European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mihai Popșoi has played a leading role keeping Moldova on its path towards European Integration and resisting Russian attempts to undermine his country’s democracy. He underscores the need for deep reform to transform Moldovan society, clean up corruption and reduce the influence of oligarchs in politics, economy and the media. His party’s campaign for a vote in favour of Moldova’s European future in an October 2024 referendum was successful despite widespread Russian interference. Popşoi previously served as deputy speaker in the Moldovan Parliament and Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Kosovo-based Erblin Ribari is Chief Financial Officer at dua.com, an app that seeks to transform the dating industry, providing a lifestyle platform that focuses on establishing meaningful connections through shared culture and origins. Starting out as a dating app for Albanians, dua.com has gone global, with more than 5mn registered users and a market cap of over $50mn. Its ambitions go far higher: dua.com aims to cut global loneliness by half over the next 10 years. The 2008 financial crisis sparked Ribari’s commitment to making change, driving him to take leadership roles in multimillion-dollar projects across tech, finance and government furthering economic development and global connectivity.

From her base in Latvia, wearing many hats, Marija Ručevska has been a driving force behind the Baltic tech scene for a decade. She is the General Partner at the Outlast Fund, launched in 2024 to back pre-seed and seed stage startups in the Baltic and Nordic region, to support bold founders with the grit and vision to build ventures that outlast the rest. Ručevska is also partner and co-founder of Helve, which she helped set up in 2016 to bring startup-style innovation to the wider corporate and public sectors. She continues as Member of the Board at TechChill, one of northern Europe’s biggest annual tech conferences, drawing over 300 startups and 250 plus investors.

Jakub Skrzywanek, from Poland, is one of Europe’s most exciting theatre artists. His radical work spotlights social and political themes, from the rise of far-right politics, to homophobia, class inequalities and the adolescent psychiatric crisis. He made international headlines with a drama adapting language from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to highlight the creeping normalisation of extremist discourse. Uzbek authorities tried unsuccessfully to shut down the premiere in Tashkent of his drama “Underground Girls”, which focuses on the plight of refugee Afghan women. Among Skrzywanek’s most recent works, the “Death of John Paul II” and “Spartacus. Love in the Time of Plague” captured Poland’s top directing award.

Vasilisa Stepanenko is a Ukrainian video journalist and correspondent for the Associated Press (AP), based in Kyiv. Focused on human rights and social justice amid the war in Ukraine, she was one of the few international journalists to remain in Mariupol during its siege, capturing images that played a crucial role in urging international leaders to open a humanitarian corridor. Stepanenko and her team won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the reporting from Mariupol and investigations of war crimes in the city committed by Russia, making her one of the youngest recipients of the award. She was also the field producer of “20 Days in Mariupol”, a documentary exposing the human cost of the war, which won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Documentary.

Natalija Stojmenović is a member of the Serbian Parliament representing the opposition Green-Left Front. She was previously a Belgrade city councillor and coordinator with the Don’t Let Belgrade Drown (Ne Davimo Beograd) movement, which was founded in 2014 to promote citizens’ engagement to promote reform, transparency and environment protection. Stojmenović’s election in 2023 came amid a surge of support for a proEuropean, anti-corruption coalition standing in opposition to the populist government which has ruled Serbia for over a decade. She supports grassroots politics to counter the power of vested interests and has worked in Parliament to promote women’s rights, affordable housing and improved public services.

Jamie Susskind is a British barrister and an award-winning non-fiction author whose books explore the interface between technology, politics and the law. “The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century,” published in 2022, examines how democracy can survive in a world of omnipresent digital technologies. It argues for new rules, rights and institutions to curb the power of digital technology. His 2018 book “Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech” won the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize. Susskind has been described as “one of the leading intellectuals of the digital age.”

András Tivadar Kulja is a surgeon and digital-health expert who was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024 on the ticket of Hungary’s opposition Tisza Party. With 360,000 followers on TikTok, he has Hungary’s most widely-viewed health-education channel. Kulja used his high social media profile to counter disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired to enter politics after attending an opposition rally in April 2024, Kulja gave up his hospital posts to speak freely about Hungary’s healthcare problems. He is a Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Climate, and Food Safety and a member of the Committee on Public Health, where he advocates for a stronger EU role in promoting healthcare reform.

Jan-Willem van Putten is a Dutch social entrepreneur and policy expert. He is co-founder of both The School for Moral Ambition and Training for Good, which focus on priming a new generation of leaders to confront pressing global challenges and make a lasting impact on society. Through his work, he strives not only to talk about a better world, but also to take action towards one. As Fellowship Director at The School for Moral Ambition, van Putten manages programmes that empower individuals to drive change in sustainable food production and tobacco industry control. Training for Good works to equip young European policymakers and journalists to recognise and reduce risks from emerging technologies.

German politician Wiebke Winter is a member of the Bremen State Parliament representing the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She is the youngest female member of the CDU’s Federal Executive Board. Winter’s political priorities include climate protection, security and digitalisation. In 2021, she co-founded KlimaUnion to push for more ambitious climate policies, particularly through climate-focused foreign policy. Winter chairs the Home Affairs Committee in the State Parliament. She co-led the CDU list in in Bremen’s 2023 state election and is the party’s deputy parliamentary group leader and spokeswoman on Justice. Winter campaigns to get more young women in politics.