PROFILE OF SPEAKERS
Monica BALDI
Monica Baldi, architect and urban planner, is Grand Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic. Deputy and Secretary of the Commission for Foreign and Community Affairs at the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006. MEP and Deputy President of the Committee for Culture, Youth, Education, Media and Sport from 1994 to 1999. She is Vice President of the European Parliament Former Members Association (FMA) and of ARS PACE.
Baldi was Vice President of the Red Cross of Pistoia and President of the associations: Pinocchio di Carlo Lorenzini, Pinocchioworld, Laurus and Professional Cycling Groups League. She is a speaker and promoter of conferences on: international politics, cooperation and development, culture, urban planning, environment. She has always been committed to the defence of Human Rights and in particular for the Rights of Women.
Monica Baldi is currently Vice-President of the Former Members Association.
Enrique BARÓN CRESPO
Enrique Barón Crespo is Former President of the European Parliament (1989-92), President the Socialist and Democrats in the EP (1999-2004) and Member of the European Parliament (1986-2008). He also was the FMA’s President from 2014- 2018. In his function as MEP, he was the Former Chairman to the Foreign Affairs Committee and to the International Trade Committee of the EP.
He is the Former Minister of the Spanish Government which adhered to the EC (1982-85) and a Former Member of the Spanish National Parliament (1977-87). He is a Chair Jean Monnet “ad honorem”, visiting Professor in Universities all over the World and a lawyer and Economist. P.H.D. in Law and Economics (Universidad Complutense, ICADE-Madrid) & Diplômé Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC). He is President of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Spain, ARS PACE and Chancellor of the United Nations Peace University. He is Vice President of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation.
Richard CORBETT
Richard Corbett was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 1996–2009 and 2014–20. During his tenures, he was Coordinator for the Socialist and Democrats Group on constitutional questions, Parliament’s co-rapporteur on the Constitutional and Lisbon Treaties, several times rapporteur on revising the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, the Parliament’s negotiator on reforming ‘comitology’ and the UK Labour Party leader in the European Parliament. Prior to becoming an MEP, he worked with Altiero Spinelli on Parliament’s 1984 Draft Treaty on European Union. In 2010–14 he was an advisor to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. After ceasing to be an MEP, he was asked by the Parliament to represent it in the Common Secretariat organising the Conference on the Future of Europe. He has written extensively on European affairs, including several academic textbooks, and was a visiting professor at the College of Europe.
Martí GRAU
Martí Grau is Member of the Academic Team of the House of the European History and he is the Head of Service and Curator at the Jean Monnet House. Between 2009 and 2011, he was Visiting Professor at SPEA-Indiana University. Former Member of the European Parliament, he served in the Foreign Affairs and Internal Market Committees, as well as in several parliamentary delegations for relations with foreign countries (including Canada, Japan, and the South Caucasus countries). He also was Member of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. A graduate of SAIS-Bologna and Pompeu Fabra University, he has worked at the European Institute for the Mediterranean in Barcelona and taught European Politics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He started his career as an archaeologist and director of several archeological excavations.
Klaus HÄNSCH
Dr. Klaus Hänsch (born 1938 in Sprottau) is a German politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 2009, and a member of the Party of European Socialists group, of which he was Vice-Chairman from 1989 to 1994 and from 1997 to 2009. Klaus Hänsch was Presidium-Member of the Convention drafting a European Constitution (2002-2003) and Parliament’s representative in the Intergovernmental Conference on the Constitutional Treaty for the European Union (2003-2004). He was Member for Germany (SPD) from 1979 to 2009 and President of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997. Klaus Hänsch is currently President of the Former Members Association.
Danuta HÜBNER
Dr. Danuta Hübner is a Polish economist, diplomat, and politician with an extensive career in academia, public service, and European affairs. For over three decades, she has played a key role in shaping the European Union, serving as European Commissioner for Trade and Regional Policy and Member of the European Parliament until 2024. In Poland, she was deeply involved in the country’s democratic and economic transition, holding senior government positions including Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Chief Negotiator for OECD accession, Minister for European Affairs overseeing EU accession preparations, and Head of the Chancellery of the President. Beyond Europe, she served as UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva. Since 2012, she has also been a member of the International Honorary Council of the European Academy of Diplomacy.
Domènec RUIZ DEVESA
Domènec Ruiz Devesa, is a lawyer, economist, and political scientist, with an M.A in European Studies from Johns Hopkins University. MEP and S&D Group Spokesperson in the Committee of Constitutional Affairs in the X Legislature (2019-2024), Domènec was the Rapporteur of the new European Electoral Regulation and the Report on the 2024 European Elections. He served as Senior Advisor to HRVP Josep Borrell. He is also currently President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and serves on the Executive Board of the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement.