European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

Disa Jironet is a Dutch Public Prosecutor and author with a background in Dutch and international law. Specialised in the role of justice in society, her work adopts a new approach to criminal law by examining how societal systems and institutions can be shaped compassionately to better serve humanity. Her book “Crime and Compassion” argues for a more humane criminal climate. Acknowledging the complexity of human behaviour, Jironet remains critically optimistic that justice reform can move beyond the debate of hard or soft punishment and towards an evidence-based conversation about long-term sustainable justice and security.

Berlin-based Lubomila Jordanova is a one of Europe’s leading Greentech entrepreneurs. On a mission to fight climate change, she founded Plan A in 2017, developing ground-breaking software that enables businesses to monitor and reduce emissions, while improving their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESC) performance. Plan A has developed a global network of over 1,500 companies with the yearly target of cutting CO₂ emissions by 1 gigatonne. In addition, she is co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, uniting more than 3,000 stakeholders to harness the power of technology for a sustainable future. She is passionate about wildlife, with a special soft spot for lemurs.

A winemaker from Portugal, Anna Jørgensen heads the Cortes de Cima wine estate in its mission to realise sustainable and organic production with minimal environmental impact. She champions low-till and no-till regenerative approaches, reduced watering practices and polyculture crops to increase the vineyard’s long-term resilience, especially as the Alentejo region faces heightened climate change challenges, such as water scarcity. In two years, Jørgensen led the winery to reduce its hectares of vineyard by half, making use of the land more wisely to produce fewer grapes, but of higher quality, while also introducing biodiverse animals and plants to land that is no longer used for production.

A space enthusiast from Czechia, Petr Kapoun founded TRL Space to strengthen the country’s budding space industry. He is Chairman of the Brno Space Cluster, Deputy Chairman at the Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce and Head of the Association of the Czech AeroSpace Industry’s space section. His work at the Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce focuses on the improvement of the local community. Passionate about gender equality in tech, Kapoun is an Ambassador for Women in Space. His involvement in educational activities led him to contribute to the creation of the first master’s programme on space applications at the Brno University of Technology. Throughout his career, Kapoun also notably managed over 12 space missions.

Inga Lāce is a Latvian curator and the Chief Curator of the Almaty Museum of Arts in Kazakhstan. Her research centres on transnational connections and the legacies of politics of friendship and international solidarity within the realms of eastern Europe and Central Asia. Lāce was the CMAP Central and Eastern Europe Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and previously held the position of curator at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art for a decade. She has co-curated exhibitions in Rīga, Kaunas, Ljubljana, Paris, New York, Malmö, Amsterdam and Łódź, among others. Lāce was the co-curator of the Latvian Pavilion of the 2019 Venice Biennale with the artist Daiga Grantina. Her collaborative ‘Portable Landscapes’ project examines the stories of exiled Latvian artists and her ‘(Re)construction of Friendship’ project, which took place in Riga’s former KGB house, focused on the complicated relationship between superpowers and small countries.

A professional swimmer and local politician from Finland, Ari-Pekka Liukkonen represents the Green party at the Jyväskylä City Council. He chairs the Culture and Sports Committee, championing the construction and development of sports facilities. At the height of his swimming career, the three-time Olympic athlete publicly came out as gay ahead of the Sochi Winter Games in protest of Russia’s anti-gay legislation, after which he was named Finland’s Sports Role Model of the Year. A flag bearer at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, he holds the Finnish records for 50m and 100m freestyle, as well as European Championship gold and bronze medals.

A journalist from Kosovo, Besa Luci is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Kosovo 2.0, an independent print and multimedia magazine creating journalism that listens to people’s experiences, explains complex realities and provides context. The outlet sheds light on injustice, discrimination, human rights and current affairs in Kosovo and worldwide. Dedicated to establishing cross-cultural links, as well as explanatory, contextual and narrative journalism, K2.0 is the only medium in the country that publishes in Albanian, English and Serbian. Besa has also produced and co-written feature documentaries, including the “Drums of Resistance” and “REXHEP – What Killed the Architect”, and has worked as a researcher at the Foreign Policy Club think tank and Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

Steve Zammit Lupi is a Councillor at the Ħaż-Żebbuġ Local Council in his hometown, elected as an independent candidate at the age of 23. He champions initiatives that seek to protect the environment and promote sustainable transport and mobility. Zammit Lupi is well-known for cycling 4,400km across Europe from Malta to Stockholm in 41 days in summer 2023. Raising awareness about embracing greener lifestyles and reducing carbon footprints, his journey showcased the potential for cycling as an alternative mode of transportation on his home island. Zammit Lupi was involved with Rota, a local bicycle advocacy group, and active with Birdlife Malta, an organisation which strives to protect birds and their habitats on the island.

A Montenegrin farmer-turned-agricultural entrepreneur, Marko Maraš founded Seljak.me, a ‘digital village’ platform for farmers to connect and share information, as well as buy and sell agricultural products and equipment. Maraš is on a mission to boost the farming sector and engage young farmers in agriculture production through innovation and sustainability. Welcoming over 60,000 visits per month, the platform seeks to increase the procurement of modern technologies, such as blockchain and GPS, that can enhance productivity and proximity to livestock markets. Seljak is famed for being the first to sell a farm asset of any kind for Bitcoin in the Western Balkans.

A Slovak parliamentarian, Vladimíra Marcinková, member of the Freedom and Solidarity parliamentarian club, is the vice-chair of the Committee for European Affairs. Under her leadership, the Committee for European Affairs was the first in EU member states to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for a unified EU response to support the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine. A staunch supporter of human rights and the rights of the rights of minorities and other vulnerable groups, she has sponsored legislative initiatives to expand children’s rights and social assistance to mothers and families, as well as defended the expansion of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. Marcinková is also actively dedicated to improving the position of women and mothers in the labour market.

Luka Mesec is a Slovenian politician and activist who currently serves as the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity, and as Deputy Prime Minister. He has served in the national parliament for nearly a decade and is the former leader of the eco-socialist party, The Left. Throughout his political career, he has championed participatory economics, social corporate governance, improved social benefits for the poor, labour rights and the abolition of tax havens. Mesec also initiated the establishment of a Ministry of Solidarity-Based Future, in charge of developing social housing, long-term care and economic democracy. Prior to entering politics, he was notably active in various initiatives that promoted the welfare state and workers’ rights.

Takoua Ben Mohamed is an Italian-Tunisian graphic designer and journalist specialised in illustration and animation cinema. Largely depicting refugees and Muslim women, her works address social issues concerning xenophobia, racism and stereotypes. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the film production company BM Entertainment, which produced the “Hijab style” documentary film for Al-Jazeera. The storyteller has published several graphic novels and was the art director of the animated sport for the ‘Look Beyond Prejudice’ campaign against the discrimination of Muslim women. She has received the Evens Journalism Prize for best graphic journalist and the Muslim International Book Award for best comic book for interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

A local politician from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Uk Nihad currently serves as the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton. Nihad envisions Sarajevo as a European metropolis that offers its inhabitants, especially young people a high quality of life. He champions forward-thinking transport, housing and education policies, and the promotion and enhancement of culture and art. Recent successes have included a project aimed at building Sarajevo’s first museum of modern art, as well as the provision of free textbooks for all primary school students and free public city transportation for all students.

Péter Pető is a Hungarian political journalist, who currently works as the Editor-in-Chief of 24.hu. Previously, he was the deputy editor of the left-wing political daily Népszabadság until it was shut down following the publication of articles revealing scandals that implicated politicians close to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Soon after its dissolution, he was shortlisted for the Reporters Without Borders’ Prize of Independence. Having started his career in sports journalism, Pető became increasingly politically engaged as the country’s media landscape became growingly turbulent. He aims to uphold independent journalism through the preservation of traditional and the adoption of new approaches to journalism to reach diverse audiences. He has also authored eight books, including novels and political essays.

A stalwart of independent journalism, Olga Rudenko is a Ukrainian journalist and the Editor-in-Chief of the Kyiv Independent, an award-winning media start-up that was launched by the former editorial team of the Kyiv Post, where she was the deputy chief editor. Under Olga’s leadership, the Kyiv Independent covers Russia’s war against Ukraine, does investigative reporting about corruption and Russian war crimes. The recipient of the Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs Award for excellence in journalism, Rudenko was also named among the Next Generation Leaders by Time magazine, and featured on the publication’s cover in 2022, shortly following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.