TCF 2017

Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania

Etjen Xhafaj

He serves as Deputy Minister of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in Albania. He has served as Director of the Minister’s Cabinet at the Albanian Ministry of Finance (2016- 2017), Director of the Minister’s Cabinet at the Ministry of Economic Development, and Entrepreneurship Trade (2013-2015) & at the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (USAID) Program Officer (2003-2005). From 2005 onwards, he has worked on translation of text, legislation and studies for a variety of public and private institutions, both national and foreign, such as the OSCE, the World Bank, IMF, etc. He has been member of several working groups that have drafted and prepared studies and publications on policy, economics, development, employment etc. In 2013, he has been a co-writer of the study on the development of the Albanian democracy over the Transition period, in collaboration with the National Democracy Institute and representatives from left wing parties from Eastern Europe. He holds an Associate Degree on International Relations from the Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA, a B.A. in Diplomacy and International Relations and in International Economics from Schiller International University, Paris, France, Master’s in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Italian Ambassador to the Republic of Albania

H.E. Alberto Cutillo

President of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation

Wolfgang Petritsch

Programme Manager for Economic Reforms, South East Europe Division of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Anita Richter

Executive Director European Fund for the Balkans

Hedvig Morvani

Professor, University of Tirana

Dr. Eralda Çani

Director of Strategic Planning and Development Unit Office of Prime Minister of Albania

Oriana Arapi

Deputy Head of Unit Regional Co-Operation and Programmes (Western Balkans), DG NEAR

Nicholas Cendrowicz

Director Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, Office Albania

Björn Thies

Economist at the Vienna Institution of International Economic Studies (wiiw)

Richard Grieveson

Deputy Secretary General and Research Fellow, Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe

Dr.Florent Marciacq

Dr. Florent Marciacq is Deputy Secretary General and Research Fellow at the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe and Senior Fellow at the Centre international de formation européenne in Berlin and Nice. He is the cofounder and coordinator of the following think-tank track-2 initiatives: the “Western Balkans Reflection Forum”, launched in support of the Berlin process, and “Eastern Partnership Reflection Forum”, launched in Minsk in 2017. Florent Marciacq holds a Ph.D. in political sciences. He previously worked as an Associate Researcher at the European Governance Research Group of the University of Luxembourg, OSCE Researcher in residence in Prague and Guest researcher at the Austrian Defence Academy in Vienna. Florent Marciacq teaches European politics and regularly publishes academic peer-reviewed contributions, think-tank policy-papers and articles in the press.

Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Switzerland in Albania

Philipp Keller

Co-Chair of Economic Forum of Macedonia

Fatmir Besimi

Coordinatorof the Managing Authority, Adriatic Ionian Programme 2014-2020 “Adrion” Emilia-Romagna Region

Lodovico Gherardi

Head of Secretariat of Albanian Investment Council

Diana Leka

Executive Director, Think tank Populari

Alida Vracic

Director for South-Eastern Europe, Turkey and the EFTA States,Federal Foreign Officeof Germany

Dr. Christian Hellbach

Head of the Department for Western Balkans, EU Enlargement and Twinning Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austria

Klaus Wölfer

Klaus Wölfer serves as Director of the Department for EU-enlargement and South-East Europe at the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs in Vienna from September 2017. His previous work includes Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Turkey (2012-2017), Ambassador to Indonesia, Singapore and Timor-Leste, (2007-2011), Head of the Directorate General for the Arts, Federal Chancellery (2002-2006) and from 1991-1996 as responsible for the then Balkan-Crisis-Zone (Political Department) at the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs/Vienna. Mr. Wölfer has served in many Austrian Embassies like in Rome, Belgrade, Budapest and Zagreb. He has graduated from Law studies in Vienna and the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna.

Head of Division South Eastern Europe and EU Enlargement Policy in the European Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

Magdalena Czubala

Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Albania

H.E. Duncan Norman MBE

Senior Fellow and Balkans Project Director Centre International de Formation Européene (CIFE)

Tobias Flessenkemper

Head of SWP Brussels Office

Dušan Reljić

Head of the Brussels office of Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs – Berlin, since 2013. 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

Country Representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS)

Walter Glos

Walter Glos is Country Representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in Albania since January 2016. Mr. Glos has been a member of KAS since 1988. From 2003 until 2015, he was Head of the Finance and Project Management Department at the Central Department of European and International Cooperation of KAS. He was also Coordinator for Administration at the Central Department and International Cooperation of KAS from 1996 until 2003. As a youngster, he was politically active in the local government of his city of birth. Mr. Glos also served as Head of Social, Sport and Culture Department and Head of Subject Area and Social Help/ Home Assistance at the Association of Municipal Administration in Unkel, Germany.

Head of Office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Tirana

Prof. Dr. Wulf Lapins

Prof. Dr. Wulf Lapins is Head of Office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Tirana. Since 1993, he has helped in the establishment and management of the country offices of the Friedrich-Ebert- Foundation in the Baltics, East and Central Europe, South Caucasus, Central Asia, Western Balkans – in Kosovo. Since May 2017 to present, he manages the country office in Albania as well. Mr.LapinshasfinishedhisstudiesinPoliticalScience,HistoryandEducational Psychology in Düsseldorf/Bonn, Germany.

Minister of Innovation and Public Administration, Albania

HE Milena Harito

Secretary General, Regional Youth Cooperation Office

Đjuro Blanuša

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

Director of Research, Cooperation and Development Institute, Tirana

Ardian Hackaj

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.