MEET THE NEWLY ELECTED BOARD OF THE EUROPEAN FEDERALIST PARTY!​

 

MESSAGE FROM OUR NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT:

Dear friends of the European Federalist Party,I wish to thank you for your continuous support to our work and, in particular, I wish to thank the members our Party for electing me as President of the European Federalist Party. Together with my new team that you will get to know soon, we are ready to continue with even greater motivation our efforts to build a Europe that is closer to the people and that better able to address their needs and those of next generations of Europeans.We have made a long way since we started together in 2011. Back then we were only a only a small group of people. Today, together, we managed to open sections in many countries and to run for the European Election in 6 countries with one single European programme, creating the first ever truly transnational federalist list (more info here: www.votefederalist.eu). The press has also increasingly covered our activities, including major newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and Euractiv (http://federalistparty.eu/media/).Indeed, these constitute some significant steps forward! Yet, there is much more to do: we need to strengthen our structure, we need to reach a wider membership base, we need to further increase our visibility and especially our fund-raising capacity.Certainly this is a challenging time for Europe with the rise of Euroscepticism and nationalism. But it is also a time of opportunity: for the first time the people of Europe have indirectly elected the president of the European Commission through the European Parliament elections, reinforcing his duty to be accountable in front of the citizens and the European Parliament.It is also evident that many issues which are today in the news can only be solved through a federal approach: Europe needs some tax harmonisation in order to avoid tax-rulings and unfair competition. Europe need some harmonisation of our social and welfare systems in order to avoid social dumping while protecting fully the mobility of workers, students and job-seekers. Finally, Europeans need to work together more to tackle key challenges. We need to develop a fully fledged energy security policy, a truly European migration and asylum policy (including measures to ensure that no migrant dies at sea), and a true European industrial policy, supporting youth entrepreneurship and allowing our small and medium enterprises to reach the critical mass needed to allow them to invest and operate Europe-wide, and why not, globally.It is by addressing daily problems of Europeans and by establishing a more direct dialogue with the people that the EU will regain its full legitimacy. With a budget that is 1% of the EU GDP, today’s Europe doesn’t have the means to do all what the people are asking. At the same time, member states are still reluctant to deal with key issues at European level despite the fact that they have become unable to to deliver on their promises as the challenges have become global.

Only by uniting Europe into a federation we will ensure that Europe has both the means and the democratic legitimacy to act. This is why the European Federalist Party was created, and this is why we will continue working with you until we get there!

Federalist Regards,
—
Pietro De Matteis, PhD (Cambridge)
President, European Federalist Party

Let’s work together for a better Europe! Follow me on Facebook​ and Twitter!

 

COMPOSITION OF THE NEW FEDERAL BOARD:1-PRESIDENT: PIETRO DE MATTEIS

An economist by training, he graduated from the University of Milan-Bicocca (summa cum laude) and obtained a Masters-level degree from the European College of Parma. Thanks to some scholarships and by working aside, he had the opportunity support his studies towards a PhD in international studies form the University of Cambridge and to research in the USA (Columbia University) and in China (Renmin University).

As he believes that we can improve Europe also “from the inside”, he currently works for the European Commission where he manages cooperation programmes with third countries. In the past he worked for the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, for a Multinational Company in Shanghai, for the European Central Bank and for the EU Institute for Security Studies.

At the same time, there is a lot that needs to be changed “from the outside”. For this reason he is actively involved in politics as one of the co-founders and incumbent co-President of the European Federalist Party. In this capacity he stood as an MEP candidate in Belgium with the joint list European Federalist Party–Stand Up for the United States of Europe at the latest European Elections.

As Europe is diversity, he speaks Italian, English, French, Spanish and Chinese.

Georgios Kostakos holds a PhD in International Relations and a Mechanical Engineering degree.He served on the secretariat of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP) as Senior Adviser and Acting Deputy Executive Secretary, and on many other positions at UN Headquarters in New York, UN field missions, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the University of Athens. He is currently an independent consultant based in Brussels, Belgium. In his over twenty years of experience he has been dealing with issues of global governance and sustainability, climate change, UN reform and policy planning, UN system coordination, political affairs, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

3-SECRETARY-GENERAL: EMMANUEL RODARY

He is a member of the French section of the party since the announcement of the union between the Federalist Party (Sep. 2011), whose activities he followed, and Europe United. So he participated in the founding convention of the European Federalist Party on November 6th, 2011. He was then a candidate for the party for the French general elections of 2012 to establish the name of the party in the political landscape.

He has been Secretary General of the French section since December 2013. He held the participation of the party for the 2014 European elections in all French constituencies. We were the only party without financial resource who successfully proposed candidatures in all French constituencies (153 candidates).

Professionally, he is a project leader in industry, having worked mostly outside his own country (especially Germany, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Romania, and some non-European countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, China).

4-TREASURER: MARIAROSARIA MARZIALI

Mariarosaria has a degree in Public Communication and an extensive experience as accountant in large businesses. Europe is her daily life: she now works as the European Treasurer for European Federalist Party and she is also a European Project Manager for Local Authorities.Her dream is to make Europe a daily experience that enlightens the daily life of its citizens and supports them in building their own future.

5-PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER: MICHEL CAILLOUET

Michel has a long experience in European topics, working since 1975 as official of the European Commission in different positions: common agricultural policy, European cooperation and policy programmes with Central America, cooperation programme in the energy sector, political and economic cooperation dialogue with Latin America. Initiator or successful Al-Invest programme between small and medium size enterprises from Europe and Latin America (trade promotion and technology transfers). Follow-up of political agreements and trade relations activities.

Between 1996 and 2003, he has been Ambassador for the European Union in South east Asia ( Bangkok, accredited in 5 countries ), then in south Asia ( New Dehli, accredited in 5 countries ). During that period, intensive tasks of promoting European integration and image in various country of Asia, and coordination of the activities of Member states.

He then has been representative of the Commission to the COPS ( Ambassadors meetings foreign policy and common security, and European security and defense policy, and Ambassador representative of the European Commission to the “Council of Europe” (Strasbourg).

He retired from the European Commission in 2007, to create and manage a fair trade activity in Provence (Lourmarin and Aix en Provence).

A committed federalist, he joined the French section or the European Federalist Party last February 2014 and stood as an MEP candidate in the last European elections.

6-THEMATIC MEMBER IN CHARGE OF ECI: MARCO MARAZZI

Marco, a convinced euro-federalist, is President for the EFP Italy. He is also a director of the think tank “Rifare l’Europa” and in this capacity contributes regularly to various Italian newspapers and magazines on themes related to European foreign and defense policy as well as commercial policy.

In his professional life, Marco works as an international commercial/corporate lawyer focusing on bilateral investments between Asia and Europe, with special focus on the financial services, manufacturing and retail industries and has been ranked by Chambers Asia as one of the ‘leading lawyers’ in this field. Until March 2012 he was Vice-Chairman, Shanghai chapter of the EU-China Chamber of Commerce (EUCCC), a 1700 member-strong organization. He is also an “expert” of the EU-China Research and Advisory Network, and in this capacity has advised the EU Commission on its policy towards China.

He is a former Board member of the International Crisis Group and an active member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and cooperates especially with the IBA Human Rights Institute.

7-THEMATIC MEMBER: JOHN RETETAGOS

A dentist by profession, he received a diploma of dental medicine in 2001 from the University of Athens, and a Masters of Science in Periodontology in 2009 from the University of Witte-Herdecke in Germany).

He speaks fluent German, English, Bulgarian and Greek.

He was a member of the Greek Green Party during 2012-2013, and is currently a member of the Greek think thank Europe-Ecologie, which holds the principles of European federalism and the green economy.

He is happy to take this position in the board because he feels European, he has lived and studied in various European states and he is a convinced federalist and true believer of the European dream which is a united Europe for the benefit of its citizens.

8-AUDITOR : JEAN-NOEL REBORA

A relatively new member of the EFP, he is the head of a small company headquartered in France but working in Europe, Africa and Asia. His aim in joining the EFP is to move from the business field to the political one.

He has a bachelor’s in German education from the University of Tübingen, an MBA from EM-Lyon and an M.S. in Sociology “Management and Safety”.

He speaks fluent English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, is proficient in Japanese and is a beginner Russian speaker.

If you wish to have a more active role in the EFP through national or local sections, please write an e-mail to Pietro De Matteis, EFP President (e-mail: pietro.dematteis@federalistparty.eu).