Speakers

Georg Buchholz is attorney at law and partner of the law firm [GGSC] in Berlin. He started his career at the Federal Office for Radiation Protection in 2001 and changed to the law firm [GGSC] in 2004. He advises public authorities, municipal and private companies and NGOs in various areas of environmental law, in particular on genetic engineering law, industrial emissions law, renewable energy law, emissions trading law and nuclear law. Together with his colleague Achim Willand, he drafted various expert opinions on genetic engineering law and represented the beekeeper Karl-Heinz Bablok in case C-442/09 on the contamination of honey by GM maize MON 810 before the European Court of Justice.

Christophe Clergeau has been a Member of the European Parliament since June 2, 2023, and is a member of the S&D group. He sits on the Agriculture, Environment, and international Development committees. He is also vice-president of the ACP-EU parliamentary assembly and a member of the Parliament's maritime intergroup (SEARICA). Christophe is part of the national leadership of the French Socialist Party, where he serves as National Secretary for Europe and co-Chairman of the Socialist Party's Europe Convention. His main European priorities are the industrial, food and health sovereignty of the Union, and the ecological and energy transition of the European continent.

Anka Dobslaw, State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection since November 8th, 2022

03/2018 – 07/11/2022 Head of department and deputy head of department in the consumer protection department in the state of Berlin, initially in the Senate Department for Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination, from 12/21 in the Senate Department for the Environment, Mobility, Climate and Consumer Protection

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Margaret Engelhard
Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
bfn GMO Regulation Dr., Dipl. Biol.

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Fabrizio Fabbri
European Community of Consumer Co-operatives
Sustainability Policy Manager

Since 7 January 2020 Leonore Gewessler has been Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. After her high school graduation in Graz, Austria and her studies of political science in Vienna, Leonore Gewessler worked from 2006 as office manager in the office of the district head of the 7th district of Vienna. In 2008, she moved to the Green European Foundation in Brussels, where she took over the management of the Europe-wide active NGO. From 2014 on Leonore Gewessler worked as Political Director of Global 2000 – Friends of the Earth Austria back in Austria. In addition to her professional activities, she was also a member of the board of Friends of the Earth Europe.

Michelle Habets is a senior researcher at the Rathenau Instituut, an independent technology assessment institute in the Netherlands. She is also a guest researcher at Wageningen University & Research. She studies socially relevant aspects of various developments in the field of synthetic biology, agricultural biotechnology, and medical biotechnology. Michelle holds a PhD in biology and a PhD in medical ethics.

Benedikt Haerlin works for the German Foundation on Future Farming in Berlin, Germany. He co-ordinates the European initiative "Save our Seeds" to keep seeds free of GMOs and works on European Agricultural Policy issues and networks. He represented NGOs in the Worldbank and UN led IAASTD from 2002-2008. Haerlin was the global coordinator of Greenpeace International’s Genetic Engineering Campaign from 1996 to 2002 and worked for the organisation since 1990. From 1984 to 1989 Haerlin served as a Member of the European Parliament (Green Group), where he first specialized in genetic engineering issues. Before he worked as a journalist and editor.

Martin HÄUSLING
Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance Member
Germany - Bündnis 90/Die Grünen

Martin Häusling is a German Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA group and their spokesperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and a substitute member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Besides this, he runs an organic farm with his sons in Hesse (Germany) with 90 dairy cows and its own offspring, 50 laying hens, three sheep, two goats and a farm owned cheese dairy.

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A Doctor of Law, Corinne Lepage's experience has enabled her to develop a consultancy practice, including strategic advice, as well as litigation. She works alongside major corporations and start-ups, as well as French and foreign public authorities and associations. Corinne Lepage follows major environmental, energy and environmental health issues, and handles major pollution cases and natural and industrial disasters. She is one of the EU's leading specialists on these issues. Co-founder, with Christian Huglo, of the law firm Huglo Lepage Avocats in 1978, she has held numerous public positions: member of the Conseil de l'ordre and Secretary of the Conseil (1987-1990), Minister for the Environment (1995-1997), Deputy then First Deputy Mayor of Cabourg (1989-2001), MEP (2009-2014). She lectures at major companies on the evolution of climate and environmental issues linked to economic issues, and teaches a course on climate justice at Sciences Po Paris.

Bernard Lignon is currently working for SYNABIO (the French organic processors’ association) as a Regulatory and Quality Officer since July 1st, 2019. He takes part in working group of IGOP (IFOAM's organic processors' group) and he is also a member of the IFOAM Europe Board. As far as NTGs/GMOs are concerned, Bernard participates to the IFOAM working group at European level. In France, he is a member of the Biotechnology Dialogue Committee within ANSES (the risk assessment committee in France) and he also take part in exchanges with other French stakeholders.

Tilly Metz is a Luxembourgish Member of the European Parliament and a member of the Greens/EFA Group, which she represents in the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and in the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, among others.

Erika Olsson is the national chairman of the Organic Farmers' Association. And together with her husband runs a KRAV-certified organic farm with grain cultivation, 100 ewes, 40 sows and around 70 pigs. The meat is sold to restaurants and private consumers, and the farm has since its inception maintained a close dialogue with its customers via social media. 

Isabel Sommar is currently managing director of the Swiss Alliance for a GMO free Agriculture. She has more than 10 years experience in rural development and food systems transformation. By focusing on agroecology as a guiding framework, Isabel has been able to put her two Masters in Agricultural and Political Science to good use. In her work, she uses a systemic approach, combining multi-disciplinary thinking with innovation and pragmatism. Isabel co-developed and organized the first national citizens assembly on food policy in Switzerland, giving ordinary citizens a voice to share their vision for food systems transformation. In this project she was able to use the fundraising, communication, lobbying, negotiation and project managment skills she had gathered in her previous roles at Jacobs Foundation, Plan International and German Development Cooperation. She co-founded a CSA in Zurich and is on the board of the Swiss network Agroecology Works!.  

Ricarda Steinbrecher is a biologist and molecular geneticist, working on GMOs, their risks and impacts on agriculture, environment and health since 1995. She is now working on synthetic biology, gene drives, GM trees and the new genome editing techniques. She is involved in UN-led processes, especially the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and is serving on international expert groups on the risk assessment of GMOs and on synthetic biology. She is based in the UK and is a board member of the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER).

Programme Director, Greenpeace European Unit

Magda Stoczkiewicz has worked to put the Earth’s life-sustaining systems at the centre of the EU’s policy work and our collective thinking with Greenpeace European Unit since 2018.

Magda and her team analyse the work of the EU institutions, expose deficient policies and laws, challenge decision-makers to implement systemic solutions and fight back against greenwashing and false solutions to the global ecological crisis we are facing. The team closely follows policy areas including climate, energy, forests, the EU taxonomy, trade, transport and sustainable agriculture.

Before working for Greenpeace, Magda was director of WeMove and, before that, director of Friends of the Earth Europe, which she led for nine years. She has advanced knowledge of campaigning on environmental, social and governance issues as well as an understanding of human rights and development, coupled with many years' experience of the intricacies of the EU policy-making framework.

Pat Thomas is an award-winning campaigner, journalist and author. A former editor of the Ecologist magazine, Pat has run campaigns for Paul McCartney’s Meat-Free Monday and Compassion in World Farming. A long-time advocate of principled, sustainable farming, she is currently the director and co-founder of Beyond GM/A Bigger Conversation in the UK. Pat is the author more than 40 books for adults and children and was inducted into Who’s Who in 2014. In addition to her work with Beyond GM/A Bigger Conversation, Pat continues to write as an investigative journalist and makes regular public speaking and media appearances. She has been a trustee of both the Soil Association and the Organic Research Centre in the UK.

Sarah WIENER
Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance Member
Austria - Die Grünen - Die Grüne Alternative

Read more here.