Parliamentary Dimension
Bulgarian Presidency
of the Council of the European Union

TSVETA KARAYANCHEVA

PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tsveta Karayancheva started her political career as a municipal councilor in the town of Kardzhali. She was elected Member of the 41st, 42nd and 43rd National Assembly. She has been a Member of the standing parliamentary committees on regional policy, public works and local self-government, agriculture and forestry, and labor and social policy. She was elected Vice President of the Parliament within the current 44th National Assembly. On 17 November 2017 she was elected President of the Bulgarian Parliament. She is the Head of the National Assembly Delegation to the Interparliamentary Union as well as of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the South-East European Cooperation Process.

DZHEMA GROZDANOVA

Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee

Dzhema Grozdanova is Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the 44th and 43rd National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. In the 42nd National Assembly she is member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and of the Healthcare Committee. She is Chairperson of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds in the 41st National Assembly. Ms. Grozdanova is Chair of the Friendship Group Bulgaria-USA in the 44th and the 43rd National Assembly. She is Head of the Bulgarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in the 44th, 43rd and the 41st National Assembly. She has been Vice-President of PACE from 2009 to 2011 and from January 2015 to January 2016. Ms Grozdanova initiated the Sofia declaration in PACE, which was unanimously adopted on the 27th November 2015. The Declaration calls for a 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government in support of the European unity and cooperation.

CONSTANTIN POPOV

Chair of the Defense Committee

General Constantin Popov is a military pilot with over 1200 flight hours and has served as Commander of a fighter squadron and air base Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force, Deputy Chief and Chief of Defense of the Republic of Bulgaria. General Popov is one of the first senior Bulgarian officers who worked in a NATO Headquarter as Chief of Staff, NATO Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz, Poland (2005 – 2006) and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Allied Air Component Command HQs, Izmir, Turkey (2006 to 2008). He holds a Master’s Degree from Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, USA and a Ph.D. in 'Organization and Management of the Armed Forces' from the Military Academy "G.S.Rakovski" in Sofia. He is currently Chairperson of the Defense Committee and member of the Committee on Internal Security and Public Order of the 44th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria.

DAVID McALLISTER

Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) of the European Parliament

David McAllister was Member of the Lower Saxony parliament from 1998 to 2014, where from 2003 to 2010 he was Chair of the CDU Group. On 1 July 2010, the Lower Saxony parliament elected him Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, an Office which he held until 2013. In 2014 McAllister was elected MEP. In November 2014, he was elected Vice Chair of the International Democratic Union (IDU) in Seoul and has been Vice President of the European People’s Party since October 2015. In the European Parliament, McAllister is Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), substitute member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and the Sub-Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE), member of the Delegation for Relations with the USA and the Delegation for Relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and substitute member of the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee.

FEDERICA MOGHERINI

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission

Federica Mogherini has served as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission since 2014. She was Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy from 22 February 2014 until 31 October 2014. She was elected Member of the Italian Parliament from 2008 until 2014. In 2013-2014 she was head of the Italian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. From 2008 to 2013 she served as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

EKATERINA ZAHARIEVA

Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria

Ekaterina Zaharieva has been Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria since 2017. She has served as a Minster of Justice in the second government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov from 2015 until 2017. In 2013 and 2014 she has been Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Public Works in the first and second caretaker government of President Rossen Plevneliev. 2013–2015 Zaharieva served as Chief of Staff to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria and 2012–2013 – as General Secretary of the Administration of President Rossen Plevneliev. She was Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works in the first government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov (2009-2013).

EDUARD KUKAN

Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee in the European Parliament

Eduard Kukan has been Member of the European Parliament since 2009. He has been serving in the Committee on Foreign Affairs since then. In addition, he was a member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights between 2009 and 2014. In 2014, he moved to the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. Kukan was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia from 1998 to 2006. In 1999, he was appointed United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans, a position he held until 2001.

THOMAS MAYR-HARTING

EEAS Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia

Thomas Mayr-Harting has been the Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia in the European External Action Service since November 2015. Until October 2015 he was the EU Head of Delegation to the United Nations in New York City. Before taking up this appointment he served as Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in New York between December 2008 and October 2011. In this latter capacity he also represented Austria on the United Nations Security Council from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2010. From 2002 to 2004 Mayr-Harting also was the Special Representative of the Austrian Foreign Minister for the Western Balkans. From 1999 to 2003 he was Ambassador of Austria to Belgium and Head of the Austrian Mission to NATO.

GERALD KNAUS

Founding Chairman of the European Stability Initiative

Gerald Knaus is ESI's founding chairman. He is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and was for five years an Associate Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School, where he was a Visiting Fellow in 2010/2011 lecturing on state building and intervention. From 2001 to 2004, he was the director of the Lessons Learned Unit of the EU Pillar of the UN Mission in Kosovo. He taught economics at university in Ukraine in 1993/94 and spent five years working for NGOs and international organisations in Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

VESSELA TCHERNEVA

Director of ECFR Sofia

Vessela Tcherneva is Programme Director and Head of European Council on Foreign Relations, Sofia Office since 2016. She is Director of Wider Europe programme in ECFR since 2013. From February 2010 to March 2013 Tcherneva is spokesperson of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2008-2010 she has been the Head of the Sofia office and Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Realtions.

GORAN SVILANOVIĆ

Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council

Goran Svilanović is Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), as of 1 January 2013. From 2000 to 2004, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. He was also a member of the Senior Review Group of the Stability Pact, which proposed the transformation of the Stability Pact into the Regional Co-operation Council.

ASEN AGOV

Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria (1997-2001)

Asen Agov is currently Energy Security Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria. He is elected member of the 37th, 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. Agov is Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the 38th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. He was Vice-President of the 39th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. In the 40th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria Agov was Vice-Chair of the Defense Committee. In the 41st National Assembly he is member of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds.

ROZÁLIA-IBOLYA BIRÓ

Chairperson of the Committee for Foreign Policy Chamber of Deputies of Romania

Rozália-Ibolya Biró is a Chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania since 2016. Since 2014 she is Vice-president of the Women Organisation of European People’s Party. From 2012 to 2016 she was Senator in the Parliament of Romania, on behalf of RMDSZ (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians from Romania). In this period Biró was President of the Committee for Human Rights, Religion and Minorities in the Senate of Romania. She was Deputy Mayor of City of Oradea from 2011 to 2012.

DENITSA NIKOLOVA

Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works оf the Republic of Bulgaria

Denitsa Nikolova is Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria, in charge of the urban policy and territorial cohesion, regional development programs, European erritorial Cooperation programs, the Solidarity Fund and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Ms. Nikolova holds a Master's degree in Financе and has a number of specializations as well as practical knowledge and experience in the field of general management, financial control and implementation of EU funded programs and in the development and implementation of financial engineering instruments. Her extensive professional experience includes also strategic planning of regional development, project management, foreign investment consultancy and financial instruments implementation in Bulgaria.

GÁBOR JENEI

National Coordinator of the EUSDR, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary

After the 6th Annual Forum of the EUSDR in Budapest, October 19, 2017 Gábor Jenei was nominated a National Coordinator of the EU Strategy for the Danube Strategy (EUSDR) and as such he is responsible for coordinating the Hungarian contribution to the implementation of the Strategy’s sectoral action plans. In 2015 he became the Deputy National Coordinator of the EUSDR as a Head of Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was acquainted with the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) and its stakeholders through the management of INTERREG programmes. From 2011 onwards, he worked for the Regional Development Agency in charge of both managing the Regional Operational Programme and planning the 2014-2020 financial period for the same OP. Between 2005 and 2011, the governmental water directorate employed Jenei where he managed environmental investment projects supported by mainstream and Cross-Border Co-operation (CBC) Programmes.

GEORG GEORGIEV

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs оf the Republic of Bulgaria

Georg Georgiev has been Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria since May 2017. He was member of the 43rd National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. During this legislative term he was member of Foreign Policy Committee (28.11.2014 -26.01.2017); member of European Affairs and Oversight of European Funds Committee (15.01.2015 -12.11.2015); member of Education and Science Committee (12.11.2015 -26.01.2017) and Member of Ad-hoc Committee of Inquiry on verifying all data, facts and circumstances regarding decisions and actions under the Belene Nuclear Power Plant Project from 2006 to the end of September 2016. He is Chair of the Youth Organization of the Political Party of GERB (MGERB) since 2014. Georgiev was Deputy Chair of the European Democrat Students (EDS), European People’s Party (EPP) from 2014 to 2015.

DR. SOLOMON PASSY

President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria (2001-2005)

Dr. Solomon Passy is founder (in 1990) and President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria. He served as Foreign Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria in 2001-2005 and was Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2004. He represented Bulgaria at UN Security Council (2002 – 2003) and was its Chairman (September 2002 and December 2003). Dr. Passy served as Chairman of the Committees on Foreign Affairs (2005-2009) and Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security (2001) of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. He was the first non-NATO Vice-President of the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA), Paris (1996-1999) and Chair of the Transparency and Accountability Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE (2006-2009).

Amb. BISERKA BENISHEVA

Director for EU Affairs at PanEuropa Bulgaria

Ambassador Benisheva is a carrier diplomat with a profile on European affairs, currently working as a Director for EU Affairs at PanEuropa Bulgaria. She was Director (1997 - 2001) and Director General for EU Affairs (2007 - 2012) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, member of the core team negotiating association (1992) and accession (2000 - 2004) of Bulgaria to the European Union. Ambassador Benisheva was Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Bulgaria to Ireland (2003 - 2007) and to Hungary (2012-2016). She was also a President of the Danube Commission in her capacity of Ambassador to Hungary (2012 - 2014).

GABOR IKLODY

EEAS Director for Crisis Management and Planning Directorate (CMPD)

Gabor Iklody took up his duties as Director for Crisis Management and Planning Directorate (CMPD) of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in June 2014. Before that he has served as NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges with responsibility for cyber defense, counter-terrorism, WMD non-proliferation and energy security. He has 27 years of distinguished national public service that includes Political Director and State Secretary in charge of multilateral and security issues in the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and two four-year terms as Ambassador in Norway (1999-2003) and in Sweden (2005-2009).

MIHNEA MOTOC

Deputy Head of EPSC, Minister of Defense of Romania (2015-2017)

Mihnea Motoc is Deputy Head of European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), a think tank of the European Commission. He has had a distinguished career in Romania's diplomatic service and government, having been Ambassador to the Netherlands (1999 - 2001) as well as Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2003 – 2008) and to the European Union (2008 – 2015). From 2015 to 2017 he served as Romania's Minister of National Defense.

BOYKO NOEV

Minister of Defense of the Republic of Bulgaria (1994-1995 and 1999-2001) and Ambassator to NATO (1996-1999)

Ambassador Boyko Noev has served as Deputy Minister of Defense (1994) and Minister of Defense (1994-1995 and 1999-2001). With an educational background in International Relations and years of experience as a diplomat on the international stage he was the Bulgarian Ambassador to NATO, Belgium and Luxembourg (1996-1999). During his diplomatic career at the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1981-1999), Ambassador Noev was also member and deputy-head of the Bulgarian delegations to the OSCE and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. He served as Director, Center for National Security Studies at the Ministry of Defense (1993). He is the author of many publications and media appearances and has affiliations with the NGO sector and consultancy entities.

PROF. TODOR TAGAREV

Minister of Defense of the Republic of Bulgaria (2013)

Prof. Tagarev is Head of the Centre for Security and Defence Management, Institute of ICT, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He served as Defense Minister in March-May 2013. He was Director of the Bulgarian Defence Institute (2016-2017), first director of the Defence Planning Directorate at the Ministry of Defence of Bulgaria, Director for Armaments Policy and National Armaments Director (1998-2001). From September 2009 till September 2010 he was advisor to the Bulgarian Minister of Defence. Tagarev was Head of the Security and Defence Management Department at G.S. Rakovski National Defence Academy in Sofia (2004-2008), and Head of the “IT for Security” Department, Institute of ICT, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (2010-2016). Dr. Tagarev was member of the NATO Science and Technology Board (previously, Research and Technology Board) in 1999-2001, 2005-2008 and 2016-2017. In the latter period he was also member of the R&T Steering Board of the European Defence Agency, of the Group of Senior Experts appointed by NATO Secretary General to review the governance mechanisms for the use of common funding, and of the group of national representatives for the Long-Term Review of the European Defence Agency.

ASAF HAJIYEV

PABSEC Secretary General

Asaf Hajiyev has been Secretary General of the PABSEC since 2015. He served as Vice-President of the PABSEC in the periods 2006-2008 and 2011-2013. From 1996 until 2015 he was Member of Parliament of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Мilli Majlis) and Member of the Committee of Science and Education. Hajiyev was Chair, Department of Probability and Statistics, Baku State University in 2001-2015. Since 1997 he is Chair of the Department of Applied Probability and Statistics in the Institute of Control Systems (ANAS).

IVAILO KALFIN

Special Advisor to EU Commissioner Oettinger, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria (2005-2009)

Ivaylo Kalfin has been appointed as Special Advisor to EU Commissioner Oettinger in April 2017. He has been exploring new alternatives for own resources to the EU budget with a mandate, agreed by the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission in his capacity as member of the High Level Group on Own Resources from 2014 until 2017. From October 2014 until May 2016 he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Policy. Kalfin was Member of the National Assembly in the period July 2014-October 2014 as leader of the group of ABV political party and led on behalf of ABV the negotiations on the political priorities of the government. He has served as Member of the 7th European Parliament and has been Vice-chair of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG), member of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT), the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the temporary Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS). Kalfin has been Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 2005 until Juy 2009.

IOAN MIRCEA PASCU

Vice-President of the European Parliament

Ioan Mircea Pascu has been elected Member of the European Parliament since 2007. He is currently Vice-President of the European Parliament, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. He has been Minister of National Defence Ministry of National Defence in 2000−2004 and member of the Romanian Parliament for Satu Mare Chamber of Deputies, Romanian Parliament from 2000 until 2007. He has been Vice-president of the Social Democratic Party in 1997−2006.

VICTOR BOŞTINARU

Member of the European Parliament, EP Delegation for Relations with China

Victor Boştinaru is a Romanian member of the European Parliament. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and member of the Committtee on Foreign Affairs and of the Committee on Regional Development. He is member of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China in the European Parliament. Boştinaru has been adviser on external policy and international relations to the President of the Chamber of Deputies in Romania from 2001 to 2004 and from 2005 to 2006. In 2004 he has been State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania.

Ms. Dayana Asenova

Advisor, Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union Department

+359 2 939 36 03

[email protected]