Foundation Forum 2009 - Global recession: Europe's way out - Speakers & participants

Samira Ahmed is a presenter and correspondent for Channel 4 News. Previously she was an anchor on BBC World, News 24 and a reporter on Newsnight and the Today programme. During her time at the BBC she led the coverage of the OJ Simpson case, before moving to Europe to work as an anchor and political correspondent in Berlin. At Channel 4 she has specialised in social affairs and the arts - from profiling our love affair with the now defunct hovercraft and exposing the discrimination against children conceived through donor sperm and eggs, to interviewing Tim Burton and making features on cinema and design. She fronted the documentary Islam Unveiled for Channel 4, exploring the status of Muslim women and has lectured on terrorism, Islamic radicalism and feminism. She speaks fluent Hindi/Urdu and German.

Since January 2009, Michał Boni has been a Member of the Council of Ministers and Chief of the Permanent Committee of the Council of Ministers, with responsibility for coordinating the legislative activities of the Ministries. Mr Boni also leads the Board of Strategic Advisers to the Prime Minister, which is responsible for analysing the Polish socioeconomic situation and also participates in drawing up the government’s strategic plans. One of the authors of the ‘50+ Solidarity of generations’ programme, aimed at retaining those aged 50 years and over in the workforce, Mr Boni is also well known as a negotiator with trade unions on the themes of education, health care, the shipyard industry, and reform of the pension system.

Brian Cowen, Taoiseach. A lawyer by profession, Mr Cowen became Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland in 2008. He has been a TD (member of Irish Parliament) since 1984 for the constituency of Laois-Offaly in the Irish midlands. Mr Cowen has occupied a range of ministerial positions since the early 1990s: he was Minister for Labour in 1992–1993, Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications from 1993–1994, Minister for Health and Children in 1997–2000, and Minister for Foreign Affairs from January 2000 to September 2004. He served as Minister for Finance from September 2004 to May 2008 and was appointed Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) in June 2007. Mr Cowen was Front Bench Spokesperson for the Fianna Fáil party on Agriculture, Food and Forestry from December 1994 to March 1997 and on Health from March 1997 to June 1997. He also served on Offaly County Council from 1984 to 1992, the Offaly County Vocational Education Committee from 1989 to 1992 and the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body from 1991 to 1992.

Rudi Delarue has been Director of the ILO (International Labour Organisation) Brussels office for the EU and the Benelux countries since June 2008. Prior to taking up this post he was an official of the European Commission since 1999 where he held posts relating to international affairs (Enlargement, relations with the ILO and G8 Employment and Labour Ministerial, social dimension of globalisation and decent work); and to social dialogue. Between 1987 and 1999 he was an official of the Christian trade union confederation of Belgium (ACV/CSC). Mr Delarue was born in 1963 in Tienen, Belgium. He graduated with a Law degree from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1986 and subsequently pursued European studies at the College of Europe in Bruges. He has published on Belgian, EU and international labour relations, on employment policy, and on EU and ILO issues. He is President of Arktos (NGO dealing with social integration of youth).

Amy Domini is Founder and CEO of Domini Social Investments. She is widely recognised as the leading voice for socially responsible investing. In 2005, Time magazine designated her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Also in 2005, she was awarded the Clinton Global Initiative for her work in helping to protect children and the environment. She is the holder of honorary doctorates from Northeastern University College of Law and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Ms Domini is a past board member of the Church Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church in America, the National Association of Community Development Loan Funds, and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the major sponsor of shareholder actions. She is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society. Ms. Domini holds a BA in international and comparative studies from Boston University, and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Anna Ekström has been President of the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (SACO) since 2001. She was State Secretary during the years 1998–2001. During the Swedish Presidency of the EU in 2001, she was responsible for coordinating employment policy and the Spring European Council. In 2003, she served as a member of the European Commission High Level Task Force on Employment. Ms Ekström is currently President of the SACO Unemployment Insurance Fund. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation, of the Board of Bruegel, the Trilateral Commission and a board member of the First Swedish National Pension Fund. She is also Vice-President of the Board of Uppsala University. Ms Ekström holds a Masters degree in Law.

Aurelio Fernández Lopez has been Chair of the EU Social Protection Committee since January 2009. He is currently Coordinator of development and technical cooperation activities in social security at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, where he has also been Adviser to the the Secretary of State for Social Security since 2004. He is also a member of the European Task Force on Ageing, established in the follow-up of the European strategy on ageing. A graduate in psychology, he served as a Counsellor for Social Afffairs of the Permanent Mission of Spain before the United Nations in Vienna (1991-1994) and New York ( 1994-2000 ). During those years, he was Spanish delegate in the Third Committe of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and served on several functional committees of ECOSOC, including the committees for Social Development and the Status of Women, and was also member of Unicef’s Executive Board.

Barbara Gerstenberger is a Research Manager at the European Foundation. She was appointed Head of Communication Products in October 2007. When joining the Foundation in September 2001, she was a member of the team setting up the European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC). She became Coordinator of this project in March 2004. Before joining the Foundation, she was a Research Officer with the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) in Brussels. During her time with the EMF, she was seconded to DG Employment for one year in 1999-2000, where she worked in the unit charged with the implementation of the proposals contained in the Gyllenhammar-Report. Barbara Gerstenberger is a Political Scientist by training and holds a degree from Hamburg University and the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Wolfgang Goos is Deputy Director General of the German Federation of Chemical Employers Associations, representing 1,900 member companies with around 550,000 employees. Educated at the Gutenberg University in Mainz and the Goethe University in Frankfurt, he is a lawyer specialising in labour law and collective bargaining. He has over 30 years practice and experience in collective bargaining at the national level and was involved in the development and creation of the European Social Dialogue for the Chemical Industries. Among his published works are studies on co-determination, European Works Councils and European Social Dialogue. Mr Goos is a member of the International Society of Labour Law and Social Security. Since 2002, he has served as chair of the International Chemical Employers Labour Relations Committee and a Member of the Governing Board for the German Employers.

John Halloran is the Director of the European Social Network (ESN), which represents chief executives and directors of public social care and health services in regional and local government, as well as other research and development, inspection and provider organisations in 28 countries. The aim of the network is to promote social justice and inclusion through the delivery of quality social services in partnership with service users and other stakeholders. ESN is directly supported by the European Commission and has Contributory Status with the Council of Europe. John was previously a senior manager of public welfare services in the UK where he was responsible for residential and community services for the elderly, people with disabilities and family and child protection services. John has a degree in social work and a masters in business administration as well as experience as an international management consultant, as a professional in the voluntary sector in France and as a volunteer development worker in West Africa. He has written extensively and has an international reputation as a speaker and commentator of social service issues.

Anton Hemerijck (1958) is the Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences at the Vu University Amsterdam. Between 2001 and 2009 he was Director of the Netherlands Council for Government Policy (WRR). In that period he was also professor in Comparative European Social Policy, Department of Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He studied economics at Tilburg University (1979-1986). He obtained his doctorate from Oxford University in 1993. He publishes widely on issues of comparative social and economic policy and institutional policy analysis. Between 1997 and 2000 he was a senior researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for the study of societies, working on the large comparative project on Welfare and work in the open economy, directed by Fritz W Scharpf and Vivien A Schmidt. He has also been involved in drafting reports on social policy for Portuguese (2000), Belgian (2001), Greek (2003), Finnish (2006), German (2007) and Portuguese (2007) Presidencies of the EU. Important publications include ‘A Dutch Miracle’ with Jelle Visser (Amsterdam University Press, 1997) and ‘Why we need a new welfare state’ with Gosta Esping Andersen, Duncan Gallie and John Myles (Oxford Univeristy Press, 2002). Forthcoming is ‘Recalibrating Social Europe’ (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Maria Jepsen holds a PhD in economics from the Free University of Brussels (ULB). She is currently the Director of the research department at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and associate professor in labour economics at ULB. Before joining the ETUI as a senior researcher in 2001, Maria Jepsen worked as assistant professor and research fellow at ULB from 1996-2001. Her main research interest lies in gender studies and comparative studies of the impact of welfare states on labour supply, wages and working conditions. In recent years she has focused on the construction and development of social policy on the European level and how this interacts with the national settings. Maria is a member of the Belgian Central Council on Economy (Conseil central de l’economie) and the Belgian Higher Level Council on Employment (Conseil superieur pour l’Emploi). She is also a member of the Foresight Advisory Committee of Suez Environnement. She is a former member of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) and the Social Science and Humanities advisory committee at the European Commission DG Research.

Jorma Karppinen is director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. His career spans positions in scientific research, marketing and development, and senior management with Nokia Electronics, Afora Ltd and Fortum Engineering Ltd. Until most recently, he was director of business development at Metso Automation Ltd. in Helsinki, Finland, a global automation systems manufacturing company, where he previously held the posts of president of energy automation and then president of process automation systems.Through his extensive experience in business development and management over the past 20 years, Jorma Karppinen has developed a comprehensive understanding of the industrial changes facing Europe today. Through his extensive travels throughout his working life, he has developed a global view of the living and working conditions of many different countries. Jorma Karppinen has an academic background in engineering and technical physics, including a doctorate in technology gained in 1979.

Jean Lapeyre is Head of Office of Syndex Representation’s Office in Brussels, a post he has occupated since July 2009. Syndex is a consultancy firm working with employee representatives and their organisations. It supports national and European works councils, and seeks to develop a European space for for consultancy and expertise, to assist the social partners in anticipating and managing economic and social change. Mr Lapeyre has an extensive background in the trade union movement going back to the 1970s. From 1972 until 1981 he was National Secretary of France’s Metalworking and Mining Workers’ Federation (FGM-CFDT), before moving on to become Confederal Secretary of European Trade Union Confederation and later the organisation’s Deputy General Secretary in charge of Social Dialogue. More recently, Mr Lapeyre has been Social Advisor at the French Embassy in Rome and Special Adviser of the General Secretary of the European Economic and Social Committee.

Dermot McCarthy is Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) and Secretary General to the Government.  Mr McCarthy was educated at Synge Street Christian Brothers’ School and at Trinity College Dublin, where he obtained a B.A. (Mod) and an M.Litt.  Mr McCarthy previously served as Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Taoiseach, with responsibility for the Economic and Social Policy Division; this followed service in the Department of Industry and Commerce and in the Department of Health.  Mr McCarthy is also Chairperson of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).

Niamh McCarthy is a Barrister admitted to the Bar of England and Wales. She joined British Airways as Competition and regulatory counsel in 2002 from the Barrister's Chambers, 12 Grays Inn Square. She holds degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe in Bruges.

A graduate in public administration from the University of Konstanz, Germany, where she obtained a PhD in 1989, Erika Mezger has had a long association with both trade unionism and with research into employment and social issues. Prior to her appointment as Deputy Director at Eurofound, Ms Mezger was Head of the Research Promotion Department at the Hans Böckler Foundation in Düsseldorf, which she had joined in 1987, conducting research into gender issues and social policy. In recent years, her research work has focused on the welfare state and modern governance, and active labour market policies. She has also studied in the US under the German Marshall Fund ‘Young Leaders’ Programme’ in Washington D.C. and New York, and in 1998 as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. Ms Mezger is a member of several boards, including the board of trustees and executive board of the Anglo-German Foundation, the board of the Social Science Research Centre (SFZ) in Berlin-Brandenburg and the advisory council of the think tank Berlinpolis.

Since 2008, Judith Kirton-Darling has been responsible for industrial policy and the steel sector at the European Metalworkers’ Federation. With an academic background in her native UK in social and political studies, Ms Kirton-Darling moved into the post of researcher in the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels, after the completion of her MSc in European social policy analysis. She then moved on to work as cross-sectoral Policy Officer for UNI-Europa, the European regional organisation of Union Network International, before becoming European Officer for Unite, the UK and Irish trade union.

Totyu Mladenov, a graduate engineer, was born on 19 June 1964 in Vratsa. He graduated from the Higher Institute of Architecture and Construction in Sofia with a major in Water Supply and Sewerage Systems. He has completed several specialisations in the US, Poland, Hungary, France, Belgium, Greece, Argentine and Chile in the field of pension insurance systems, insurance against work accidents and occupational diseases, unemployment benefits, the labour market, professional training and retraining, and skills development. Fluent in Russian and English, he is married and has one child. In the period 1990-1991 he worked in a construction company in his native town Vratsa and in the autumn of 1991 joined the Regional Trade Union Council of Labour Confederation PODKREPA as a coordinator for Vratsa. In 1992 he was elected chairman of the Council. In 1995 he was appointed Confederate Secretary for Information Policy of Labour Confederation PODKREPA and in 2002 accepted the appointment of Executive Director of Executive Agency General Labour Inspection Service. At the local elections in 2007 he was elected Mayor of Vratsa. On 27 July 2009, Mr. Totyu Mladenov became Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

A business and politics graduate of Trinity College, Mary McCaughey began her career in journalism in Brussels in 1990 with European Information Services (EIS), a news information agency. From there, she spent several years working for the Wall Street Journal Europe before moving to South Africa where she took up the post of spokesperson with the Delegation of the European Commission to South Africa, heading up the press and information department. Mary joined Eurofound in 2003 as Editor in chief. Mary was nominated to the post of Head of Communication in October 2007.

John Monks has been General Secretary of the ETUC since 2003. This followed 16 years of leading the Trades Union Congress in the UK, first as Deputy General Secretary and then as General Secretary. In parallel, he has been a member of the Council of the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and of the Economic and Social Research Council. For seven years he was Vice-Chair of the Learning and Skills Council; he has also been Chair of the UK Co-operative Commission. At present, he is Chair of the People’s History Museum in Manchester and also a visiting professor at the University of Manchester. John Monks is a graduate in economic history from Nottingham University.

Dr Gerhard Naegele has been Professor of Social Gerontology – and Director of the Institute of Gerontology – at the Technical University of Dortmund since 1992, prior to which he was Professor for Social Policy at the University of Dortmund for Applied Science. He studied economics and social sciences at the University of Cologne from 1969–1973, receving his PhD there in 1976. Dr Naegele is also an expert member of the German National Council for the Report on the Ageing Population and Scientific Leader of the Federal Interministerial Working Group on Sustainability and Ageing. Previously, he was an expert member of the of the Federal Parliament’s Enquiry-Commission on Demographic Changes. He is the author of numerous publications concerning social and social gerontological issues. His research interests are social gerontology, social policy, older workers, social services, and poverty.  Dr Naegele is a longstanding contributor to Eurofound’s research into active ageing.

Fintan O’Toole is one of Ireland’s leading political and cultural commentators. Born in Dublin in 1958, he has been drama critic of In Dublin magazine, The Sunday Tribune,  New York Daily News and the Irish Times, and Literary Adviser to the Abbey Theatre. He edited Magill magazine and, since 1988, has been a columnist with the Irish Times. His work has appeared in many international newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, Granta, The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post. The awards he has received include the AT Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism (1993), the Justice Award of the Incorporated Law Society (1994) and the Millennium Social Inclusion Award (2000). He has also broadcast extensively in Ireland and the UK, including a period as presenter of BBC’s The Late Show. His books include The Politics of Magic (1987), The Irish Times Book of the Century (1999), Black Hole, Green Card (1994), The Ex-Isle of Erin (1996), and After the Ball (2003).

As Chief Executive of Carers UK, Imelda Redmond is responsible for ensuring carers have a voice. With over 6 million people in the UK caring for a relative or friend the need for them to be heard has never been so vital. Imelda believes passionately that caring is one of the most critical issues facing society in the 21st century and that carers should be recognised for their contribution and listened to for their expertise. Imelda Redmond has had a lifelong commitment to improving the lives of disabled people and their families. Prior to joining Carers UK she ran family support services for children with disabilities and she is currently vice-chair of disabled children’s charity Contact-a-Family. She is a Non-Executive Director of The Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Since 2006, Conny Reuter has been Secretary General of SOLIDAR, a Brussels-based European network of NGOs working to advance social justice in Europe and worldwide. In April 2008, he was also elected President of Platform of European Social NGOs. A German national, Mr Reuter studied languages (French and Spanish) and educational science in the universities of Bonn and Cologne. He went on to work at La Ligue de l’Enseignement, both in Paris and in Germany, where he headed the organisation’s liaison office. He also represented the French Youth Council at the European Youth Forum from 1995 to 1998, after which he went to work in Paris and Berlin, heading the Franco-German Youth Office Department for School and Youth Exchanges.

Maria João Rodrigues is Special Advisor on the Lisbon Agenda and Professor of European Economic Policies at the Institute of European Studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles (IEE-ULB), and at the Lisbon University Institute (IUL). She has played a coordinating role in the development of the EU Lisbon Agenda from the beginning, and supported the European institutions in turning the Lisbon Strategy into an operational agenda of common objectives and measures in various policy fields. A former Minister of Employment in Portugal, Ms Rodrigues was also President of the European Commission’s Advisory Board for Social Sciences. Until recently, she was President of the High-Level Group on Mobility in Europe (Erasmus). The author of over one hundred publications, Ms Rodrigues is the recipient of many prestigious awards, notably the Légion d’Honneur – Chevalier of the French Republic, for her role in European integration and the Lisbon Strategy in 2005, and the title Officier for her role in the EU Presidency and the Lisbon Treaty in 2008. She has a PhD in Economic Sciences from Sorbonne University, Paris.

Jørgen Rønnest has been director for international affairs in the Confederation of Danish Employers since 1989. In September 2008 he was appointed chairman of the Social Affairs Committee in BusinessEurope and in 2009 he was elected to the Governing Body of ILO. He holds a master’s degree in political science and worked for more than ten years in the Danish Ministry of Finance and in six years as chief economist in Danske Bank. In 2007-2008 he was acting Social Affairs Director of BusinessEurope. He has been employer spokesman in the negotiations between BUSINESSEUROPE, CEEP, UEAPME and ETUC on telework, on stress at work and on harassment and violence and has represented BusinessEurope on other occasions as well.

Proinsias De Rossa MEP has served as Labour Party MEP for Dublin since 1999. He represented the Dublin North West constituency in the Dáil (the Irish Parliament) for 20 years, until 2002. He served as Minister for Social Welfare in the 1994–1997 Rainbow Coalition, where his achievements included introducing the first ever National Anti-Poverty Strategy and ensuring that women who had been paid a lower social welfare rate than men received back-payments, in line with European law. He was a member of the Convention on the Future of Europe, which prepared the draft European Constitution in 2003. He has drafted a number of resolutions on behalf of the European Parliament, including one on the future of the European Social Model. He is now a member of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee and the Development Committee. In October 2009, he was elected Chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Assembly.

Nicolas Schmit is Luxembourg’s Minister for Labour, Employment and Immigration. Prior to this, he was Luxembourg’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, in which capacity he was involved in the preparatory work for the Nice Treaty and in the European Convention on the Future of Europe. Mr Schmit graduated from the Institute of Political studies in Aix-en–Provence and holds a doctorate in Economics, in addition to an MA and a diploma in International Relations. In 1979, he became attaché, with responsibility for economic affairs, to the Presidency, before becoming chef de cabinet for Jacques Poos, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 1984. In 1990, he took up the post of adviser to the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union, participating in the preparatory works associated with the Maastricht Treaty. In 1991 he was appointed member of the State Council, and from 1992 to 1998 he was in charge of the Department of Economic International Relations and Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Armindo Silva is Acting Director for 'Social dialogue, social rights, working conditions and adaptation to change' since 1st January 2007. He is also Head of the Unit 'Labour law' in the same Directorate. Armindo started his career in the European Commission in 1988, at DG III (presently DG Enterprise), and in 1994 was appointed Head of Unit in DG Employment. He was responsible for employment policy, and for social protection and social inclusion policies, before taking over his present job. He was closely involved with the launch of the Lisbon Strategy and the implementation of the Open Method of Coordination in the employment and social areas. Armindo Silva was born in Lisbon, on the 1st October 1950. He holds a degree in Economics by the Instituto Superior de Economia (University of Lisbon), an MA in Contemporary European Studies and a PhD in Economics by the University of Reading. Before entering the Commission Armindo Silva was auxiliary professor at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (University of Lisbon) and taught European Studies at the Law faculty of the University of Coimbra.

Donald Storrie is Head of the Employment and Competitiveness Unit at The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, which is an EU Agency. He is also responsible for the European Monitoring Centre for Change (EMCC). He has extensive experience of the European labour market policy research and holds a PhD in Economics.

Ivan Svetlik has been Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs since 2008. Educated at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, he obtained his doctoral degree in 1983. From 1974 until his nomination for Minister, he was employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. He is a full professor for human resources and social area, and was appointed Head of the Centre for Organization and Human Resource Research. Besides that, he held several other functions, mainly in the areas of education, employment, social policy and human resources. He is the author of more than 200 scientific and professional publications.

Paul Swaim has been an economist in the Employment Analysis and Policy Division since joining the OECD in 1995. In that position, he has written extensively for the OECD Employment Outlook and in recent years has also served as editor of that publication. Having played an active role in the reassessment of the OECD Jobs Strategy in 2006, Mr Swaim helped to organise a meeting of OECD Employment and Labour Ministers in September 2009, where the main topic for discussion was the implications of the economic crisis for labour market and social policy. Holder of a PhD in economics from MIT, he previously taught economics at the University of Massachusetts and held several research positions in the US government.

Paul Sweeney is the Economic Advisor to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He has BA Mod. and M. Litt. in economics from Trinity College, Dublin and was a tax inspector and an economic consultant. He is a Council member of the Statistical and Social Enquiry Society of Ireland, a member of the National Competitiveness Council of Ireland and a member of the National Statistics Board. His fifth book, Ireland’s Economic Success, explains the reasons how Ireland was transformed (before the crash!) in the words of key players, including the Taoiseach and business people and others. Other books were on the Celtic Tiger and on Privatisation. He has also written several chapters in books and many articles on economics and business.

Zsuzsa Széman is senior research fellow of the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, head of the Welfare Mix Team. Expert and researcher on various aspects of ageing, author or editor of 20 books in English and Hungarian and author of over 300 studies. A member of the editorial committee of the European Journal of Ageing, she has been working on EU projects since 1992 (including ENABLE-AGE; MOBILATE; EUROFAMCARE; Ageing and Employment; Employment Initiatives for an Ageing Workforce) and other international research projects (NISW; Japanese projects: PIE; Nonprofit sector). Zsuzsa is also a member of numerous scholarly bodies. Based on her empirical research findings she has elaborated a number of model programmes to handle problems of elder care.

Since 2008, Jean-Paul Tricart has been Head of Unit ‘Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations’ within the European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (DG Employment). Mr Tricart’s career in DG Employment dates back to 1988 – first as an expert on social exclusion and on social protection issues, then as coordinator of EU policy initiatives in the areas of employment, social dialogue, social cohesion, and latterly with responsibility for promoting the external dimension of the EU Social Policy Agenda. He has extensive experience and expertise in developing EU employment and social policies, both within the EU and at international level. Prior to joining the European Commission, Mr Tricart worked in social policy analysis in France – in academia and later in the French National Centre for Scientific Research, in which capacity he contributed to the design and planning of social policy and to the evaluation of EU programmes.

Robert Verrue currently heads the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities in Brussels, while his previous experience at Director-General level was in the Commission’s Taxation and Customs Union DG and Information Society DG. An economist by training with degrees from INSEAD (Fontainebleau), the College of Europe (Bruges) and the Ecole Supérieur de Commerce et d’Administration des Entreprises (Lille), he has also worked in other Commission departments such as external affairs, where he dealt with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Community of Independent States, industrial affairs and the internal market, monetary policy and economic and financial affairs.

Andrew Watt is senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, where he has worked since 2000. Born in the UK he studied at universities in England, Germany and Switzerland. Prior to joining the ETUI he worked for the Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin. He coordinates the research area, economic, employment and social policies at the ETUI, with a focus on issues of economic governance and policy coordination, employment policies and comparative analysis of labour market trends in Europe. Recent work has concentrated on the causes and implications of the economic crisis and the role of finance in the economy. He edits the ETUI Policy Brief on economic and employment policy, coordinates the European Labour Network for Economic Policy, and writes a column for the Social Europe Journal. He has worked as a consultant/adviser to the European Commission, Eurofound, and the European Economic and Social Committee.

David Yeandle is the Head of Employment Policy of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, which has a membership of some 6,000 UK manufacturing companies. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, where he obtained a degree in economics. Before joining EEF in 1995, he initially worked for the Eastern Electricity Board and then for Pirelli Cables where he held a number of personnel roles and was Director, Personnel, from 1989 to 1995. His current main responsibilities are developing EEF’s policies on employment/pensions issues and representing these to the UK Government and European Union. He was awarded an OBE for services to engineering and manufacturing employers in June 2008 and is a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of the RSA.