Effective Innovative On Demand Democracy Support LEADERS FACE-TO-FACE EXCHANGE MEETING IN MADRID MADRID SPAIN JANUARY 27-29, 2014

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1 LEADERS FACE-TO-FACE EXCHANGE MEETING IN MADRID MADRID SPAIN JANUARY 27-29, 2014 PROJECT LED BY THE COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES AND LEND NETWORK CO-CHAIRS ESTONIA AND THE UNITED STATES. THIS MEETING IS ORGANISED BY THE CLUB DE MADRID WITH COOPERATION AND SUPPORT FROM THEM. Abridged Biographies of Experts, Respondents and Moderators MARÍA ELENA AGÜERO Deputy secretary General With over 30 years experience in the field of international development, particularly in Latin America, she has been part of the professional staff of the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, working extensively in these organization's Washington, Uruguay, Geneva, Brussels and Paris offices, and in their field offices. As project officer, sector specialist and senior adviser, in these organizations, she has done considerable project and programme work in a number of different areas, most recently in the fields of governance, State reform and civil society governmental relations. She has also gathered significant experience on relations between international organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, national and international partners and counterparts. Early in her career Ms. Agüero was trade policy officer at the U.S. Department of Treasury and research assistant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

2 LUIS ALBERTO LACALLE HERRERA President of Uruguay ( ) Member of the Club de Madrid Luis Alberto Lacalle became affiliated with the Partido Nacional (Blanco) at the age of seventeen. His political career began when he was elected Member of the Parliament of Montevideo, a position which he held until the military coup d état of When democracy was restored to Uruguay in 1984, Mr. Lacalle became both a Senator and Vice president of the Senate where he participated in the Public Funds, Transportation, and Public Works committees. He was elected President of Uruguay in November of 1989 and formally entered the position on March 1st, 1990 to serve the five-year term from 1990 to His administration is known for having implemented a free market program; during his term in office Luis Alberto Lacalle, along with his colleagues in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, co-founded the MERCOSUR which was established by the Treaty of Asunción on March 26th He has been President of the National Party (Partido Nacional) on two occasions; between 1999 and 2004, and from August He was a candidate in the 2009 presidential elections but lost to José Mujica. He currently still serves in the Uruguayan Senate. VAIRA VIEK-FREIBERGA President of Latvia ( ) President of the Club de Madrid As President of the Republic of Latvia for , Dr. Vaira Vike- Freiberga was instrumental in achieving membership in the European Union and NATO for her country. She was named Special Envoy to the Secretary General on United Nations reform and was official candidate for UN Secretary General in She remains active in the international arena and continues to speak up in defense of liberty, equality and social justice, and for the need of Europe to acknowledge the whole of its history. In December 2007 she was named vice-chair of the Reflection group on the long term future of the European Union ( ). She is chair of the high-level group on Freedom and Pluralism of the Media in European Union, established by the vice-president of the European Commission ( ). She is also known for her work in psycholinguistics, semiotics and analysis of the oral literature of Latvia

3 MATYAS EÖRSI Democracy Reporting International Dr. Matyas Eörsi, was Hungary s State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1997 to He became active in politics during the political changes that swept across Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe in In 1990, he was elected a Member of the Hungarian Parliament during the country s first free elections. He served in different leadership positions in the Parliament for 20 years, such as Leader of the Parliamentary Group, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee and President of the EU Affairs Committee. Dr. Eörsi was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 1994 to In 2002, Dr. Eörsi was elected as Leader of the ALDE Group in the Assembly, a position he held for 7 years. He also served as Vice-President of Liberal International, and in the Bureau of the ELDR Party. In 2008, he was the Hungarian Government s nominee as Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Dr. Eörsi was decorated with State Awards by the Bulgarian, the Georgian and the Taiwanese governments for his services in international politics. After having served in the Hungarian Parliament for 20 years, Dr. Eörsi was working for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Jordan and in Libya, and for the Democracy Reporting International (DRI) to assist parliaments in the Arab Spring countries. In 2012, Matyas Eörsi was appointed Secretary General for the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy. MARIA LEISSNER Secretary General, Community of Democracies Maria Leissner was elected Secretary General in April, 2012, being the first Secretary General of the Community of Democracies. Prior to that, she was Sweden s Ambassador at large for Democracy, and led the CD Working Group on Governance that proposed the recent reforms of the CD. Maria Leissner has been Member of Parliament in Sweden from , after having led the Swedish Liberal Youth organisation both as Secretary General and as President. As an MP, she served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and was party spokesperson for refuge- and immigration issues. In 1995, she was elected leader of the Liberal Party in 1995, being the first woman leader of her party. Maria Leissner joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000 and was Ambassador to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize and Costa Rica in Maria Leissner has also served internationally as Director for NDI s Governance program in Iraq and as Senior Adviser for Human Rights at AMM (EU/ASEAN peace monitoring mission) in Aceh, Indonesia in She has participated in a large number of election monitoring and other short term democracy related missions with SIDA, The Scandinavian Institute for African Studies, NDI etc. She chaired the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (development NGO in Afghanistan) in , and the Swedish women s organisation Kvinnor Kan in , and is currently chair of the advisory board of the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Södertörn.

4 LIIA HÄNNI Director of the e-democracy Program e-governance Academy, Estonia Liia Hänni has been actively involved in Estonian politics as a Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister responsible for ownership reform. In the Parliament her main areas of activity were constitutional and the EU affairs. She was a member of the Constitutional Assembly, an institution drawing up the new constitution for Estonia. From the beginning of 2005 Liia is in charge of the e-democracy programme of e-governance Academy. She promotes use of ICT for democratic governance and empowerment of citizens. Liia is physicist by education, she holds a Ph.D. degree. RASŤO KUŽEL LEND Media Analyst and Elections Expert, Slovakia. Lend expert adviser Mr. Rasťo Kužel is a media and election expert with over 15 years of international experience. Since 1998, he has been the Executive Director of MEMO 98, a proficient media institution with extensive experience of delivering media monitoring on behalf of international institutions as well as technical assistance to civil-society groups. Kužel has worked as media and election analyst, consultant, and trainer, participating in some 26 OSCE/ODIHR election observation missions, most recently in Serbia and Iceland. He has also worked in more than 50 election and media-related projects and missions in the framework of the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, IFES, NED, NDI and IMS, most recently in Georgia and Azerbaijan. In 2011, Kužel lead a consortium that implemented a UNDP project focusing on media assistance to public broadcaster, non-governmental organizations, and election administration in Georgia. He also has an intensive experience electoral & media related trainings of different stakeholders participating in elections, including the regulatory bodies, the media, and NGOs. CARLOS WESTENDORP Secretary General of the Club de Madrid Carlos Westendorp joined the Spanish Diplomatic Service in Following several assignments abroad( : Deputy Consul General in Sao Paulo, Brazil; : Commercial and Economic Counsellor at the Spanish Embassy in the Hague, the Netherlands) and in Spain ( : Head of Economic Studies at the Diplomatic School; Director of Technological Agreements in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Industry) he dedicated a great part of his professional career to the process of integration of Spain into the European Communities. Between 1979 and 1985 at the Ministry of European

5 Affairs, he successively served as Advisor to the Minister, as Head of the Minister s Private Office and as Secretary General, presiding over the technical team in charge of the accession negotiations. In 1986, when Spain joined the European Communities, he was appointed its first Ambassador Permanent Representative. He chaired the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) during the first Spanish Presidency of the EEC in From 1991 to 1995 he was Spain s Secretary of State for the European Union. He ws centrally involved in the Spanish Presidency of the EU in 1995, which coincided with the adoption of the Euro, the launching of the Barcelona process and the signing of the transatlantic agenda. In this last capacity, he chaired the Reflection group set up to prepare the negotiations on treaty change which led to the Treaties of Amsterdam and subsequently, Nice. In December 1995, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and served in that capacity until the end of the last government presided by Felipe González. In July 1996 he was appointed Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations in New York. From 1997 to 1999 he served as the High Representative of the International Community in Bosnia-Herzegovina. At his request, the Bonn conference empowered him to take the necessary decisions to implement the peace agreements (the flag, the national anthem, the single currency, common license plates, the laws on citizenship, privatization and others, refugee return, removal of elected officials, etc.). In 1999 he was elected Member of the European Parliament representing the PSOE. He served as Chairman of the Parliament s Committee on Industry, Trade, Energy and Research until In 2003 he was elected Member of the Madrid Regional Assembly and Speaker on Economy of the Socialist Group. He was co-founder and Executive Vice-President of the Toledo Center for Peace and is now member of its board. After the elections of 2004 he was appointed Ambassador to the United States of America, a position he occupied until Most recently, he was the principal advisor to Felipe González, Chairman of the Reflection Group established by the EU Heads of State and Government to assist the European Union to anticipate and meet the challenges facing in the period 2020 to 2030.