Skills, skills, skills!

He was the co-rapporteur of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the largest financial instrument created by the European Union for the economic recovery of the Union after the pandemic and pushed for the creation of the social and children & youth pillars of the RRF.

As Chair of the EMPL Committee, Mr Pîslaru has spearheaded efforts to address pressing social and employment challenges facing the European Union. His leadership has been instrumental in fostering dialogue among MEPs, policymakers, and stakeholders to develop policies that prioritize children and youth, skills development, job creation and social inclusion.

Dragoș has been a strong supporter of the Child Guarantee and he is leading the Working Group on monitoring the implementation of Children Guarantee of the Parliament, a new permanent entity of the European Parliament.

He has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to championing the interests of youth and working towards a brighter future for the next generation, influencing EU legislation and the European Year of Youth in 2022.

Dragoș holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD in Economics from the National Institute of Economic Research, within the Romanian Academy.

Mr Pîslaru has been named the second most influential MEP on social policies (EU Matrix, 2023) and the most influential MEP on economic policies (VoteWatch.eu, 2020).

Previously, the Dutch national served as Deputy Director-General in the European Commission’s Trade Department, in the Agriculture and Rural Development Department as well as in the Enlargement Department.

Furthermore, Mr. Korte spent several years in the Commission’s Secretariat General as Director responsible for the relations with the Council of Ministers and gained extensive experience in the Private offices of Sir Leon Brittan, Chris Patten and Danuta Hübner.

These professional experiences within the European institutions allowed him to develop a profound understanding of EU decision-making. A lawyer by training, Joost Korte joined the Commission in 1991, following eight years of academic work on European law at the Universities of Utrecht and Edinburgh.

As Executive Director, Jürgen is responsible for managing the Agency’s operations in accordance with the strategic direction of its tripartite Management Board. Before joining Cedefop, Jürgen worked for more than 20 years in the private sector, mostly as a senior HR manager with global responsibilities at Siemens.

Jürgen earned his MSc in Economics at the University of Hamburg and holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Vienna.

He has served as Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister on two occasions, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

He was also a Member of the European Parliament (2009-14), a member of the high-level Monti group (2014-2017) and senior adviser on budget at the European Commission (2017-2019).

Earlier in his career, he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Bulgarian National Bank and Economic Policy Secretary to the President of Bulgaria.

Mr Kalfin holds MSc degrees in international economic relations and international banking from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia and Loughborough University, UK, respectively.

He has honorary doctorates from Loughborough University and the University of Ruse, Bulgaria.

Professional career: William Cockburn Salazar has worked at EU-OSHA since 1998 where he focused on the areas of research coordination, emerging risks and was responsible for the first European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER).

In charge since 2012 of the EU-OSHA’s Prevention and Research Unit, which develops the OSH content for the agency, he is currently the Agency’s Interim Executive Director.

William trained first as a lawyer and then as an ergonomist. Prior to joining EU-OSHA, he worked in academic research investigating company safety culture and in the private sector as an ergonomics consultant and research manager for projects in health and safety at work.

From 2017 to 2019, Pilvi Torsti was an MP and a member of the education and future committees of the Finnish parliament.

She holds a PhD in social sciences from the University of Helsinki, and is also the co-founder of United World College in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Also, she founded HEI Schools, an education company co-owned by the University of Helsinki where she has been an adjunct professor since 2012 and was nominated as the adjunct professor of the year in 2020.

Pilvi is UWC graduate (1995) and Eisenhower Fellow (2013). She is married with three children. www.pilvitorsti.com

Between April 2016 – December 2020, ambassador Boiangiu served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Romania to the European Union and Representative to the Committee of Permanent Representatives I (COREPER I). He presided COREPER I during Romania’s presidency of the Council of the European Union (2019) and coordinated on Council’s behalf the negotiations for the conclusion and adoption of an unprecedented 48 EU’s legislative acts.

In 2012 - 2016 Cosmin Boiangiu was Ambassador of Romania to the Republic of Slovenia.

From 2008 to 2012, Cosmin Boiangiu served as Director of United Nations, Specialized Institutions and Francophone Affairs within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2008 he was Spokesperson and Director for Information and Press of the Romanian Foreign Ministry.

Previously he represented Romania at the United Nations - Security Council and at NATO.

Cosmin Boiangiu is university licenced in International Economic Relations (Bucharest University of Economic Sciences, 1996), has a Master in Public Management (Bucharest University of Economic Sciences, 2006) and a PhD in Economics of climate change (Bucharest University of Economic Sciences, 2019).

Countries and regions: Central and Eastern Europe (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Serbia); Central Asia; African Union and its institutions; African countries and regions (esp. Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Angola, Mozambique, Cameroon, South Africa, Eswatini, Mauritius, SADC, IGAD, EAC, ECOWAS); America (Brazil).

• Expert and coordination role in development of the Compendium of five Guides on Labour Market Information methods (ILO-ETF-CEDEFOP).
• Expert and coordinator of ETF project Big Data for Labour Market Intelligence. Countries: Ukraine, Tunisia, Georgia, Kenya and Egypt. Analysis, capacity development, innovation.
• Key expert and coordinator of the Project “African Continental Qualifications Framework” (2 successive phases, 2019-2026). Author of ACQF mapping study reports, Guidelines and Training Modules, Policy Document. Over 20 training programmes and conferences.

Member and contributor:

• European Qualifications Framework Advisory Group and expert of several project groups, esp. on EQF Comparison with national and regional qualifications frameworks in Africa
• ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations): EU Member States Working Group; active expert contributor to ESCO projects, such as Linking learning outcomes of qualifications to ESCO.
• Development of regional qualifications frameworks: Africa (IGAD, SADC); America (Pacific Alliance).

He has been involved in various other Cedefop projects in the past, including the Mismatch priority occupations, and the Skills panorama.

Ilias is an economist by training, with a master’s degree in Industrial Relations and a PhD in employment research, both from the University of Warwick.

Ilias worked in the UK academia for about a decade before joining Cedefop, teaching and conducting research in education, skills and the labour market.

His expertise is in labour economics, education economics, and industrial relations. Ilias blends quantitative and qualitative techniques and skills while he specialises in using large scale datasets, such as the European labour force survey.

Ilias has published articles in various top-ranking journals including Industrial Relations: a Journal of Economy and Society, Regional Studies, Industrial and Economic Democracy, Journal of Economic Studies, Education Economics, Applied Economics Letters, Higher Education, the International Journal of Manpower, Personnel Review, and the Journal of Labour Research.

Before joining ELA she worked in policy-oriented socioeconomic research in the fields of employment and labour market, as well as entrepreneurship and industry analysis.

Most recently, she was Head of the research unit ‘Employment’ at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions where she was leading the cross-European research on labour market developments (including new forms of work and employment and the future of work, digitalisation, climate change, restructuring and related public policy approaches) and topics at the intersection of employment and entrepreneurship (such as job creation, workplace practices, small and medium-sized enterprises, business start-ups and scale-ups and internationalisation, including HR management in international businesses).

Professional career: Elke Schneider has worked at EU-OSHA since 2002, coordinating activities on various topics including work-related diseases, OSH statistics, biological agents and chemicals, and representing the agency in many working groups and committees since then.

She was involved in setting up the Agency’s European Risk Observatory and in charge of the ‘Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in figures’ project.

Before joining EU-OSHA, Elke Schneider worked for more than ten years as Deputy Head of Unit for European and international affairs and as occupational hygiene expert at the Austrian Labour Inspection — within the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy.

Her research focuses on labour market change (including as a result of digitalisation), restructuring, industrial relations and working conditions.

Her work mainly involves monitoring and assessing the impact of and policy approaches to the flexibilisation of the labour market and the impact of the increasing trend towards teleworking and associated issues of work–life balance as well as connection and disconnection.

She was responsible for mapping and analysing measures to address the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, workers and citizens.

Her research also focuses on addressing labour shortages in EU labour markets including in the context of the twin transitions. Tina holds a PhD in Political Sciences from the University of Edinburgh.

This directorate is responsible for the management of DG EMPL public affairs and relations as well as resources, including IT.

Previously in DG EMPL, he was the Head of the Free movement network Unit. This included, among other things, the supervision of the implementation by the Member States of the European rules applicable to labour mobility.

He was also part of the team negotiating the establishment of the European Labour Authority. He was also the head of the unit supervising the implementation of the European Social Fund & the semester exercise in Italy, Sweden and Denmark.

Previously in the Commission, he was a Member of the Cabinet of Mr Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

From 2004 to 2009, he was a Member of the Cabinet of Mr. Šemeta and Ms. Grybauskaité, EU Commissioners for Budget and Financial Programming.

Earlier Denis had been working for the Secretariat General, and DG Education and Culture and DG Budget.

He joined the Commission in 1994 as a civil servant. He earned his degrees in Political Science at the University of Strasbourg and at the College of Europe in Bruges, and his degree in European Law in Nancy. Mr Genton speaks French, English, German and Italian.

For some time now, she has been working as a freelance trainer and facilitator as founder of Mixed Message Moderation.

Being a young black woman, she advocates for more diversity on stages, a culturally sensitive approach and inclusive language, as well as interactive, participatory events and trainings both face-to-face and online.

Through her international relations studies and her work as a former youth policy officer, she strives to help build bridges between young people and political decision-makers.