Speaker Biographies
Details of the confirmed speakers will appear here shortly.
Confirmed Speakers
Viviane Reding
Vice President, Commissioner, Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship European Commission
Personal details
* Luxembourger
* born April 27, 1951 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Political career
* 2004-2010: Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media
* 1999-2004: Member of the European Commission responsible for Education, Culture, Youth, Media, Sport
* 1989-1999: Member of the European Parliament
* 1995-1999: Vice-president, Parti Chrétien-Social, Luxembourg
* 1988-1993: National president of Christian-Social Women, Luxembourg
* 1981-1999: City councillor, city of Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
* 1979-1989: Member of the Parliament of Luxembourg
Professional career
* 1978-1999: Journalist, Luxemburger Wort
* 1986-1998: President, Luxembourg Union of Journalists
Other activities
* 2009 Member of the Global Council of the Women's Forum
* 2009 Member of the Board of Les Journées d'Echternach (association sans but lucratif)
* 2007 Member of the Board of Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth (fondation d'utilité publique)
Education
* 1977: Doctor of human sciences, Sorbonne, Paris
Languages
* Luxembourgish: mother tongue
* French: fluent
* German: fluent
* English: fluent
* Italian: good knowledge
Ursula Pachl
Deputy Director General, BEUC
Ms. Pachl has been with BEUC since October 1997, first as Legal Advisor, then as Senior Policy Advisor and recently as Deputy Director General.
BEUC represents 43 independent national consumer associations from 31 European countries. The primary task of BEUC is to act as a strong consumer voice in Brussels and to try to ensure that consumer interests are given their proper weight in the development of all Community policies. Ms Pachl is leading BEUC’s work on the consumer legislation acquis and is responsible for horizontal policy issues.
Prior to working for BEUC, Ms. Pachl worked for five years at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health and Consumer Protection in Vienna and for four years at the Austrian Consumer Information Association as a member of the Consumer Advisory Board.
Ms. Pachl is the author of several articles in consumer policy journals. Ms. Pachl graduated in Law - Magister Juris - from the University of Innsbruck in 1990 and later received a postgraduate diploma in cultural management from the University of Linz in 1995.
Sajjad Karim
Member, European Parliament
Curriculum vitae
LLB (Hons.) (1993).
Law Society Finals (1994). Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (1994 - Present Day).
Appointed member of the Law Society Equal Opportunities Committee (1994-2004).
Councillor, Pendle Council (1994-2001).
Chair, European Parliament Friends of Pakistan Group; Vice-Chair, European Parliament Equality and Diversity Intergroup; Vice-Chair, Local Government Association UK; Vice-Chair, European Parliament Friends of the Commonwealth Group; Member, European Parliament Friends of India Group; Member, European Parliament Friends of Bangladesh Group; European Parliament rapporteur on the free trade agreement with India.
Maurits Bruggink
Executive Director, Seldia
Maurits Bruggink is Executive Director of Seldia, the European Direct Selling Association. His main task is representing the interests of the industry viz. the European Institutions: the European Parliament, Council of Ministers and European Commission. This includes the education of policy makers about the merits of direct selling and the interaction with stakeholders on a day-to-day basis.
Previously Maurits Bruggink was Executive Director of the Paris based International Federation of Horseracing Authorities for six years, where he promoted better regulation at a global scale to protect the intellectual property and betting rights of the sector.
Maurits has been involved in international advocacy and government affairs for 20 years in different positions. Maurits was lawyer at the European Union Office of Arthur Andersen & C°, Director General of the European spirit drinks federation, Managing Director at Brussels’s based lobby firm Grayling, secretary general of the European associations for the amusement machine industry and the casino sector.
Maurits holds a Master in International Trade Law from the University of Leiden, Holland. Maurits is 48 years and speaks English, French, German, Dutch and Spanish.
Hanne Melin
European Legislative Counsel, eBay
Hanne is the central legislative expert of eBay's European Government Relations Team, providing legal and strategic advice especially with regard to proactive work in helping officials and politicians identify opportunities and barriers to online trade.
Prior to joining eBay, Hanne was an Associate at the law firm Sidley Austin LLP based in the Brussels Office, where she practiced competition law, including IP related issues, for five years.
Hanne has lectured on aspects of competition law with a focus on the internet at the College of Europe, in Bruges (Belgium) and Lund University (Sweden). She has also written on the topic of e-commerce for many legal journals, including Computer Law Review, European Competition Journal, and Global Competition Policy.
Susanne Czech
Secretary General, EMOTA
Ms Susanne Czech has been Secretary General of EMOTA, the Brussels-based European Multi-channel and Online Trade Association, since January 2007.
On behalf of its 16 national member associations, EMOTA advocates a barrier-free European single market for distance sales, off and online, and collaborates with business partners that actively encourage cross border distance selling across the European territory as a whole.
Before joining EMOTA, Ms Czech directed the Single Market and International Affairs Committees at CEA, the European Insurance Federation, in Brussels, after representing, for more than eight years, the interests of the Austrian insurance industry at European and international level from her position as a lobbyist at VVO, the Austrian Insurance Federation, in Vienna.
Ms Czech graduated from the University of Graz as a Doctor of Law.
Jules Stuyck
Faculty of Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Qualifications
Law degree K.U. Leuven 1970 ; ph d K.U. Leuven 1975
Admitted at the Brussels Bar 1984
Present Functions
Academic
• Professor of European law and consumer law at K.U. Leuven
• Professor of European law at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
• Visiting professor of European Competition law at the Central European University, Budapest (since 2000)
• Visiting professor in European Consumer law at the Université Pantéon-Assas Paris 2 (since 2008)
• Author of more than 350 publications; co-editor in chief of Droit de la Consommation/Consumentenrecht; member of the editorial board of Journal of Consumer Policy, Revue européenne de droit de la consummation/European Consumer Law Journal and of Revue de droit commercial belge; member of the advisory board of European Review of Contract Law and of Revue des affaires européennes.
Professional
Partner with Liedekerke.Wolters.Waelbroeck.Kirkpatrick, Brussels; head of the department of European law and Competition law area’s: European competition law, sate aid law, internal market, public procurement, consumer law, regulatory law Belgian competition law and unfair competition and trade practices law.
Pula Houghton
Director of Public Policy & Consumer Markets, Which?
Pula Houghton is Director of Public Policy & Consumer Markets at Which?.
Pula joined Which? in 2006, formulating and developing Which?’s policy on financial services. As Director of Public Policy & Consumer Markets, ‘Pula is now responsible for the policy output on all economic issues across Which?'s campaigns, magazines and other channels. Key issues include regulation, competition and consumer policy, personal finance, energy, telecommunications, food and public services.
Before joining Which?, ‘Pula worked for two years as a policy adviser on financial affairs and infrastructure for the British Chambers of Commerce. Before that, he worked as a parliamentary researcher in the Parliamentary Resources Unit, a research company based in Westminster, providing support to over 140 MPs and Peers.
Sebastian Bohr
Deputy Head of Unit - Financial Services and Redress, DG SANCO, European Commission
Sebastian Bohr is Austrian.
He has a legal background (University of Vienna, Austria) and started working at the European Commission in 1995.
In DG MARKT, Mr. Bohr had various functions. In September 2008 he joined DG SANCO, unit Financial Service and Redress where he is a Deputy Head of unit since October 2010.
Eddy De Smijter
Deputy Head of Unit A1, Private Enforcement, DG Competition, European Commission
Eddy De Smijter joined the European Commission in 2001 as a member of the negotiation team on Regulation 1/2003 (procedural antitrust regulation). After the adoption of the Regulation, he co-authored an accompanying package of Commission notices, with particular responsibility for the cooperation with national courts.
In 2005, he moved to the team that is responsible for the Commission policy on antitrust damages actions. In that capacity, he co-authored the Commission's Green and White Paper. He is now Deputy Head of the Unit dealing with enforcement of EU antitrust rules by national courts.
Before joining the European Commission, Eddy De Smijter was teaching and doing research in European law at the universities of Leuven ( Belgium ) and Tilburg (the Netherlands ).
Lewis Crofts
Chief Antitrust Correspondent, MLex
Lewis is chief antitrust correspondent for MLex and writes extensively on issues of cartels, regulation and state aid. As the agency’s lead court reporter, he has written for several years on litigation before courts in Luxembourg, London, Germany and the US. A graduate of Oxford University, Lewis worked in academia at the Charles University, Prague, before becoming a journalist.
James Lawless
Junior Adviser Legal Affairs, UGAL - Union des Groupements de détaillants indépendants de l'Europe
James Lawless is Junior Advisor on Legal Affairs at the Union of Groups of Independent Retailers of Europe (UGAL). UGAL is an EU-wide trade association which represents non-integrated retail businesses in both the food and non-food sector. UGAL is a key stakeholder in the High Level Forum on the Better Functioning of the Supply Chain and closely follow consumer, competition and contract law development in EU policy. James holds a LLM from University College Dublin and is currently completing a PhD in EU law and regulation. He has published research in leading legal journals such as Regulation & Governance, the European Food and Feed Law Review and the European Journal of Risk Regulation.
Arundel McDougall
Executive Director, European Justice Forum
Arundel McDougall is the Executive Director of the European Justice Forum, a coalition of businesses, individuals and organisations that are working to promote fair, balanced transparent and efficient civil justice laws and systems in Europe. Arundel practiced as a litigation lawyer in London for over thirty years, handling many complex product liability, and competition damages cases.
Imelda Vital
EU Affairs and Corporate Affairs Manager, Amway
After my master in law and European law from the University of Louvain, I started working in the Brussels environment in 1992. I have been with Amway for 15 years based in their EU office doing policy and advocacy work mainly on consumer and nutrition issues.
I then became Head of office after a few years covering a wider range of issues and was subsequently given added responsibilities in corporate affairs and PR for 7 European markets.
I represent Amway in several trade associations at national, European and world level in various managerial capacities both for the direct selling sector or specific product ranges. Prior to joining Amway I was the legal adviser of the European direct selling association. French national raised in the European school in Brussels, I am married with 3 children.
Logistics
When
Tuesday 6 March, 2012
08.45 to 16.00
CET
Where
Le Chatelain All Suite Hotel
Rue du Châtelain 7
1000
Brussels
Belgium
Downloads
Realising the EU Single Market 2012
