The EU on a mission: rethinking governance and policymaking

In addition to her current role of Director for ‘Adaptation & Resilience, Communication, and Civil Society Relations’, Elina Bardram is also the Mission Manager for the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. She joined DG CLIMA over a decade ago and has held different senior and middle management functions in the area of international relations, including as Head of the EU Delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations. Previously, Bardram also worked in the Strategy Directorate of the External Relations Directorate-General.

Photo credits: © European Union / Nuno Rodrigues

Patrick Child is currently Deputy Director-General at the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment and assumes responsibility for the EU’s zero pollution strategy, chemicals legislation, urban agenda, research and innovation for the environment and communication. He is also the Mission manager for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, which aims to reach 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030. Previously, Child was Deputy Director-General in DG Research and Innovation (R&I). As a member of the Board of DG R&I, his focus was on research and innovation in clean energy and climate technologies as well as the R&I dimension of the post-COVID recovery and resilience strategy and Horizon Europe mission on cancer. With a background in the UK Finance Ministry, Child joined the European Commission in the 1990s, where he started in the Directorate‑General for Economic and Financial Affairs.

A professor of sustainability science, Julia Leventon currently heads the Department of Social Dimensions of Global Change at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She is an environmental social scientist whose work focuses on societal transformations for sustainability. Leventon has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) on this topic and is currently serving as a coordinating lead author to the Transformative Change assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Her research portfolio is largely funded by the European Commission and includes work on changing decision-making and governance processes towards sustainability, and on creating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research to meet sustainability goals.

A long-standing Member of the European Parliament, Jan Olbrycht currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Group of the European People’s Party. He is also a full member of the Committee on Budgetary Control; a substitute member of the Committee on Regional Development and the Committee on Budgets; a co-rapporteur on the Multiannual Financial Framework; as well as a member of the parliamentary working group on the scrutiny of the recovery and resilience facility. Olbrycht is a participant and supporter of regional and local policy, and the co-founder, member and chairman of the URBAN Intergroup in the European Parliament as well as a co-chairman of the European People’s Party working group on Intercultural and Religious Dialogue. Previously, he served as Mayor of Cieszyn, and held various positions at the regional, national and European levels.