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.

DELIAN DOBREV

Chair of the Energy Committee

Delian Dobrev was born on 14 May 1978 in Haskovo. In 2002 he graduated as a Bachelor of Economics at the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He specialized in accounting and finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Delian Dobrev is an expert in the field of managing European projects, financial and tax legislation. His professional career began at the KPMG consulting company in Toronto, Canada and the Newton Finance Management Group in Sofia. In 2009 he was elected Member of Parliament from PP GERB at the 41st National Assembly, he was Deputy Chair of the Committee on Economic Policy, Energy and Tourism and member of the Budget and Finance Committee. In 2012 he was appointed Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism. He is Member of Parliament from PP GERB at the 43rd and 44th National Assembly and Chair of the Energy Committee.

VLADIMIR URUTCHEV

Member of the European Parliament (ITRE, AGRI)

Vladimir Urutchev is the longest serving Bulgarian MEP from the EPP Group since Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union in 2007. As a nuclear power engineer with an interest in all forms of clean energy, he is currently a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) and is Vice-President of the European Energy Forum. Together with the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) he took part in several peer reviews on the safety of nuclear power plants worldwide. Vladimir Urutchev is a confirmed environmentalist, which sparked his interest to support environmentally sensitive agricultural developments. He is committed to the development of “green” entrepreneurship and sustainable business models for the circular economy and the careers of the future. Sharing the conviction that young people are the game-changers of tomorrow, he is a leading supporter of various initiatives for development of the entrepreneurial culture among young people in Bulgaria. Vladimir Urutchev is an Ambassador of the Junior Achievement European Entrepreneurship Education NETwork (EE-HUB) as well as a leading supporter of the Agripreneur initiative in Bulgaria to combine the best of rural heritage with the opportunities of modern agri-environmental practices.

CATHARINA SIKOW-MAGNY

Head of Unit for Networks & Regional Initiatives, DG Energy, European Commission

Catharina Sikow-Magny joined the European Commission in 1997 and is currently the head of unit in charge of Internal market I: networks and regional initiatives in the Directorate General of Energy. Before that, she has worked i.a. on international transport, trans-European network policy and financing, internalisation of external costs, and strategic policy research. Before joining the Commission, Catharina Sikow-Magny was a team leader and chief economist in the private sector in Finland. She has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She holds a Master of Economics degree from the Aalto University, Finland.

ZHECHO STANKOV

Deputy Minister of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria

Mr. Stankov is born on August 4, 1982. He is a graduate of the German University "Universitat Regensburg" where he holds a Master's degree in Economics. He has nearly 10 years of professional experience in the field of energy. Mr. Stankov has been involved in the management of several companies working in the technical supervision of high-risk facilities and the construction of compressor stations. He is the Co-founder and Secretary of the Bulgarian Compressed Gas Association. Since 2011 he has been a Municipal Councilor in the city of Burgas Municipal Council and Deputy Minister of Energy from 13.01.2015 to 27.01.2017. Elected for MP from Political Party GERB at the 44th National Assembly. Appointed as Deputy Minister of Energy on May 9, 2017. He speaks English and German.

JAROMÍR KOHLÍČEK

Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), European Parliament

Jaromír Kohlíček is a Czech politician, born in 1953. He is member of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy). From 1998 to 2004 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014, Jaromír Kohlíček was elected again in 2016 (Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left). He is Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), Member of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee (D-AU) and the Delegation for Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (DEPA), and substitute member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) and the Delegation to the EU-Kazakhstan, EU-Kyrgyzstan, EU-Uzbekistan and EU-Tajikistan Parliamentary Cooperation Committees, and for relations with Turkmenistan and Mongolia. Graduate of the University of Chemistry and Technology, he worked in the glassworks (1976 - 1995, engineer-technologist and general manager) and was general manager of a steelworks factory (1995 - 1998). Jaromír Kohlíček is married with four children. He speaks English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

ASSOC. PROF. IVAN IVANOV

Chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission of the Republic of Bulgaria

Ivan Ivanov graduated the Technical University of Sofia as electric engineer with specialty Electrical Measurement Equipment. He started his career as researcher and lecturer at the faculty of Automation where in 1976 he defended his dissertation and became PhD in the field of technical sciences. He is associate professor at the Technical University of Sofia since 1982 and at the National Technical School of Tunisia since 1985. In 1995 he was Head of the UNESCO Department at the Technical University of Sofia and member of the Faculty Council of the faculty of Automation. He is lecturer at the Francophone Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Sofia. He is the author of more than 60 scientific papers and reports, monographs, textbooks and teaching materials in Bulgarian and French. Ivan Ivanov was elected Member of Parliament at the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st National Assembly. During his 4 mandates he had been deputy chair and member of several parliamentary committees – the Energy Committee, Committee on Economic Policy, Energy and Tourism, Committee on Transport and Telecommunications, Committee on Education and Science, Committee on Foreign and Integration policy. He was deputy chair of the parliamentary delegation to the Inter-parliamentary Union, deputy chair and member of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. On 2 April 2015 the National Assembly elected Ivan Ivanov as Chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission.

SILVIA-MONICA DINICĂ, Ph.D.

Member of the Senate, Romanian Parliament

Born in 1976, Silvia-Monica DINICĂ graduated from the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Bucharest, Romania (1995-1999). She holds two master’s degrees - in Risk Management (Academy of Economic Studies, Finance and Banking Faculty, Bucharest, Romania (2008-2010), and in Applied Mathematics (Colorado State University, Colorado, United States, 2002- 2004). In 2014 she defended her Ph.D. thesis in Applied Mathematics, Colorado State University, Colorado, USA (2011-2014). Ms Silvia-Monica DINICĂ is a member of the Romanian Senate and is part of the "Save Romania" parliamentary group. She is member of the Committee for Economy, Industries and Services, the Committee for Transport and Energy, as well as Member of the special Committee tasked to review and amend the legislation on the marketing of food products. Her parliamentary activity covers several fields, including industrial and energy policy, nuclear safety, transport and energy infrastructure, as well as regional development, foreign investment, SMEs, tourism, implementation of a common commercial policy of the EU. Ms. Silvia-Monica DINICĂ speaks English, Spanish and French.

FRANZ JOSEF PSCHIERER

Bavarian State Minister of Economic Affairs, Energy and Technology and Chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs in the German Bundesrat

Franz Josef Pschierer was born in 1956 in Haunstetten. He studied politics and social science at the University of Augsburg 1978-1983. In the period 2008-2013 he held the position of State secretary in the Bavarian Ministry of Finance, from 2009 IT officer of the Bavarian State Government. In the period 2013-2018 he has been State Secretary in the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology. Since March 2018 he is Bavarian State Minister of Economic Affairs, Energy and Technology. He is Member of the Bavarian Landtag [State Parliament] since 1994 and county councillor in Unterallgäu council since 1996. In the period 2003-2008 he is Chairman of the committee of economic affairs, infrastructure, transport and technology. He is also member of the city council Mindelheim 2002-2008. He is Member of the Executive Committee of CSU and since 2013 Chairman of the CSU district association Unterallgäu. Mr. Pschierer is married and has 2 children.

MEGLENA RUSENOVA

Chairperson of the Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association

Meglena Rusenova was born in 1974 in Plovdiv. She is lawyer by education. Between 2001 and 2009 she was Deputy Regional Governor of the Plovdiv District. Since 2011, she has been Managing Director of solar and wind power plants. From 2013 she is Chairperson of the Board of the Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association. After a selection procedure from December 2015 she represents the producers of energy from renewable sources in the Management Board of the "Electricity Security System" Fund.

Mr. Georgi Tenev

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

+359 2 939 32 45; +359 885 236 480

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