Tirana Connectivity Forum

President Romano Prodi

Former Prime Minister of Italy and Former President of the European Commission

Romano Prodi served twice as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 1996 to 1998 and from 2006 to 2008. He was also President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2005. Currently he is President of the Foundation for Worldwide Cooperation. Romano Prodi began his career as an assistant professor of industrial organisation and policy in 1963 at the University of Bologna. He then became an associate professor in 1966 and a full professor in 1971.From 1978 to 1979 he was Minister of Industry of Italy and from 1982 to 1989 he was chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), which was the largest Italian public holding. In 1995 Romano Prodi founded the “Olive tree” centre-left coalition, winning the 1996 election, which lead to his first appointment as Prime Minister. In July 2008 he was appointed Chairman of the UN-AU High Level Panel for Peacekeeping in Africa. From February 2009 to December 2013, he was Professor-at-large at Brown University (USA) and since 2010 he is Professor at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. He was also visiting professor at Harvard University. He is married to Flavia Franzoni and has two sons.

Olivér Várhelyi

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement/Member of the European Commission

Luigi Soreca

Ambassador of EU to Albania

Since September 2018, H.E Luigi Soreca is the EU Ambassador, Head of the European Delegation to Albania. Prior to this appointment, Mr Soreca was Director for Security in DG HOME of the European Commission, with responsibilities in the fight against terrorism and radicalisation, organised crime, drug trafficking, corruption and cybercrime. He was in charge of the EU support for law enforcement cooperation at European and international level, and Member of the Management Board EUROPOL, CEPOL (police training) and EMCCDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction). In the Juncker Commission, he coordinated the services’ efforts for the preparation, adoption and implementation of the European Agenda on Security in April 2015. During the terrorist events in 2015-2017 in the EU, from this position, he has coordinated the EU policy response to the attacks in terms of new legislative and policy initiatives, including the preparation and adoption of the Directives on Terrorism, Firearms and Money Laundering, the Action Plan on Firearms and Explosives and the creation of the EU Counter-Terrorism Centre at EUROPOL. Luigi Soreca has overseen the work of the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) and was the Chair of the EU Internet Forum. In the area of drugs trafficking, he was also responsible for the EU Action Plan on drugs trafficking for 2017-2020. He was the Commission representative in the G7 Senior Officials “Rome-Lyon” Group, which deals with global terrorism and transnational organised crime. He also negotiated several international agreements on behalf of the EU with third countries, including with the USA on PNR and TFTP. During the migration crisis in summer 2016, he was appointed as Special Commission Envoy to Italy for the launch of the relocation process under Council Decision 2015/1523.

Majlinda Bregu

Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council

Majlinda Bregu took office as the Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council on 1 January 2019. From March 2007 to September 2013, she served as Minister of European Integration. Majlinda Bregu is the longest-serving Minister of European Integration in Albania. Mrs. Bregu has been elected as Member of Parliament of Albania, as a Democratic Party member (Centre Right), for three consecutive legislatures (2005-2017). During 2013– 2017 Mrs. Bregu initiated several legal initiatives against gender-based and domestic violence, which are currently in force. Majlinda Bregu was born in Tirana on 19 May 1974. Married and mother of two.

Peter Zingraf

Ambassador, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Tirana

Peter Zingraf has started his appointment as German Ambassador to Albania in August 2019. He has been a career diplomat in the German Federal Foreign Office since 1993 and has served abroad in Rome, Warsaw, Dar es Salaam and Dublin. In Germany he has held positions in the Foreign Office in Bonn and Berlin and in the Federal President’s Office in Berlin.

Peter Beyer

MP (CDU) | Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation of the Federal Government, German Bundestag | Federal Foreign Office

Peter Beyer, Member of the German Bundestag, was born in 1970, in Ratingen, Germany. Beyer was directly elected in his constituency in the general elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017. A committed Atlantics for many years, Beyer stands out among Members of the German Bundestag and his party as one of the most committed advocates of a strong transatlantic relationship with the United States and Canada. He serves as parliamentary Special Rapporteur on Transatlantic Relations and the Western Balkans in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Beyer is also Executive Vice-President of the Southeast Europe Association. In April 2018, Beyer was appointed Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation of the Federal Government.

Branko Milanović

Presidential professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY

Branko Milanović is a Visiting Presidential Professor at the Graduate Center City University of New York and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics. Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in pre-industrial societies. He has published articles on these topics in The Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics and Journal of Economic Literature among others. His book Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (2016), addresses economic and political issues of globalization. It was translated in sixteen languages and awarded the 2017 Bruno Kreisky Prize and 2018 Hans Matthöfer Prize. Branko was awarded (jointly with Mariana Mazzucato) the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Knowledge. His most recent book is Capitalism, Alone.

Stine Klapper

Head of Office, FES Tirana

Stine Klapper heads the office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Tirana. Previously, she led FES offices in Bangkok, covering Thailand and Cambodia, and Skopje and worked at the foundation’s Prague office. Prior to joining FES, she was Research Associate at Freie Universität Berlin, working at the Center for Transnational Studies, Foreign and Security Policy and focusing on Sustainable Development agendas and transformation research. She studied at Freie Universität Berlin, Columbia University New York and University of Osnabrueck and hold a Master’s degree in International Relations.

Tobias Rüettershoff

Head of Albanian Office of Konrad Adenauer Foundation

Since July 2019 Dr. Tobias Rüettershoff is the Director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) office in  Albania. Previously, he was a speaker for East Central Europe in the team Europe / North America. From June 2015 to March 2017 he worked as a desk officer in the Team Domestic Programs, at the Department for European and International Cooperation at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in Germany. Mr. Rüettershoff is a former KAS scholar and studied Political Science, Public Law and International Relations in Mannheim, Maastricht and Sheffield before earning his doctorate at the University of Exeter on US Security Policy. Before joining KAS, Dr. Tobias Rüettershoff  was an intern at the German Bundestag, in the center Innere Führung der Bundeswehr and as research assistant at the University of Oxford.

Klaus Fiesinger

Regional Director for Southeastern Europe of Hanns Seidel Foundation

Dr. Klaus Fiesinger is regional director for Southeast Europe of the Hanns Seidel Foundation. In this function, he is responsible for promoting the European idea, international dialogue, cross-border cooperation, political culture and civic education in new EU member states, candidate countries as well as potential candidate countries. Since 1992, he has been head of the Division for Central, East and Southeast Europe and Central Asia at the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich. Furthermore, Dr. Fiesinger is member of IDM, the Austrian Institute in Vienna for the Danube Zone and Central Europe as well as of “Südosteuropa Gesellschaft”. Dr. Fiesinger received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Munich. He is author of the book “Ballhausplatz – Diplomatie 1945-1949.” From 2004 until 2012, he was visiting professor at the Andrassy University in Budapest. Occasionally he gives lectures on Euro-regions, cross-border police cooperation and political education.

Matej Zakonjšek

Director, Transport Community, The Permanent Secretariat

Mr. Matej Zakonjšek is an international professional with experience in corporate, non-profit, diplomacy, and government sectors. After completion of his studies in Political Science/International and European Affairs, Mr. Zakonjšek was assigned as a diplomatic attaché responsible for EU Enlargement at the Permanent Representation of Slovenia to the EU. He continued his diplomatic carrier at the Embassy of Slovenia in London, UK but at the same time, he was acting as an assistant to the Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the International Maritime Organization. During his carrier, he worked in the private sector in several positions in multi-national companies. In 2015 Mr. Zakonjšek was appointed Head of Cabinet of the EU Commissioner Violeta Bulc, while in 2019 he joined EC, DG MOVE, International Unit covering transport relations with WB6. Since the 1st of August 2020, Mr. Zakonjšek started the role of the first permanent Director of the Transport Community Permanent Secretariat.

Odeta Barbullushi

Advisor to the Albanian Prime Minister and REA National Coordinator

Before joining the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr. Barbullushi served as a Deputy Minister and then as a Director of Cabinet at Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Albania. She has extensive academic experience, initially as the Head of Department of Political Science and International Relations and then as the Vice-Rector for Research and Methodology at the European University of Tirana. She received her doctorate (PhD) in Russian and East European Studies from the University of the Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2010.

Luc T'Joen

Senior Administrator, Head of Task of Special report on EU transport infrastructures, European Court of Auditors

After ten years in the Belgian Ministry of Finances and 20 years in the European Commission dealing with legislation, revenue controls, investigations and financial audits in several Directorates-General, Luc T’Joen joined the European Court of Auditors in 2008, leading teams dealing with performance audits in the fields of structural funds, transport, research and energy. He has been leading most of the important performance audits in the transport field of the last decade.

Mr. T’Joen also provides training both internally and externally on performance auditing techniques and methodologies to transfer the theory as well as practical knowledge to adequately measure results.

Ardian Hackaj

Director of Research, Cooperation and Development Institute, Tirana

Ardian Hackaj is the Director of Research at Cooperation and Development Institute – an independent Tirana-based think tank. He has authored research works on the Berlin Process, on youth, migration, connectivity and Belt & Road Initiative in the Western Balkans. During his career, Mr. Hackaj has held management positions at the College of Europe-Bruges, International Organization for Migration, United Nations, and the EU Commission. He holds an MA from College of Europe, a BA in International Economics from Université Lumière, Lyon II, and a University Diploma in European Studies from Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Lyon.

Michele Geraci

Former Under-Secretary of State for International Trade, Ministry of Economic Development Italian Government, Conte I

Prof. Michele Geraci is former Undersecretary of State at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, responsible for International Trade and Investment, in the Conte I cabinet. Prior to that, he lived for ten years in China where he worked as macro-economist and professor of finance in various universities. Prior to moving to China in 2008, Mr. Geraci lived in London for 20 years working as Top Telecom Investment Banker in the City of London and as Electronic Engineer. In 2018, he was one of the nominees for Italy’s Prime Minister, before taking the role as under-secretary. He is also a frequent guest on major international media and conference and has been awarded Italian Knighthood honor by Italian President Mattarella. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan. He speaks 5 languages, including Chinese.

Marco Čadež

Chairman of Western Balkans Investment Chamber

Marko Čadež is President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) and the President of the Managing Board of the Western Balkan 6 Chamber Investment Forum. He was appointed to the position of the CCIS President for the first time in December 2014, from the position of Vice President in charge of the chamber system modernization. In June 2017, the CCIS Assembly entrusted him with a new five-year term of office.  He was born on 1 June 1977, in Belgrade. He finished his schooling in Germany, where he graduated from the Academy for Marketing Communications in Frankfurt, in 2001.  He is an expert on Serbian-German relations and communications, and one of the founders and a Member of the Managing Board of the Serbia-Germany Forum. He was a Coordinator for Serbia and Montenegro of German Deutsche Welle, and Programme Coordinator and Advisor for Political Issues and Communications with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Belgrade.

Shada Islam

New Horizon Project, Brussels

Shada Islam is a respected and well-known Brussels-based commentator on European Union affairs who now works independently as an advisor/analyst/strategist on questions related to Europe Africa Asia Geopolitics Trade and Inclusion.

Shada is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe and a member of the European Policy Centre’s prestigious Strategic Council as well as a Senior Adviser at its Europe in the World programme. She is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Centre for Global Development. Shada worked for nine years as Director of Europe and Geopolitics at Friends of Europe, an influential independent think tank based in Brussels and now runs her own Brussels-based global strategy and advisory company, New Horizons Project.  In 2017, Shada was selected as one of the 20 most influential women in Brussels by the magazine Politico. She is also a Solvay Fellow at the Vrije University Brussel (VUB).

Dušan Reljić

Head of Office SWP (German Institute for International and Security Affairs) in Brussels

Dušan works on international relations and security with focus on the EU, NATO and southeast Europe; democratisation, issues of transition in former socialist countries, nationalism and ethnic strife as well as political communication and media performance in situations of tensions and conflict. Between 2003 and 2013, Dušan was research associate in the SWP division EU External Relations. Previously, he was researcher and subsequently head of the Media and Democracy Programme at the Dusseldorf-based European Institute for the Media (EIM) (1996-2003). Before, he was i.a. senior editor at Radio Free Europe in Munich, the foreign editor of the Belgrade weekly Vreme, and co-founder of the Beta Press Agency in Belgrade during the critical years of 1991-1993.

Steven Blockmans

Director ad Interim at Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels

Steven Blockmans is Director ad interim of the Brussels-based think tank CEPS and professor of EU external relations law and governance at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of ‘Tough Love: the European Unions relations with the Western Balkans’ (AP 2007). His latest book, ‘The Obsolescence of the European Neighborhood Policy’ (RLI 2017), deals with the emergence of a more realist EU foreign policy as applied in its outer periphery. He is an editor of twenty academic volumes, including ‘The EU Role in Global Governance’ (OUP 2013), and a rapporteur for high-level task forces on ‘More Union in European Defence’ (Solana 2015) and ‘Regroup and Reform: Towards a More Responsive and Effective European Union’ (Huebner 2017). Steven has advised governments in Europe and Asia on their relations with the EU and is a frequent media commentator.

Ilva Tare

News Director, Euronews Albania

Ilva Tare is the News Director at Euronews Albania. She is also the Director and the Presenter of the show “Ilva Now” also broadcasted at Euronews Albania. Ms. Tare is one of the most prominent TV journalists in Albania with extensive experience in the Albanian TV outlets. She has interviewed all the Albanian politicians and organized heated political and current affairs debates.

Krisela Hackaj

Executive Director, Cooperation and Development Institute

Krisela Hackaj is since 2011 Director of the Cooperation and Development Institute, an Albanian Independent Think Tank organization that focuses on research in regional cooperation, economic and social development dynamics and institutional governance. Her professional expertise covers EU cross border cooperation programmes and projects, national strategic framework monitoring and budgeting, and regional cooperation. Her main research topics relate to EU Integration process, regional cooperation, connectivity agenda and youth in the Western Balkans. She graduated in “Public Administration and International Organizations” at Bocconi University and holds a Master Degree in “International Career and International and European Institutions” from University of Parma.

Đuro Blanuša

Secretary General, Regional Youth Cooperation Office

Đuro Blanuša, before his appointment as RYCO Secretary General, served as a Senior Advisor with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Serbia in the Sector for International Cooperation and European Integration. He has a long track record of activism in civil society and the non-governmental sector with Save the Children and youth organizations. Mr. Blanuša was representing Serbia in the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ), the governmental partner in the co-management structures of the youth sector of the Council of Europe. He is a member of various regional and European expert groups in this field, and he was from the very beginning engaged as the governmental representative of Serbia in the process for the establishment of RYCO. He holds MA in Economics. He is married and has two children.

Gjorgi Tasev

Youth and Sport Adviser to the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia

Jochen Rummenhoeller

Head of International and European Youth Policy, Deutscher Bundesjugendring/German Federal Youth Council

University Degree: Diploma Geography; Secretary General of JEF Germany, Assistant of a member of the European Parlament (Dr. K. Hänsch, MdEP), International Secretary of the German Federal Youth Council DBJR.

Andrea Mićanović

Coordinator for Montenegro, Western Balkans Youth Cooperation Platform

Stine Klapper heads the office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Tirana. Previously, she led FES offices in Bangkok, covering Thailand and Cambodia, and Skopje and worked at the foundation’s Prague office. Prior to joining FES, she was Research Associate at Freie Universität Berlin, working at the Center for Transnational Studies, Foreign and Security Policy and focusing on Sustainable Development agendas and transformation research. She studied at Freie Universität Berlin, Columbia University New York and University of Osnabrueck and hold a Master’s degree in International Relations.

Loneta Progni

Journalist, Euronews Albania

Loneta Progni works as a Journalist for Euronews Albania. She is the Social Media Correspondent at #KUBI, a program broadcasted at Euronews Albania. Ms. Progni holds a bachelor degree in “Administration and Social Policy”. Later on, Ms. Progni continued her studies on “Communication for Social and Behavioral Change”.