EU-Russia Centre

People

Paddy Ashdown'An occasionally remunerated position as President of the EU-Russia Centre a lobbying and research organisation based in Brussels and registered under Belgian law as an NGO. The aim of the Centre is to encourage and facilitate dialogue and policy development between European governments and politicians and their opposite numbers in the Russian Federation'

ADVISORY BOARD

AUSTRIA

• Dr. Franz Graf Batthyány heads Austrian International Consulting in Warsaw. He is a former first commercial attaché for Austria in London, Zurich, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf; ex-President of the Austrian Textile Industry; former Director of Androsch International Consulting/Warsaw.

BRUSSELS / AUSTRIA

• Dr.Erhard Busek a former Vice Chancellor of Austria, is a Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. In addition, he is Coordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI); Special Representative of the Austrian Government for the Enlargement of the European Union; President of the European Forum Alpbach, and Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe.

BRUSSELS / UK

• Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, MEP. An MEP since 1999, Baroness Nicholson is Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where her involvement focuses on Eastern Europe and the Islamic world. She is also a Member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights. Baroness Nicholson is a European Parliament Rapporteur for Jammu and Kashmir and has also served as Rapporteur for Romania and maintained a close link with this country up to its accession in 2007.

CZECH REPUBLIC

• Alexandr Vondra Mr. Vondra is Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic (since January 2007) and was previously Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the past, Mr. Vondra coordinated the Programme of Atlantic Security Studies (PASS) and was involved in Prague NATO Summit and Forum 2000 conference preparation. Between 1990 and 1992 he was foreign policy advisor to former president Václav Havel and served as the Czech Ambassador to the USA in 1997-2001.

HUNGARY

• György Schöpflin, MEP. An academic and policy analyst in the UK, Mr Schöpflin retired as Jean Monnet Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for the Study of Nationalism at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, on his election as an MEP for Hungary in 2004. Mr. Schöpflin sits for the Group of the European People’s Party and European Democrats. He serves as a full member on the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and as a substitute member on the Security and Defence Subcommittee and theConstitutional Affairs Committee.

FRANCE

• Michel Hunault MP, National Assembly. Mr. Hunault is Deputy (Member of Parliament) of Loire-Atlantique (UDF) and Vice-President of the Russia Friendship Group. He is a Member of the Law Select Committee; a Member of the French Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and is a Judge at the High Court of Justice.
• Marie Mendras Professor at Sciences Po University and Research Fellow with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marie Mendras is a specialist of Russia at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales in Paris. She chairs the Observatoire de la Russie, a research group and workshop, and is the Editor of Les cahiers Russie/The Russia Papers. Her publications deal with Russian domestic politics and foreign policy.
• Michel Grabar A Lecturer in Russian literature and civilisation at the University of Haute Bretagne (Rennes 2) particularly concerned with the historical, geographical and economic problems faced by the post-Soviet states. He is a member of CREER (Centre de Recherche sur les Elites Europ¨¦ennes et Russes) at Rennes 2 University and has run a number of research projects including national ideology in Russia.

GERMANY

• Dr. Eberhard Schneider Dr. Schneider is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Siegen and former Senior Researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs of the “Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik,” Germany. He is accredited from the Russian State Department as a correspondent of the “EU Russia Review”.

LITHUANIA

• Laima Andrikiene, MEP is a former Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; former Director, Institute of EU Policy and Management, Faculty of Public Management, Law University of Lithuania; Past Dean, Faculty of Public Management, Law University of Lithuania.

POLAND

• Prof. Dr. Janusz Onyszkiewicz MEP Professor Onyszkiewicz is Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Member of the administration of the Centre for International Relations; Vice-Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Council; Chairman of the Council of the Institute for ‘Bridges to the East’; Chairman of the Euro-Atlantic Association Council and Chairman of the Polish Alpinism Association. He has been awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal (DE), Order of the Grand Prince Gedymin of Lithuania (LT), Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II (BL).

RUSSIA

• Georgy Bovt is an independent journalist and a political observer. He has been editor in chief of “Publishing House Rodionov” business magazine group and magazine “Profil”. He previously worked as a journalist, editor and head of department of politics of daily newspaper “Kommersant” and was editorial director of newspaper “Izvestia”.
• Vladimir Milov Mr. Milov is President of the independent, non-profit, Institute of Energy Policy in Moscow. He was Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia from May to October 2002, responsible for development of the national Energy Strategy, privatisation and structural reforms within the Russian energy sector.
• Jens Siegert Mr. Siegert is Director of the Moscow office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Germany. He is an expert on Russian politics and particularly on Russian civil society. Prior to setting up the Heinrich Böll Foundation office in Moscow he worked more than ten years as a correspondent, mainly for German radio stations for Russia and the CIS-countries.

SLOVAKIA

• Alexander Duleba Mr. Duleba is Director of Research, Slovak Foreign Policy Association in Bratislava and a Member of the Academic Board of the School of Political Sciences and International Relations, University of Matej Bel in Banska Bystrica . Mr. Duleba has served as Honorary Foreign Policy Adviser to President of the Slovak Republic, Rudolf Schuster (2003 - 2004).

SWEDEN / FINLAND

• Tomas Ries Dr. Ries is Director of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm. From 1997-2004 he was Senior Researcher at the National Defence College in Finland, focussing on Finland’s security policy, EU and NATO affairs and on globalisation and security. Between 1992-1997 he was Director of the International Training Course in Geneva, Switzerland and Deputy Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

UK

• Prof. Bill Bowring Professor Bowring is a Barrister and Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London and founder and first Director of the Human Rights & Social Justice Institute. He is now Chair of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC). He acts as an expert on a regular basis for the Council of Europe and other international organisations on issues concerning human rights, minority rights, and rights to education.

SUPPORT GROUP

Giulietto Chiesa MEP (Italy) Milan Gala MEP (Slovakia) Toomas Hendrik Ilves President (Estonia) Anne Jensen MEP (Denmark) Cecilia Malmström Minister (Sweden) Claude Moraes MEP (UK) Konrad Szymanski MEP (Poland) Inese Vaidere MEP (Latvia) Kari Liuhto Turku School of Economics (Finland) Rolf Fuecks Member of executive board, Heinrich Böll Foundation Miroslav Kusy International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Slovakia Christian Neugebauer Editor of The Glocalist, Austria Arpád Duka-Zólyomi MEP (Slovakia) Milan Horáček MEP (Germany)

EU-Russia Forum Members

15 July 2007 These are described as members of the 'Forum', the role of which is not mentioned on the Centre site. It is assumed that these are the organisations that fund the Centre.

Corporates

• AIG
• Arcelor Mittal
• Telenor
• UPS
• Statoil Hydro
• International Power

Government Ministries of Foreign Affairs

• Austria
• Finland
• Greece

Affiliations

• Precise Public Affairs, declare the Centre as a client in 2008