgraduate degree in International Agriculture (TU Berlin) with special professional competence in international negotiations (EU-Institute for Public Administration, Maastricht) and Mediation (School for Mediation, Steyerberg).
He has carried out research, coordination and evaluation work on rural development projects with the Technical Service of the German Government. On the international level Hannes Lorenzen is co-founder of Genetic Resources Action International (www.grain.org) and co-president of the European Rural Development Network Forum Synergies (www.forum-synergies.eu).
He is also co-founder and was chairperson between 1999 and 2016 of PREPARE, the “Partnership for Rural Europe” network for Central and Eastern European Member States (www.preparenetwork.org).
He is a co-founder and president of the European Reform Alliance ARC2020 (Agricultural and Rural Convention www.arc2020.eu) which during the CAP reform process between 2010 and 2013 has gathered more than 160 networks and umbrella organizations of civil society of farmers, environmentalists, animal welfare groups, rural development and public health organisations. ARC2020 moderated during this period a process to reach a “communication of civil society to the European Institutions on CAP reform”.
He is member of the board of IATP, the US based research and communication association on fair trade and agriculture. (www.IATP.org).
Closer to home, Hannes founded and chairs a local rural development organization on his home island of Pellworm in North Friesland, Germany, which has created synergies between organic farming, renewable energy production, soft tourism and nature protection projects in a local dimension.
Hannes Lorenzen lives with his family in Brussels (Ixelles) and is active in the “local food strategy working group” for Ixelles, supported by farmer-consumer groups and the “Commune d’Ixelles”.
Ms. Cristina Gallach Figueres, High Comisioner
Cristina Gallach Figueres is in charge of coordinating the actions to comply with Agenda 2030 of the United Nations in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in Spain’s international dialogue on the global implementation of Agenda 2030.
Gallach Figueres has extensive professional experience in the field of communication, international relations, security, defence and development policies. A great connoisseur of the European institutions, where she joined in 1999, she is the only Spanish woman to have held relevant positions in the three major international organisations: the EU, the UN and NATO.
Passionate about gender equality and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in European Institutions, when she was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the UN and head of the Department of Public Information she became the Spanish woman who reached the highest rank in the organisation.
Another of her specializations is communication in security, defence and crisis situations. Her activities as a mentor to young professionals through several NGOs with which she has collaborated intensely, in particular ‘Women in International Security’, of which she was president of the Brussels headquarters. She collaborates with Spanish private foundations such as Novia Salcedo (Bilbao), and ErnestLluch, of which she has been patron and the Círculo de Economía (Barcelona).
Third Plenary – ‘Results, discussion and message’
Mr. Kim Smedslund, Secretary General Partnership for Rural Europe – PREPARE
Kim Smedslund, Master of company law and teacher of French and Swedish languages, started with local and regional rural development activities in 1997 as project responsible in a municipality and a business development center. He has published a book on EU institutions development from a politico-legal perspective in 1993.
Since 2001, Kim Smedslund has been in different managing positions in a LEADER-group. International coordinating activities in the Finnish Village Movement from 2007 led to participation in European community/villages networks of rural development (ERCA/PREPARE) and finally to a joint coordination role in the European Rural Parliament (ERP) partnership/network in October 2016.
Mr. Leotrim Germizaj, ERP Steering Group
Leotrim Gërmizaj was born in 14 October 1990 in city of Prizren in Kosovo.
Currently, he is in charge as a National Coordinator of Network of Organizations for Rural Development of Kosovo. His experience includes programs, projects, campaigns, conferences and activities in national, regional, European level in the field of rural development, EU policies, youth participation and gender inclusion, green economy, sustainable development and social entrepreneurship.
Leotrim Gërmizaj is member of executive board of PREPARE aisbl (Partnership of Rural Europe) since last General Assembly in November 2018 and appointed as a member of Steering Group of European Rural Parliament since December 2018. As a representative of NORDK which is co-founder network of Balkan Rural Development Network, he is actively engaged in all forums of BRDN.
Related to the education aspect, he is Graduated Lawyer from University of Prishtina, where he is finalizing Master studies on Administrative and Constitutional Law, as well.
He followed a postgraduate study program, Executive Master in European Union Studies organized by Centre international de formation européenne, in Berlin, Germany.
Leotrim, had opportunity to follow and complete several international programs in Program Cycle Management, LEADER/CLLD and other relevant programs from the thematic areas which mostly are related to the rural development sector.
Ms. Kristiina Tammets, Vice-President of European LEADER Association for Rural Development – ELARD
Kristiina Tammets is the Manager of the Tartu Rural Development Association LAG (Estonia) since 2007 and the vice-president of ELARD for 2018/2019. She has been involved in ELARD’s activities since 2007, first as a representative of Estonia and as president of ELARD for 2016/2017. At the end of 2017, she was engaged in the development of an exploratory opinion on the CLLD for the European Economic and Social Committee. She holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Protection from the Estonian University of Life Sciences.
Mr. Goran Šoster, Vice-President of Partnership for Rural Europe – PREPARE
Goran Šoster is living and working predominantly in Slovenia, with strong engagement in European non-governmental organisations. He is executive director of Regional Development Agency Prlekija and LAG Manager. Co-founder of the Slovenian Rural Development Network (2002) and it’s President in the years 2008-2014, Coordinator of PREPARE in the years 2009-2014 and President of PREPARE in the years 2016-2018. Co-founder of the Slovenian Rural Parliament and Co-chair of the European Rural Parliament. Co-author and editor of the book ‘Rural Parliaments – Emerging Participative Democracy’. Researcher, economist, ecologist, pioneer of organic farming in Slovenia and PhD candidate in Local Economies. More than 30 years of experience in the field of regional and rural development, organic agriculture, sustainable tourism and ecology.
Mr. Alejandro Calvo Rodríguez, Counselor of Rural Development, Agrolivestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Principality of Asturias
Alejandro Calvo Rodríguez is a technical agricultural engineer and an agronomist, with master’s degrees in Livestock and Rural Development and in Viticulture, Oenology and Marketing. He has worked as a viticulture technician and director of the Agrupación de Tratamientos Integrados en Agricultura para el cultivo de la vid de la Asociación de Productores y Elaboradores de Vino de Cangas (Agrupación de Tratamientos Integrados en Agricultura para el cultivo de la vid de la Asociación de Productores y Elaboradores de Vino de Cangas). He has also worked as consulting engineer for Ardaliz Technical Office and as technical director of Bodega del Narcea S.L.
In the autonomous Administration he has carried out the tasks of general director of Forest Policy of the Government in 2008; managing director of the Society for the Management of Cultural, Tourist and Sports Infrastructures from 2009 to 2012; vice-counsellor of Culture and Sport from 2012 to 2015, and managing director of the Public Society for the Management and Promotion of Tourism and Culture from 2015 to 2019.