The Experts' Forum is the Institute's advisory body. Its principle function is to provide expertise knowledge in the field of gender equality.
It is composed of members from competent bodies specialised in gender equality issues from every Member State of the European Union. Each country has both a member and an alternate and there are two members designated by the European Parliament, as well as three members designated by the European Commission and representing interested parties at the European level, with one representative from:
The Member States and the Commission aim to achieve a balanced representation between men and women in the Experts' Forum.
Members are designated for the period of tree years.
Last update: 21/02/2012
List of members of Experts' Forum:
Dr. Ingrid Nikolay-Leitner is the Director of the Ombud for Equal Treatment. She is also executive board member of EQUINET (EU-wide network of Specialised Equality Bodies), an expert in equality issues for the periodic report of Austria to the UN-Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and to the UN-Human Rights Committee as well as lecturer in adult education.
Dr. Nikolaus Benke holds a Ph.D. in Law and a Master of Laws (LL.M.). His research interests include Roman Law and Legal History, Private Law, Comparative Law, Legal Methodology, Legal Education, and Legal Gender Studies. He is editor of the "Wiener Studien zu Geschichte, Recht und Gesellschaft – Viennese Studies in History, Law and Society". He regularly conducts gender sensitivity trainings for diverse target groups such as university executives or female junior faculty members. He has been a member of the Equal Treatment Appellate Commission of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2004.
Mr. Jeroen Decuyper holds a Master’s degree in Romance Literature and Languages and one in International Relations and Conflict Management. He works at the Belgian federal Institute for the equality of women and men, where he is part of the unit on gender mainstreaming. At the Institute, he is also the person in charge of monitoring the implementation of the national action plan in execution of UNSCR 1325.
Mr. Decuyper is also the secretary of the Advisory Council on Equal Opportunities of the Municipality of Zwijndrecht.
Mr. Radi Foutekov is economist. He graduated the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria and has obtained Master Degree in Sub-Field of Finance and Accountancy. Mr. Foutekov works in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy since 1995. The main activities and responsibilities are developing the Social protection and Equal opportunities budget, social assistance, offering suggestions for changes in the Social Legislation. Other areas of interest are poverty, income and living standards. Mr. Foutekov published his publications about the purchasing power of the population, determining the poverty line and poverty profiles. Mr. Foutekov is member of the Indicators Sub-group, Social Protection Committee at European Commission.
Ms. Irina Moulechkova's main activities at the Commission for Protection against Discrimination include the prevention of and protection against discrimination, ensuring equal opportunities and controlling observance of antidiscrimination legislation. She is also professor of International Public Law at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE) in Bulgaria. Ms. Moulechkova is an expert in Social Watch, where she contributes to publications and participates in a Balkan project on the status of women.
Ms. Alexia Hadjikoumi is an Employment Officer at the Department of Labour. She practised as a Lawyer in the private sector and at the same time Associate Lawyer at the Law Commissioner’s Office and as General Secretary of the National Institution for the Protection of Human Rights for five years. Her duties at the Department of Labour as Labour Officer include the examination of equality and discrimination complaints on gender and other discrimination issues (mainly as a gender equality inspector appointed by the Minister), the contribution to the preparation of relevant reports, and the examination of Structural Fund projects in connection with their compatibility with equality principles. She is the co-author of the edition of Law Commissioner regarding the protection of human rights in Cyprus.
Ms. Pavla Špondrová is graduated in Law and Jurisprudence and in Sociology, both from Masaryk University, Brno. Ms. Špondrová is focused on legal aspects of promoting equal opportunities and antidiscrimination, constitutional law and human rights, women and men in decision-making and coordinates preparation, fulfillment and evaluation of the Czech national Action Plan of Equal Opportunities for Women and Men.
Mr. Radan Šafařík is responsible for monitoring and supervising the implementation of gender equality in the field of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law and law regulation concerning education, research, public health and media. He is also the Secretary of the Governmental Committee for Balanced Representation of Women and Men in Politics and of the Governmental Committee for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and is responsible for drafting national policy in the field of gender equality and for European co-operation in the field of gender equality (PROGRESS, programmes of the ESF, EEA grants and Norway grants).
Ms. Birte Siim is a political scientist and Professor in Gender Research in the Social Sciences, at the Department of Culture and Global Studies Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark. She is Director of the Knowledge Centre: Equality, Diversity and Gender (EDGE) and the Research Director of FREIA, the Gender Research Centre, AAU. Siim was the responsible Scientist for the Danish teams of two 6. FW-research projects: The EUROSPHERE project: “Diversity and the European Public Sphere. Towards a Citizens Europe?” (2007-2012), as leader of the Gender Work Package (WP 7) http://www.Eurosphere.org/, and the VEIL project: “Values, Equality, Differences in Liberal Democracies. Debates about Female Headscarves in Europe (2006-2009). Siim was the coordinator for the Nordic Network: “Multidimensional Equality and Democratic Diversity” (DEMDI), NORDFORSK (2009-2011) and is the Danish member of the European Network: “Responding to Complex Diversity in Europe and Canada” (RECODE), the European Science Foundation (ESF) (2010 – 2014). Her main areas of expertise are gender theory and comparative studies of gender equality and diversity in Europe. Siim has published extensively on citizenship, democracy, migration/multiculturalism and the welfare state.
Ms. Christina Breit was born in Germany in 1981. From 2002 to 2003 she studied International Business Administration in cooperation with the BASF SE in Ludwigshafen. Between 2003 and 2009 she studied law at the University of Heidelberg and has spent a semester abroad at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. In her studies she focused on European and Economic Law. During her studies and postgraduate judicial service traineeship, Ms. Christina Breit gained first working experiences at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to UNESCO in Paris, the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt and the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU in Brussels. Furthermore she worked as a trainee and freelancer at several law firms. Ms. Christina Breit joined the Confederation of German Employers` Associations in April 2012.
Following his legal examinations in Kiel and Hamburg Mr. Augat worked in Frankfurt and Berlin for the state railways (DB) in the department of labor law. In 1996 he became executive director in the municipal employers` association in Munich. His fields of activity are the labor law, social affairs and collective bargaining.
He is representing the German municipal employers` association (VKA) in the social affairs committee of the European centre of employers and enterprises providing public services (CEEP) and in the EU social dialog committee since many years.
Ms. Helen Sööl was born in April 21, 1979 in Hiiumaa, Estonia. During 1998 - 2000, she lived and studied media in Finland and took a master´s degree in psychology. Currently, she is studying to become a licensed family therapist. Ms. Sööl is involded in volunteer activities Tallinn’s Crisis Centre for Women, helping help victims of domestic violence. She has been working at the Ministry of Social Affairs as a substitute specialist and currently she is a chief specialist on domestic violence.
Ms. Brigitte Triems is the past President of the European Women’s Lobby, chairwoman of the Democratic Women’s Union and the managing director of a non-profit employment and qualification company in Berlin. She has experience as a member of the Board and more recently as the vice-chairwoman of the National Council of German Women’s Organisations as well as earlier experience in Women’s International Democratic Federation.
Mr. Silvan Agius is the Policy Director of the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) where he coordinates the policy team’s efforts to advocate for equality on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression with the European Union institutions, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE. He is also responsible of ILGA-Europe’s work on the ground of gender particularly as it relates to the rights of trans people and lesbian and bisexual women. In this regard he works closely with the European Women’s Lobby, EQUINET, the European Trade Union Confederation and Transgender Europe.
He holds a Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation and a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology, and worked at the Maltese National Commission for the Promotion of Equality between Men and Women (NCPE) before joining ILGA-Europe.
Ms. Ruygrok's main activities as senior policy adviser include monitoring and influencing European policy and its implementation in the Netherlands, and maintaining contacts with European and Dutch politicians and civil servants. She is also frequently in touch with Dutch NGOs about Dutch-European policy subjects. She is also the author of numerous articles on gender equality, non-discrimination, diversity, and the implications of the European non-discrimination legislation for the Dutch legislative system and policy.
Ms. Laura Alipranti - Maratou has a Ph.D in Sociology (University of Paris X -Nanterre) and is Research collaborator at the National Centre for Social Research in Athens. She is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Athens, Department of Psychology. Her research interests include gender issues, female migration, gender relations, social policy and social exclusion. She has participated and conducted many research national and European projects. She is an author, co-author and editor of many books, articles and chapters in collective books. Since 2006 she is National Representative for Greece in COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) EC, in ISCH Domain Committee, (Individuals, Society, Culture and Health). Also she is elected member of the Executive Board in ΙSA (International Sociological Association), RC 32 “Women in Society” since 2006.
Ms. Jo Morris has over 30 years experience in equality and employment rights work in the UK, Europe and around the world, having worked extensively in the British and European trade union movement. She specialises in equal pay; women’s employment and equal opportunities; working time organisation and work-life balance; part-time work rights and flexible work; gender, decent work and international development; sexual harassment, and anti-racism strategies. She is a member of the UK Economic and Social Research Council academic Advisory Board gender research programme at the University of Cambridge, a University of Warwick Visiting Fellow, and the author of several publications on gender issues. She is a non-executive Director of Computer Aid International and Executive Director of the workers’ higher education institution Ruskin College, United Kingdom. She is Chair of an NGO on (women) workers’ rights in the garment global supply chain.
His areas of work include the promotion of equality at a number of levels: within trade unions and in Irish workplaces as well as at the national policy level. This involves the development of policy on equality related issues and the production of guidelines for trade unions on various equality issues as well as representing Congress on a number of external equality related committees, including the Board of the National Disability Authority, the Board of the Equality Authority, the National Framework Committee on Equal Opportunities at the level of the enterprise, the National Partnership for Integrated Workplaces, the National steering group of the National Plan against Racism and the steering group of the Equality and Rights Alliance.
He also participates in various ETUC equality initiatives including the negotiating group on the development of a joint framework of action for gender equality, and the more recent negotiations on the revision of the Parental Leave Directive.
Ms. Sari Pikkala is the director of Minna Centre for Gender Equality Information in Finland. She has a PhD-degree in Political Science from Åbo Akademi University, Finland. She has a long experience in various research projects, mainly in the fields of local politics and elections, representation of women and gender equality statistics.
Ms. Sari Pikkala is actively involved in Nordic and European networks within the field of gender equality, such as NING (Nordic Information Network Gender) and WINE (Women Information Network Europe). She was a board member of NIKK (Nordic Gender Institute) from 2010 to 2011. She was the local organiser of the IFLA-satellite conference "How can libraries and information centres improve access to women's information and preserve women's cultural heritage?", held in Tampere in August 2012.
Ms. Eeva Raevaara holds a doctorate in Social Sciences and has worked in the field of gender equality and gender studies in both the national bodies of gender equality and the University of Helsinki. She has participated in Nordic and European research projects and networks in the field of gender studies and feminist political science. Her major research fields are comparative research on gender equality policies and discourses and gender and local politics.
Ms. Georgia Kartzi joined the General Secretariat for Gender Equality (GSGE) in 2007 after completing her studies at the National School of Public Administration. Ms. Kartzi holds a bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Insurance Science from the University of Piraeus and a master’s degree in Social Science Research from the University of Edinburgh where she specialised in statistics and gender issues. Her master thesis focused on documenting human trafficking in Greece.
Through her work at the GSGE Ms Kartzi has participated in national and EU initiatives and projects on gender equality. As the Head of the Information department of the GSGE she is responsible for providing Information and scientific support to citizens and organizations on governmental policies and statistical data related to gender issues.
Mr. Georgios Koumpouras joined the General Secretariat for Gender Equality (GSGE) in 2010 after completing his studies at the National School of Public Administration. Mr. Koumpouras is a graduate of Law School of the National University of Athens. He holds a master’s degree in Law from the University of Paris XII where he specialised in family law.Mr. Koumpouras, Senior Official at the Law Department is responsible of legislation issues in fields related to violence against women, family law, intimate partner violence, labour relations etc.
Dr. Violetta Zentai, who holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, is the director of the Center for Policy Studies and lecturer in policy studies and social anthropology at the Central European University, Budapest. She has co-ordinated a number of comparative research projects and networks in the area of gender and equality studies, and post-socialist transformation of society, politics and economy. She has been a spokesperson of a major women’s NGO in Hungary called MONA and has been supporting the work of the Council for Equality of Women and Men in Hungary. Dr. Zentai has also been engaged in the work of the Open Society Institute, and its governance reform and policy development programs.
Mr. Gábor Kuszing is a co-ordinator of Patent: People against Patriarchy Association that aims to improve interventions against domestic violence in Hungary. He is responsible for research, coordinating a group of professionals working in the field of domestic violence, publications and the work on LGBT issues. Mr. Kuszing is also a volunteer in the Stop Male Violence Project. He worked as a counsellor in the Foundation for the Women of Hungary programme for violent prison inmates. He has been a human rights trainer in several NANE Women's Rights Association's projects. He is the author of several publications on domestic violence.
A former career civil servant, Ms Dempsey boasts a wide range of experience across several government departments. She has managed a broad range of dossiers, including energy policy, offshore oil and gas exploration, climate change policy, the Telecom IPO, transport, radiation protection policy and most recently, was head of the Disability Equality Unit in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. She has represented Ireland at EU, UN, OECD, IEA, NEA and IAEA level and has chaired EU Working Groups during Ireland’s EU Presidency.
Ms. Carol Baxter has been Head of Development at the Equality Authority since October 2006. She has focused on building partnerships for equality with public and private sector projects and has managed large-scale EU-funded projects, including the European Year Legacy Action Plan (2009), a follow-on programme from the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All 2007 for which the Equality Authority was the National Implementing Body. She was Policy Manager of the National Women's Council of Ireland from 2000 to 2002 working on the areas of employment and access to decision-making. She holds a doctorate in women's studies for her work on women in seventeenth-century France. She has also worked for many years as an Irish diplomat, including as a desk officer for the Lisbon Strategy during Ireland's EU Presidency in 2004.
Mr. Michele Palma has worked in the field of gender equality and anti-discrimination policies in national, European and international contexts. He has been the co-ordinator of various initiatives and projects on gender equality and women empowerment, including the projects co-financed by the Structural Funds. He also has long term experience in gender monitoring, evaluation and gender budgeting. Mr. Palma has been a member of numerous committees, working groups and delegations.
Ms. Dace Kavasa has 10 years experience in gender equality and human right issues working in different positions: as a research assistant, consultant, lecturer, and project manager. Her main areas of competence are legal analysis of legislation related to human rights, gender equality and non-discrimination, understanding gender equality policy and EU mechanisms and neighbouring countries. She is credited with important practical experience in projects with NGO's in EU candidate countries and countries in transition.
Dr. Sidlauskiene is a gender and development specialist and researcher with a doctorate in social sciences. Her experience spans from knowledge in the areas of inequality policies, strategies, research projects and monitoring on national and EU levels, gender mainstreaming in academic institutions (EQUAL initiative) - to Equality between Women and Men (CDEG) "Recommendation on Gender Equality Standards and Mechanisms", the measurement of gender equality on a national scope on critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action. She has worked as an Adviser to the Prime Minister on social policies including gender equality policies and supporting ongoing research as well as providing advocacy support to the developing world, and evaluating national gender equality programs and policies.
Ms. Blandine Lejealle is currently employed by the Centre d'Etudes de Populations, Pauvrete et de Politiques socio-economiques in Luxembourg where she handles the research activities of the centre. With a Masters degree from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Grenoble (France) in Statistics and a degree from the University of Nancy in Economics - she has published several works on gender and the role of women in business.
Ms. Bugeja Sina is currently the chief executive officer in Foundation for Social Welfare Services and a member of Government Expert Group on Anti-Discrimination at EU level. She has previous experience in the promotion of equality, representing Malta on the High Level Group on Gender Equality and on the CDEG, Council of Europe and is a member of the Bureau of the CDEG. She has headed the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality until May 2009. She worked with Women’s Health Issues and received a Commonwealth Award for Best Practice on Women’s Health. She is also a project leader and a partner of several gender issue related projects.
Mr. Vanni Xuereb is responsible for the running of MEUSAC, handling EU Commission legislative proposals and disseminating EU information to key stakeholders. He is also a member of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality between Men and Women and a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta.
Ms. Roemeling is a self-employed expert, consultant and trainer, working for a variety of national and European clients, programmes and projects in the fields of equality, diversity, education and employment. Her work includes co-ordinating national and European programmes and studies, impact analyse, dissemination and mainstreaming, bringing results from local practice to national and international policy as well as national campaigns, such as promoting entrepreneurship or steering girls and women towards technical education and enterprises. She is also a member of different professional bodies and networks.
Mr. Charles de Vries is an economist and an expert in the practice of working with the Beijing Indicators. He was member of the Dutch delegation of the 54th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2010 in New York.
Ms. Magdalena Sroda, holds degree in Philosophy. Her main areas of interest include ethic, political philosophy and gender studies. Since 1981 she has been working at Warsaw University. She is a Member of the Committee on Philosophical Sciences, and Member of the Committee on Ethics in Science in Polish Academy of Sciences. Professor Środa is an author of many books (last: "Women and power", 2009.) Professor Sroda has also notably held numerous speeches on equality in the context of gender around the world on several occasions. She was a Minister of Equal Status of Women and Men (2004- 2005)
Manuel Joaquim Pereira Albano, is working in the area of gender equality and women’s human rights and gender based violence, since 1994. Nowadays is the vice-president of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality governmental machinery for gender equality and is also the national rapporteur for trafficking in human beings. Coordinated and participated in several national and community projects in the area of citizenship and gender equality and gender violence, including domestic violence and trafficking in human beings, both at National and International Level.
Ms. Ana Maria Gheorghiu is an Inspector for the equal opportunities between women and men, member – observer in the Advisory Committee for Equality between women and men of the European Commission, member – expert in the Steering Committee for equality between women and men of the Council of Europe. She is also participating in the evaluation process of projects financed through the Commission's European Year of Equal Opportunities programme.
He is a senior civil servant for more than 15 years in the Romanian Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection. As a sociologist, for a long period team member of the Directorate of EU Affaires, he was directly involved in preparing the Romanian decisions and positions concerning different issues which can be included in the EU social policy dimension: social protection and social inclusion, family policies, youth and women employment, demographic challenges, gender equality and equal opportunities.He represented Romania in the Social Protection Committee of the EU Council and he is a member nominated by Romania to the Governing Board Eurofound.
Since February 2011 he is the director of the Directorate of Equal opportunities between women and men. The main duties of his work are the development of policies and Governmental action plans in the field of gender equality, coordination of appliance and integration of gender mainstreaming dimension in national legislation, coordination of national legislation in this field with EU acquis, strategy and guidelines on gender issues.
PhDr. Sylvia Porubänová is a Sociologist, currently Senior Researcher and Deputy Director at the Institute for Labour and Family Research, Bratislava, Slovak republic. She has a professional experience in the field of gender equality, equal opportunities, migration and integration, anti-diskrimination, reconciling family and working life, flexible forms of work, etc. Additionally, she has been actively participating in civic initiatives aimed to increase social and political participation of women and marginalized groups.
Author, co-author and editor of many books and articles on topics mentioned above, Ms. Porubänová has published material and done cultural jornalism in the area of controversial issues (abortions, LBGT rights, situation and integration of immigrants…), with more than 400 published articles and media contributions in significant journals, in radio and TV. She is member of the Committee for Gender Equality at the Council of the Government of the Slovak Republic, Head of Working Group for reconciliation family and working life, Expert of Ministry Comittee for culture of disantvaged groups. She is Awarded Gold Medal of the International Year of the Family and Honorary Diploma of the UN.
Dr. Mariana Szapuová is an associate professor of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy & Gender Studies Centre, Faculty of Philosophy, Comenius University in Bratislava, where she among others teaches graduate and postgraduate courses on feminist epistemology, feminist philosophy and gender studies. Her main competences include gender issues, especially especially topics in epistemology, gender in science, history of feminist thinking and epistemology of gender research. Dr. Szapuová is a co-founder and a program coordinator of Gender Studies Centre at the Faculty of Philosophy, Comenius University in Bratislava, she closely cooperates with a number of women´s NGOs in Slovakia as well as with organisations in abroad. She has been coordinated several international research projects and participated in a number of national projects in the area of gender equality and feminist theory. She was a member of the Steering committee for The Central European Centre for Women and Youth in Science, currently she works on gender equality in science ans research also as a memebr of the Expert Group for Gender Equality in R&D in Slovakia.
Dr. Milica Antić Gaber is Full Professor at Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana where she among others teaches Sociology of gender and coordinates doctoral program Gender Studies. She has been lecturing or visiting scholar at Universities in Budapest, Belgrade, Dubrovnik and London.
Recently she has been involved in research projects on: electoral gender quotas in Europe, ways of implementing EU directives on violence against women, children and youth in new EU member states and, on balancing of private and professional life of female politicians in Slovenia.
She has been involved in different expert groups on women in politics in Slovenia and in international context. She is a chair of the section of Slovene Sociological Association on Gender and Society.
She published alone or with co-authors several books, contributed numerous chapters in books and articles in journals on gender equality, on gender based violence, women and/in politics, quotas and similar topics in Slovenia and abroad.
Ms. Tanja Salecl has worked at the Office for Equal Opportunities since 1993. She used to be Adviser to the Government, Deputy Director, Director and at the moment she is Acting Director. Her main areas of work, beside the lead of the office, are gender mainstreaming, the labour market and sexual harassment, and the reconciliation between work, private and family life.
José Luis Burgos Fresno is Technical Adviser of Studies in the Women’s Institute. He is also a Member of the Permanent Commission of the Observatory for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in Spain and is in charged to Manage the Works aimed at the creation of the National Spanish System of Gender Indicators. He has an extensive experience in the field of gender indicators and evaluation of public policies with gender perspective, especially in gender budgeting.
He has participated in numerous statistical publications on the status of women, such as “women in figures in Spain” and “Women and men in Spain”. He’s also author of the thesaurus “Woman”, edited by the Women’s Institute.
Giovanni Razzu is an economist in the Government Equalities office, with experience in research, policy and analytical advise. His specialist areas are poverty and inequality (theory and measurement, labour market and gender and other equality strands, capability approach and human development (concepts and measurement) as well as housing economics, housing finance, urban regeneration. He has experience in the UK, Ghana, Italy, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Among his roles with the Office, he has led the Secretariat to the National Equality Panel, producing the influential “Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK”, as well as Head of Research and Analysis and Acting Chief Economist. He has also been the lead analyst for the Equalities Review, which launched its report “Fairness and Freedom” in 2007.
Members of EIGE's Management Board and Experts’ Forum
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