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Organised by the European Parliament’s Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) and the European External Action Service SPEAKERS’ BIOS 10-11 October 2018 József Antall Building | Brussels ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT High Level Conference on the FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION

József Antall Building | Brussels ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN … · 2020. 10. 25. · awarded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and has been a lawyer since 1998. In 2012 he received

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Page 1: József Antall Building | Brussels ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN … · 2020. 10. 25. · awarded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and has been a lawyer since 1998. In 2012 he received

Organised by the European Parliament’s Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) and the European External Action Service

SPEAKERS’ BIOS

10-11 October 2018

József Antall Building | BrusselsROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

High Level Conference on the

FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION

Page 2: József Antall Building | Brussels ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN … · 2020. 10. 25. · awarded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and has been a lawyer since 1998. In 2012 he received

10-11 October 2018 | József Antall Building | Brussels | ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Page 3: József Antall Building | Brussels ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN … · 2020. 10. 25. · awarded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and has been a lawyer since 1998. In 2012 he received

10-11 October 2018 | József Antall Building | Brussels | ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

High Level Conference on the FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION

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Antonio Tajani Antonio Tajani is the President of the European Parliament since 2017.

Mr Tajani worked as a journalist for more than 20 years, initially on the RAI Radio (Radio 1) including time as their special envoy in Lebanon, the Soviet Union and Somalia. He was subsequently the head of the Rome editorial office of the daily newspaper ‘Il Giornale’.

Mr Tajani was among the co-founders of Forza Italia and was first elected to the European Parliament in 1994 where he served until 2008 when he was appointed as European Commissioner for Transport. In 2010 he became the Commissioner for Industry and

Entrepreneurship. He returned to the European Parliament in 2014 becoming one of its vice-presidents.

Federica Mogherini Federica Mogherini is the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission since 1 November 2014. She was the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs from February to October 2014 and a Member of the Italian Parliament (Chamber of Deputies), where she was elected for the first time in 2008. In her parliamentary capacity, she was the Head of the Italian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and Vice-President of its Political Committee (2013-2014); member of the Italian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2008-2013); Secretary of the Defence Committee (2008-2013) and member of the Foreign

Affairs Committee.

David McAllisterDavid McAllister is the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament since 2017. He served in the German Military for two years. He studied law with a scholarship awarded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and has been a lawyer since 1998. In 2012 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.

His political career began in 1998, when he was elected as a member of the State Parliament of Niedersachsen. From 2003 till until 2010 he served as Chairman of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) Group and from 2010 until 2013 as Prime Minister of Niedersachsen.

He is a Member of the European Parliament since 2014 and is a Vice President of the European People’s Party (EPP).

Page 4: József Antall Building | Brussels ROOM JAN6Q2 | EUROPEAN … · 2020. 10. 25. · awarded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and has been a lawyer since 1998. In 2012 he received

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Pierantonio PanzeriPierantonio Panzeri is the Chair of the Sub-committee on Human Rights in the European Parliament since 2017. From 1995 until 2003, he was Secretary General of trade union in Milan, the biggest of Europe, and during this period, he became national manager of CGIL for European policies.

In 2004, he was elected at the European Parliament in the North West constituency in the ranks of PSE, an office renewed at the elections of 2009. In June 2014, he was elected again and joined the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group (S&D). Besides chairing the Subcommittee on Human Rights , he is also a member of the Foreign Affair

Committee and the the permanent rapporteur about Libya for the European Parliament. For seven years, he has been Chair of the Delegation for relation with Maghreb countries and member of the Political Commission of Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.

Mariya GabrielBulgarian-born Mariya Gabriel is the current European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. She was the Vice-President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament from 2014-2017. Mariya Gabriel was a Member of the European Parliament, EPP/GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) from 2009-2017.

Since 2012, Mariya Gabriel has served as Vice-President of EPP Women. Prior to this she was Parliamentary Secretary to MEPs from the GERB political party within the EPP Group in 2008-2009.

She is part of project teams, such as Digital Single Market, Energy Union, Better Regulation and Interinstitutional Affairs, Budget and Human Resources, and Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness.

Sahle-Work ZewdeMs. Sahle-Work Zewde is the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) at the level of Under-Secretary-General. 

Ms. Zewde is the first woman appointed to this position. Before her current assignment Ms. Zewde was Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON). Prior to that she was the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) and served as Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission

for Africa (ECA), as well as Director-General for African Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia. Ms.  Zewde also served as the Ethiopian Ambassador to France, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and accredited to Tunisia and Morocco (2002-2006).  From 1993 to 2002, she served as Ambassador to Djibouti and Permanent Representative to the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), and to Senegal, with accreditation to Mali, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Guinea (1989-1993). 

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Cessouma Minata SamateAmbassador Samate, Commissioner for Political Affairs of the African Union, is a lawyer and a career diplomat. Previously, she was the Director of the Joint Coordination and Support Mechanism for the Hybrid Mission of the African Union and the United Nations for Darfur (June 2014 to July 2015), an Ambassador of Burkina Faso in Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union (December 2011 to May 2014), the Minister for Regional Cooperation of Burkina Faso (June 2007 to April 2011), and a Diplomatic Advisor to the President of Burkina Faso (November 2003 to May 2007).

Christian LefflerMr Leffler joined the Swedish Foreign Service in 1980. After postings in Cairo, Paris and Stockholm, he joined the team negotiating Sweden’s accession to the EU and worked in the Swedish Representation to the EU. Having joined the European Commission in 1996, he became Deputy Head of the Private Office of the High Honourable Chris Patten, European Commissioner for External Relations, in 1999. From 2002 until 2010, he was Director for the Middle East and South Mediterranean in the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations and Head of Cabinet of Mrs Margot Wallström, Commission Vice President for Institutional Relations and Communication. During 2010 he was Deputy

Director General for Development and relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States in the European Commission. He was also a senior adviser to EU High Representative for CFSP and European Commission Vice-President Catherine Ashton, assisting her in the preparation for the establishment of the new European External Action Service. From 2011 to 2015 he was Managing Director for Americas in the European External Action Service. Mr Leffler took up his current position as Deputy Secretary-General for Economic and Global Issues in September 2015.

Tana de ZuluetaTana de Zulueta is a former member of the Italian Parliament and independent consultant in the fields of election observation and assistance, media and human rights. She was Head of Mission (HOM) for the ODIHR Election Observation Mission (EOM) for the presidential election in Montenegro in April this year. She has lead a number of ODIHR Observation, Assessment and Expert missions: for the parliamentary elections in Germany and in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 2017, in Belarus in 2016, for the three ODIHR EOMs to Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, and, previously, in Uzbekistan (2015) and Azerbaijan (2013). She was Team Leader and Political & Human Rights Expert for the EU EEM to Rwanda

(2010) and in Niger the same year as Political Expert. As a member of the Italian Parliament, and former Vice-president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Tana de Zulueta participated in 12 election observation missions over 10 years, including as EU Chief Observer. Before entering Parliament she worked for 20 years as a journalist in Italy, first as correspondent for the London Sunday Times, and then for the Economist.

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Marietje SchaakeMarietje Schaake has been serving as Member of European Parliament for D66/ALDE political group since 2009. She is Coordinator on the International Trade committee, where she is the ALDE spokesperson on transatlantic trade and digital trade. Schaake also serves on the committee on Foreign Affairs and the subcommittee on Human Rights. She is the Vice-President of the US Delegation and serves on the Iran Delegation and the Delegation for the Arab peninsula. Furthermore, Schaake is the founder of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Digital Agenda for Europe. In 2017 she was Chief of the European Union Election Observation Mission in Kenya. Since 2014, Schaake is a ‘Young Global Leader’

with the World Economic Forum and she was recently appointed as co-chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Agile Governance. Schaake is a Member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity, the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and chair of the CEPS Taskforce on Software Vulnerability Disclosure in Europe. Furthermore, she is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and an advisor to the Center for Human Technology.

Yves LetermeYves Leterme, a Belgian national, is the Secretary-General of the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA.

Prior to International IDEA, Leterme served as Prime Minister of Belgium (2007 to 2011) and then as Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris (2011 to 2014).

Before serving as Prime Minister, Leterme held a variety of political posts in Belgium. After starting his career as an Alderman in his home town of Ypres, he became a Member of

Parliament in the Chamber of Representatives, Group Chairman and leader of the opposition, Secretary-General and Chairman of the CD&V party, Minister- President and Minister for Agriculture of the Flemish Government, Federal Senator, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Budget and Mobility, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During Leterme’s tenure as Prime Minister, Belgium held the Presidency of the European Union. Leterme also worked, inter alia, as a deputy auditor at the Belgian Court of Audit and as an administrator at the European Parliament.

Patrick MerloePatrick Merloe is Senior Associate and Director of Electoral Programs at the National Democratic Institute (NDI). He has over 30 years of experience in promoting citizen empowerment, governmental accountability and public policy advocacy. Pat has participated in over 170 international missions for NDI to more than 65 countries, concerning political rights, electoral integrity and democratic development. He has produced a dozen publications on comparative law, human rights and elections, and served as the principal drafter and negotiator of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which is endorsed by more than 50 international organizations and recognized with

appreciation in U.N. General Assembly resolutions. He also facilitated the process that produced the Declaration of Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organizations, promulgated by the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM) and endorsed by over 250 organizations from more than 85 countries. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia Law School and has taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania and University of San Francisco law schools.

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Elena ValencianoElena Valenciano is a Member of the European Parliament since 2014.

In 1978 she joined the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). She was the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights between 2014-2016 and is currently   vice-president of the S&D Group responsible for Foreign Affairs, International Trade, Development and Human Rights. She was Member of the Spanish National Parliament from 2008 to 2014 (Socialist spokesperson in the Foreign Affairs Committee). She was also Deputy Leader of PSOE from 2012 to 2014 and the party’s Secretary of International Policy and Cooperation

from 2008 to 2012. Staunch defender of women’s rights and gender equality since her youth, she is founder of the Mujeres Foundation, which she chaired from 1999 to 2013. She was Chief Observer of the EU EOM in Haiti (2015-2016) and of the EU EOM in Lebanon (2018).

Mohamed ChambasMohamed Ibn Chambas, a Ghanaian national, was made Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) on 12 February 2016. He held the position of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and Head of the UN Office for West Africa since 12 September 2014. He was previously the Joint Special representative (JSR) of the African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and Joint Chief Mediator (JCM) in charge of the Darfur peace negotiations, since April 2013.

Prior to that, Mr. Chambas was the Secretary General of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) from March 2010 to March 2013.

Before his leadership of the ACP, Mr. Chambas served as President of the 15-member Economic

Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 2007 to 2010. He also served as the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS starting in February 2002, when ECOWAS was a Secretariat.

Earlier to heading the ECOWAS Secretariat, Mr. Chambas was a Member of Parliament in Ghana, where he served at various periods as First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Chairman of the

Appointments Committee, Chairman of the Privileges Committee, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Member of the Select Committee on Education and the Committee on subsidiary Legislation. Between April 1997 and December 2000, Mr. Chambas was the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education.

Between 1991 and 1996, he was centrally involved in the ECOWAS mediation efforts in Liberia and directly participated in the negotiations leading to the agreements ending the Liberian civil war.

Mr. Chambas first entered Government in 1987 as Deputy Foreign Minister of Ghana.

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Pekka HaavistoPekka Haavisto is the President of the European Institute of Peace.

He is a Member of Finnish Parliament (1987-1995, 2007- ). He has twice served as a minister. Haavisto was the first green minister in Europe, as a Minister for Environment and Development in Lipponen’s first government (1995-1999). He has also recently served as a Minister for Development and State Ownership in Katainen-Stubb government (2013-2014).

Haavisto has acted as the Chairperson of the Finnish Greens (1993-1995) and as the Chairperson of the European Green Party (2000-2006).

In autumn 2014 he was appointed as Foreign Minister’s Special Representative for African Crises. Before he has worked as the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) in Sudan and Darfur (2005-2007), and as a Special Advisor for the UN (ASG) in Darfur peace process (2007). He has also led several missions to conflict areas as the Chairman of UNEP’s post-conflict work in 1999-2005.

Jason CarterJason Carter is the Chairman of the Carter Center Board of Trustees. He received a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in philosophy and political science from Duke University, before serving in the Peace Corps in South Africa. During his time there he worked on education issues in rural areas. Carter wrote a book on his experiences in South Africa entitled Power Lines. He attended the University of Georgia School of Law and he is an associate at the law firm of Bondurant, Mixson, and Elmore in Atlanta. Jason Carter served in the Georgia Senate from 2010-2014, the first member of his family to win elected office since his grandfather, Jimmy Carter, was elected President of the United States. He has been involved in many

Carter Center projects, including serving as co-leader of Carter Center election missions to Egypt, Myanmar, and Liberia.

Yvette Chesson-WurehCounsellor Dr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh is the Establishment Coordinator of the influential Liberian-based Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC) for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security. As an advocate and champion of women’s rights and gender equality, she is best known for initiating the “Women’s Situation Room” (WSR) for the Liberian elections in 2011. WSR enables peaceful, democratic elections led by empowered women through a structure of volunteers, a call center, a team of eminent women leaders and a pool of experts across the country. Since then, the WSR has been successfully replicated in 7 countries across Africa. She received her Juris

Doctorate law degree with honors from the North Carolina Central University School of Law and serves on many US and Liberian boards including the United States Supreme Court Bar, the U.S. Federal District Bar, and the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL).

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Heidi HautalaHeidi Hautala is a Vice President of the European Parliament and a former Minister for International Development and State Ownership Steering of Finland. Currently she is a member of the Development committee, the Committee on Legal Affairs and the International Trade committee. She has taken part in several European Parliament Election Observation Missions, including the 2017 Armenian election as the Head of Delegation.

Heidi is also a previous chair and current member of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. In 2009-2011, she chaired the European Parliament Subcommittee

on Human Rights. Heidi has chaired, amongst others, DEMO, an organisation for Political Parties of Finland for Democracy, supporting multi-party democracy in new and developing democracies. She has for many years been active in organizations promoting direct democracy, e.g. Initiative and Referendum Europe.

Isabel SantosIsabel Santos (Portugal) was elected Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly at the Tbilisi Annual Session in 2016. She had previously served three years as Chair of the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, and before that as Vice-Chair. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration.

Santos was a Member of the Portuguese Parliament from 2005 to 2009 and resumed her service in Parliament in 2011. She is currently a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities, the Committee on Labour and Social Security, and

the Subcommittee on Gender. From 2005 to 2009, she was a member of the Bureau of the Portuguese Parliament.

Santos participated in numerous OSCE PA election observation missions, including to Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. She served as Head of OSCE PA observers on missions to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the United States.

Mario GaleaMario Galea is one of the most senior parliamentarians in the Parliament of Malta, having been elected in six elections. From 2008 and 2013 he was a Junior Minister in the Ministry of Health. He has a degree in Nursing and lectures at the University of Malta. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Election Monitoring and Election Assistance from the National University of Catalonia, Spain. He observed many elections on behalf of the European Union, Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (British Islands and Mediterranean Region). The countries where he observed elections include Gambia, Gaza and West Bank , Liberia, Zimbabwe, Yemen and many others. He was Head

of Mission in three different Elections Observation Missions in The Caribbean Region.

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Oliver KaskOliver Kask is a Judge, member of the Venice Commission. From 2017 he has been an alternate member of the Management Board of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

From 2006 he has been a member of Council for Democratic Elections (in 2015-2017 Vice-Chairman, as of 2017 the President), and from

2004 - a judge at the Administrative Chamber of the Tallinn Court of Appeal.

In 2010-2016, Mr Kas was an ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights. Previously Mr Kask was a member of Expert Committee for the analysis of the European Union Constitutional Treaty by Riigikogu (2005), , a substitute Member of European Commission for Democracy through Law (2004-2005), and the Head of Public Law Division of the Legislative Policy Department at the Ministry of Justice of Estonia (2002-2004).

Ingibjörg Sólrún GísladóttirIngibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir (Iceland), began her tenure as Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on 19 July 2017.

Gísladóttir has 35 years of leadership experience working on human rights, democratic governance and the rule of law at the international, national and local levels. Before taking up the position of ODIHR Director, she served from 2014 as Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia at UN Women, and Country Representative to Turkey. From 2011 to 2014 she was Country Representative of UN Women to Afghanistan.

From 2007 to 2009, Gísladóttir served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland. She was previously a Member of Parliament and Chairperson and Leader of the Social Democratic Alliance (2005 – 2009) and Mayor of the City of Reykjavik (1994 – 2003). Throughout her career, she has been involved in policy and development work in conflict and non-conflict countries, aimed at strengthening democratic institutions and human rights.

In the early years of her political career, in 1982, Gísladóttir was one of the founders of the Women’s Party, laying the ground for Iceland’s remarkable progress in gender equality.

Lotte KnudsenLotte Knudsen joined the EEAS in 2016 as Managing Director responsible for Human Rights, global and multilateral issues, having previously served as Director for Human Development and Migration from 2014 – 2016. Before that she was Director for “Criminal Justice” in the Justice Directorate-General from 2010 – 2014, and was Acting Director for Security in the same DG for two years. Lotte Knudsen worked in the Foreign Office of the UK and different services in the Commission, including the Secretariat General, External Relations including relations with the United States, enlargement and as an Assistant.

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High Level Conference on the FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION

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Roger Nkodo Dang Roger Nkodo Dang is the President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) since 2015. He is currently serving his second term.

From 2012 to 2015, he served as the 1st Vice-President of the PAP. During this tenure he has lead several missions of the Pan-African Parliament, including to the American Congress where the delegation lobbied and achieved the lifting of sanctions from The Sudan; to the European Parliament, resulting in stronger relations between PAP and EP; as a Spokesperson of the EP and PAP Parliamentarians during the AU-EU Summits; as a

Spokesperson during COP 21, 22 and 23, respectively.

He has been a member of the Pan-African Parliament since 2006 and he has also been a member of his National Parliament (Cameroon National Assembly) for 20 years. He has also served as member of the bureau of the National Assembly for 19 years to date. He is also a Member of the Special Council of the Judiciary of the Republic of Cameroon since 2012.

Michael GahlerMichael Gahler has been a member of the European Parliament since 1999 and is currently (2014-2019) serving on the committee on foreign affairs, and the subcommittee on security and defence (where he is spokesperson of the EPP Group). He is a substitute member of the committee on transport and tourism. He is the chairman of the delegation for the relations with the Pan-African Parliament, member of the South Africa delegation, and member of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly ACP-EU. Mr Gahler studied law in Germany, with further studies in France, and later joined the diplomatic school of the foreign office (1990-1991), after which he spent two years as desk officer in the department of ‘international

environmental politics’. From 1993-1995, he was assistant in the international office of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Between 1995 and 1999, again with the German foreign office, he was desk officer for the Baltic States and the Council of the Baltic Sea states.

He was Chief Observer of the EU EOM in Pakistan (2008, 2013 and 2018) and in Tunisia (2011).

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Craig JennessMr. Craig Jenness is the Director of the Electoral Assistance Division in the Department of Political Affairs (EAD/DPA) with the United Nations Secretariat in New York. As Director, he advises the Secretary-General and the United Nations’ Focal Point for Electoral Assistance Activities on matters relating to requests from Member States for electoral assistance. Mr. Jenness assumed the post of Director of EAD/DPA in July 2006.

Before joining EAD/DPA, Mr. Jenness was appointed by the Secretary-General to serve as International Commissioner on the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. As

International Commissioner, he headed all UN electoral assistance to the Iraq Election Commission for the December 2005 General Elections and was also a non voting member of the Election Commission. Prior to assuming this post, Mr. Jenness served in the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) as the Senior Adviser to the SRSG. From 2001 to 2004 he was Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje. His previous experience includes missions with the UN and the OSCE in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Cambodia. Mr. Jenness also served as Head of the OSCE’s Election Support Team to Afghanistan during the parliamentary and provincial elections in 2005, as a member of the UN Expert Panel for the Afghanistan presidential elections in 2004 and as Head of the IOM Out-of-Country Voting Programme in Iran for the 2004 Afghan elections.

Mairead McGuinnessMairead McGuinness is the First Vice-President of the European Parliament and represents the Midlands-North-West constituency in Ireland.

As First Vice-President, she oversees relations with national parliaments, in particular with the EU affairs committees of Member State parliaments. She also has responsibility for the Parliament’s dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations on EU policies and legislative proposals under Article 17 of the TFEU.

Mairead is Vice-Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee and is Chair of the Transatlantic Relations Working Group in the European Ideas Network think-tank.

She is a member of the Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee and the Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Mairead is a Member of the European Parliament since 2004 and has been a Vice-President of the Parliament since 2014.

Prior to becoming an MEP, Mairead was a journalist, broadcaster and commentator.

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