SPEAKERS

Kristalina Georgieva, Vice-President, European Commission

Kristalina Georgieva, Commission Vice-President for Budget and Human Resources, former European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response (2010-2014), Vice-President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank (2008-2010) and World Bank Director for Strategy and Sustainable Development (2007-2008). Responsibilities:

ü  Leading the project team "Budget and Human Resources"

ü  Negotiating and managing the EU budget; ensuring the budget is invested in the best way to serve EU citizens.

ü  Reporting on how the budget is spent to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Court of Auditors.

ü  Protecting the EU budget from fraud and corruption.

ü  Developing a corporate talent‑management policy as the Commission strives to achieve savings in a difficult economic environment.

ü  Making sure that women represent 40% of the Commission's senior and middle management by the end of 2019.

Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner, European Commission

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. Former member of the French National Assembly (2014) and French Minister for Economy and Finance (2012-2014). Responsibilities:

ü  Ensuring the economic soundness of Commission proposals and deepening the Economic and Monetary Union to create the conditions for jobs, growth, and investment.
ü  Ensuring enforcement of the Stability and Growth Pact and reviewing its fiscal and macroeconomic surveillance legislation (six-pack) and budgetary rules (two-pack).
ü  Encouraging further structural reforms in eurozone countries and making decisions about support for struggling countries more democratically legitimate.
ü  Developing a value added tax (VAT) system at EU level, improving the functioning of the internal market in both direct and indirect taxation and fighting tax fraud and tax evasion.
ü  Developing and managing an efficient EU customs union.

Mario Monti, Chair of the High-Level Group on Own Resources

Mario Monti, chair of the High-Level Group on Own Resources (HLGOR), President of Bocconi University, former Italian Prime Minister and EU Commissioner. The HLGOR was established in February 2014 to reflect on finding more transparent, simple, fair and democratically accountable ways to finance the EU. The group will deliver its final recommendations by 2016, when the Commission is going to assess whether new legislative initiatives to amend the own resources system are appropriate. The group is composed of members designated by the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council.

Vladimír Maňka, MEP, European Parliament

Vladimír Maňka has been an Member of the European Parliament since 2004 and is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets and a substitute member of its Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. He was a member of the Slovak parliament from 1998 to 2002, where he vice-chaired its Committee for Finance, the Budget and Currency. Mr Maňka has also been president of the Banská Bystrica Self-governing Region (2010–2013) and mayor of Zvolen (1999–2005). During this latter period of office, Zvolen was declared the second best managed city in Slovakia.

Viliam Páleník, Vice-President of the ECO section and Rapporteur, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

Viliam Páleník (RNDr., PhD., h.doc.) is a senior researcher and head of the department of economic modelling at the Institute of Economic Research at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, president of the Employment Institute in Bratislava and a member of the European Economic and Social Committee. His main scientific focus is the study of economic policy using modelling methods, specialising in the monetary and fiscal area, and analysis focused on the labour and financial markets, foreign trade and similar.

Martin Siecker, Rapporteur, EESC

Martin Siecker joined the EESC in 2002 as a member of Group 2, representing the trade unions. He has been president of the INT section of the EESC since March 2013. He was originally a journalist who worked for a national left wing newspaper in the Netherlands in the 1970s before joining the labour movement in 1981 as editor of the Members magazine. Before joining the EESC, he also worked for a number of years as a national officer negotiating collective bargaining agreements in the food chain.

Josef Zbořil, Rapporteur, EESC

Josef Zbořil has been a member of the EESC since the Czech Republic's accession in May 2004. He represents the Employers Group (I) following a distinguished professional career of over 40 years in the pulp and paper industry. He served four years as the President of the Czech PPI association and over 15 years as the Member on the Board of the Czech Industry Confederation responsible for environment policy issues. Josef Zbořil works in the TEN & NAT sections and in the CCMI, very often as a rapporteur. Among his topics of special interest are the issues of strategic planning, industrial change, competitiveness and instruments for achieving de-carbonisation and their efficiency in terms of reducing GHG emissions. He analyses the available statistics to identify the real driving forces behind the reduction processes using the principles of sustainable development.

Mikuláš Luptáčik, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Vienna

Professor Mikuláš Luptáčik studied at the University of Economics in Bratislava and at Vienna's Institute for Advanced Studies and University of Technology. He worked as a professor at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna, Head of Department of Quantitative Economics and since 2011, he has been professor and Head of the Department of Economic Policy at the University of Economics in Bratislava, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Director of the Institute for Industrial Research (IWI) in Vienna. Professor Luptáčik is a member of various scientific societies, institutions and editorial boards, as well as being a referee for academic journals. He is also actively involved in numerous research projects and is the author of many studies published in leading scientific journals, including the Empirica: Journal of European Economics, European Journal of Operational Research, Ecological Economics, Economic Systems Research, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. Awards and recognition: "The 1998 International Prize of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for outstanding achievements in the area of the social science and culture", „Senator–Wilhelm–Wilfling Preis“ for outstanding scientific Work (2002) a „Marquis Who´s Who in the World“."

Clemens Fuest, President, Centre for European Economic Research

Clemens Fuest (Prof. Dr.) studied economics at the Universities of Bochum and Mannheim. He became a professor of economics at the University of Cologne (in 2001) and held the post of professor of business taxation and Research Director at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation (2008–2013). He has been President and CEO of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim since 2013. In his capacity as ZEW President, he is also a professor of economics at the University of Mannheim. Clemens Fuest has worked as an adviser for the World Bank and is the author of a widely-quoted report on tax evasion and tax avoidance in developing countries commissioned by the UK Department for International Development. He is a member of the editorial boards of various international academic journals and is a regular contributor of articles to eminent newspapers including Handelsblatt, Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Wall Street Journal. Clemens Fuest's main research topics include international fiscal policy and public finance. His current research focuses on the debt crisis in the eurozone, international fiscal competition, the implications of globalisation and European integration for tax policy, and the impact of taxation on corporate behaviour. Clemens Fuest is a member of the EU High Level Group on Own Resources.

Jorge Núñez Ferrer, analyst and consultant, Centre for European Policy Studies

Jorge Núñez Ferrer (Dr). is an independent analyst and consultant working with the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and holds a PhD from Imperial College, London. He established himself in Brussels as a researcher in 1998 and from 2000 to 2004, worked as a specialist on EU budget resources and expenditure and the enlargement process in the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. He is currently the manager of Framework Contracts under the EU budget for the European Parliament and for the Committee of the Regions, as well as the project leader for drafting a comprehensive report on Own Resources for the High Level Group led by Mario Monti. He has been a consultant and advisor to various Member States, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the FAO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN's International Trade Centre, the International Electrotechnical Commission and has published articles for various think tanks. He is also visiting lecturer at the Central European University in Budapest. He has written widely on EU policies, in particular on the EU budget, the Common Agricultural Policy, Regional Policy, climate change, research and development and EU financial blending instruments in the EU and for external action.

Henk Koller, President, Confédération fiscale européenne

Henk Koller studied law at the universities of Nijmegen and Leiden. His fiscal career started with the Dutch revenue service in 1982, after a period working in a civil law practice. He joined his present firm Deloitte in 1987 and became a partner in 1992. He is currently the director of projects for tax innovation and data analytics. In addition to his work for the company, Henk has become involved over the past ten years in the management of his firm and in professional bodies both in The Netherlands (former president of the NOB - The Dutch Association of Tax Advisers) and at European level (president of the CFE - Confédération Ficale Européennne).

James Watson, Director of the Economics Department, Businesseurope

James Watson was appointed Director of Economics at BUSINESSEUROPE, the Confederation of European Business, in June 2011. In this role he is responsible for developing and communicating the organisation’s positions on macroeconomic policies, structural and financial market reforms, economic governance, taxation, the EU budget and EU regional policies. Prior to joining BUSINESSEUROPE, James worked for 14 years as an economic adviser in the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (formerly DTI), providing economic advice and analysis on policies to raise the UK’s long-term growth rate. During this period he co-authored a number of research reports on subjects ranging from the role of high-growth firms in the UK economy to the UK’s trade relationship with China and India. He has also worked on secondment to the Cabinet Office in the UK, at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and the European Commission’s DG Economics and Financial Affairs. A graduate of Cambridge University, James also holds an MSc from the University of York.

Joost P. van Iersel, President of the ECO section, EESC

Joost P. van Iersel began his professional career in 1967 as a civil servant in the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Subsequently he was general secretary of a Dutch employers' association. From 1979 until 1994 Mr van Iersel was a Member of Parliament (Christian Democrats), where he focused on trade and industry and EC matters, and also served as president of the Dutch European Movement. From 1992 until 2002 he was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of The Hague, where he took a particular interest in regional infrastructure and spatial development in the Randstad (the densely populated region in the west of the country). Mr van Iersel has served on the supervisory board of several companies and social organisations. He has been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since 2002. From 2006 until 2010 he chaired the EESC Consultative Committee on Industrial Change. He subsequently chaired the EESC steering committee on Europe 2020. Since April 2013 Mr van Iersel has chaired the EESC's Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion. His main areas of interest as a rapporteur on the EESC are industrial and sector policies, (European) metropolitan areas and good EU governance. Mr van Iersel lectures and writes articles on political economy and Europe.