EMN Czech Presidency Conference

Ylva Johansson

Ms Ylva Johansson has served as European Commissioner for Home Affairs since 2019. Her responsibilities include developing a new EU internal security strategy, advancing measures to prevent and respond to terrorism, developing a New Pact on Migration and Asylum, strengthening external borders, reforming asylum, readmission and return rules, promoting integration and ensuring real legal pathways to the EU, by resettling those in need of international protection and offering job opportunities to skilled workers.

Prior to her joining of the European Commission, she had served in the government of Sweden as Minister for Schools from 1994 to 1998, as Minister for Welfare and Elderly Healthcare from 2004 to 2006, and as Minister for Employment from 2014 to 2019. She has been a member of the Swedish Riksdag since 2006.

Vít Rakušan

Mr Vít Rakušan is 1st Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic. In 2010, he was elected mayor of Kolín and held this position until 2019.  After being elected Chairman of the Mayors movement, he stepped down from his mayoral position. In 2016, he was listed in the New Europe 100 — changemakers in Central and Eastern Europe, announced by the Financial Times.

He spent a year as Statutory Deputy Governor of the Central Bohemian Region for the areas of security and tourism; this position ended when he was elected Member of Parliament of the Czech Republic. During 2017–2021 he worked in the Committee on Security and Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. He was also the chairman of the Standing Committee for the Supervision of Military Intelligence.

António Vitorino

Mr António Vitorino has been Director General of the International Organization for Migration since 2018.

He served as European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs from 1999 to 2004. Prior to joining the European Commission António Vitorino served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Portugal, from 1995 to 1997.

His political background includes tenures as Portugal’s State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs from 1983 to 1985, member of the Government of Macau in charge of Administration and Justice from 1986 to 1987, member of the Portuguese Parliament from 1980 to 2007, member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1995, where he chaired the Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee in charge of Migration, Asylum, Justice and Fundamental Rights. During these years António Vitorino crafted leadership, management and negotiations skills at the highest level and developed in-depth knowledge of global and national migration contexts and related policy challenges.

Jean-Christophe Dumont

Mr Jean-Christophe Dumont has been the Head of the International Migration Division in the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD since 2011. He joined the OECD Secretariat in 2000 to work on international migration issues. He oversees the OECD annual flagship publication on migration; International Migration Outlook and numerous publications on the economic impact of international migration, as well as on migration management and the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in OECD countries. He has also worked on migration and development issues and on the international mobility of health workers. He holds a PhD in development economics from the University Paris IX-Dauphine and was a research fellow at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.

Stefano Scarpetta

Mr Stefano Scarpetta has been the Director of the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) Directorate of the OECD since 2013. He leads the work of the Organisation in a number of broad areas including Employment, Labour, Migration, Health, Skills, Gender and Tackling Inequalities and contributes to the implementation of the Secretary-General’s strategic orientations in these areas.

Stefano represents the OECD in the G20 and G7 and many other high-level international fora on labour market, social, migration and health issues.

From 2002 to 2006 he was the labour market advisor and lead economist at the World Bank in charge of the Bank-wide programme of Employment and Development; he authored a number of reports and was one of the leading authors of the 2005 World Development Report. Upon his return to the OECD in 2006, he led the economic reviews of Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, China and India, before moving back to ELS.

Anita Vella

Ms Anita Vella is currently Head of Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Unit HOME C2, responsible for Legal pathways and integration. Prior to that, she was political assistant to the Director General, Ms. Monique Pariat, since May 2020, preceded by a short period in 2019 as Deputy Head of Unit in HOME E2, dealing with National Programmes and EMAS for South and East Europe.

Michael Spindelegger

Mr. Michael Spindelegger was appointed Director General of ICMPD as of 1 January 2016. He has extensive experience in international relations through his work in the Federal Government of the Republic of Austria. In 2000, he was elected as representative of Austria to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where he led the Austrian delegation from 2002 to 2006. During this time period he represented Austria at conferences on migration issues.

As Minister for European and International Affairs, Mr. Spindelegger worked closely with international organisations in the field of migration and contributed to the policy debate during the Third EU-Africa Summit in Tripoli. After Mr. Spindelegger was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, he created a State Secretariat for Integration within the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior. At this time he worked closely with the Ministry of Interior on asylum and labour migration issues while also negotiating a re-admission agreement with the Afghan Government.

Michelle Leighton

Ms Michelle Leighton is Chief of the Labour Migration Branch for the International Labour Organization where she directs the Office’s work on labour migration and mobility, and supports policies and programs related to migrants and refugees.  She has expertise in the fields of international law, labour migration, human rights, and economic development.

She serves as an expert appointed to the UNFCCC Task Force on displacement related to climate change, and formerly a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Migration. Ms Leighton has led global and field research teams, including on linkages between human migration and development, environmental and climate change. She has taught on law faculties in Asia, Europe and the United States and authored numerous publications. Following her service as a Fulbright Scholar in Central Asia, she co-founded the American University of Central Asia’s Tian Shan Policy Center at the American University in Bishkek. She has been an adviser and consultant to international institutions, government, and non-profit organizations, leading technical cooperation projects in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

Hanne Beirens

Ms Hanne Beirens is Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe. She specializes in European Union policies related to asylum and migration, human trafficking, labour migration, and youth.

Prior to joining MPI as Associate Director in 2015, Dr. Beirens worked as a Lead Managing Consultant for ICF Consulting, where she focused on impact assessments, feasibility studies, and evaluations for the European Commission, with a particular focus on EU asylum and migration policy, as well as developing products within the European Migration Network (EMN), including pan-European studies and the EMN annual report. Topics covered include reception facilities for asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and non-EU harmonized protection statuses.

Earlier, Dr. Beirens worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Applied Social Studies of the University of Birmingham. She has also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and as an independent consultant for the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO).

Diana Stefanescu

Ms Diana Stefanescu is a Project Specialist in Labour Migration at International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). In her function with ICMPD’s Mobility Partnership Facility, Diana has accompanied the implementation of the EU-funded pilot projects on legal migration in close cooperation with DG HOME. A political scientist by training, she previously worked for the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, and in the private and non-profit sectors in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and in the US.

Josef Středula

Mr Josef Středula has been a trade unionist since 1990. Since 1993 he worked as vice-chairman of the KOVO Trade Union and in 2005 he was elected chairman. In 2014, he left the office after he was elected Chairman of the Bohemian-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions. He was re-elected in 2018 and 2022. 

Magnus Ovilius

Magnus Ovilius is Head of Sector for the European Commission’s Home Affairs Migration Forecasting, Contingency Planning, Preparedness and Policy Monitoring. He is responsible for monitoring and anticipating the developments of the EU migration flows on legal and irregular migration including asylum while regularly reporting these developments. Mr Ovilius is responsible for migration risk assessment, forecasting and contingency/resilience building in EU MS as well as preparedness including business continuity. Moreover, he is responsible for inputs and support to policy making including through the European Migration Network. Magnus Ovilius is also Chair and Manager of the European Migration Network (EMN) which includes horizontal coordination, representation and negotiations with EU Member States, and EMN Observer countries: Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro and Armenia. Prior to that he was responsible for coordination & direction of global government relations issues & group initiatives for Smiths Group. Before joining Smiths Group, Magnus Ovilius was with the European Commission where he held various management positions including as Head of Sector, Preparedness and Crisis Management in DG Justice Freedom and Security responsible for the formulation, implementation and evaluation of European Union counter-terrorism policies that entailed defence-related aspects of counter-terrorism, law enforcement led civil protection, critical infrastructure protection, crisis management, CBRNE policies, G8 Roma/Lyon meetings and Security Research.