Speakers

Jitka Hošťálková is the acting head of Family Policy Unit of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic. Her main area of expertise is family policy, especially childcare and gender equality. She took part in preparation of the new Family Policy Strategy, which was approved by government in 2017. She is a member of Chamber of Youth which is an advisory body of the Minister of Education. She is also a PhD candidate in Public and Social Policy at Charles University in Prague.

László Márki is a mathematician, research professor emeritus of the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

He has held various functions in the Hungarian and the international mathematical community, 1992–96 he was Vice-President of the European Mathematical Society. 1996–2000 he was Vice-President, 2000–04 President of the National Association of Large Families. 2004–2014 he was Vice-President, 2014–2018 President, at present Honorary President of the European Large Families Confederation. He and his wife have 4 children and 14 grandchildren.

László Márki is an active member of the National Association of Large Families (NOE) since 1989. He was one of the main organisers of the biannual family congresses of NOE in the period 1992–2006. Since 1994 he has represented NOE in various international organisations. In the European Large Families Confederation, in 2007 he organised a common action of 12 European level family related federations towards the European Commission and the European Parliament in order to allow lower VAT rates for items and services necessary in raising children.

Liz Gosme is mother of two rebel girls (3 and 7 years old) and Director of COFACE Families Europe www.coface-eu.org, a network of 58 organisations across 23 countries promoting the well-being, health and security of families and their members in a changing society. She is an EU social policy analyst with fifteeen years of experience in EU affairs representing the interests of civil society organisations. She has worked extensively with various EU institutions contributing to building a social policy architecture for Europe, monitoring key frameworks such as the EU social open method of coordination, the EU Semester, the European Structural and Investment Funds, EU public procurement legislation, the EU urban agenda, EU-SILC monitoring in preparation of the 2011 population and housing census, taking part in key stakeholder consultative groups for these different frameworks. She has also worked with national governments and local authorities from across Europe, supporting the development of effective policies to tackle and prevent homelessness. Today, Liz directs the Brussels-based COFACE team, which advocates for legislation and policy enabling families and their members to benefit from sufficient financial resources, available quality services and adequate time arrangements in order to live and enjoy their family life in dignity and harmony.

Axelle Devaux - Deputy Head of Brussels Office; Senior Analyst, Brussels Office.

Education, M.A. in European studies, University of Lille.

Axelle Devaux is a senior analyst at RAND Europe and deputy head of the Brussels office. Her research work focuses on education policies with a particular interest in education technologies and their in supporting vulnerable learners. Devaux has worked with the EU institutions for over 13 years and managed the evaluation and implementation of several EU policies and programmes.

Prior to RAND she worked for Deloitte Consulting and ICF International. Devaux graduated in Law from the University of Lille II. She participated in in a student mobility programme with the universities of Warwick and Saarbruecken, which gave her the opportunity to explore EU Law from different perspectives. She also holds a master's degree in European studies from the University of Lille.

Niclas Jacobson, born 9 March 1966. Bachelor in Political Science, Uppsala University. Has since 1992 held different positions within the Swedish Government offices, eg Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.
Between 2004 and 2010 worked with issues related to social services. In 2008 administrative head of the special commission to draft minimum standards of competence to work within elderly care.
Since 2011 Deputy Director- General and Head of the Division for EU and International Affairs within the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. Between 2011 and 2014 chairman of the EU Social Protection Committee Working Group on Ageing.

Pirjo Turk has worked in the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs’ Department of Children and Families as the head of Family Policy since November 2016. Previously she worked as an analyst of labour and social policy in the Estonian think tank called Praxis Centre for Policy Studies, where she mainly focused on the areas of family policy and gender equality. She has also worked as a gender equality consultant in various projects. Pirjo obtained her MA in sociology from the University of Helsinki. She is also a mother of two boys aged 9 and 14 (and a dog).

Zdzisław Krasnodębski is a sociologist, social philosopher, publicist. He is a professor at the University of Bremen and an associate professor at the Akademia Ignatianum in Cracow. He taught, among others, at the University of Warsaw, University of Kassel, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Catholic University of America, Columbia University. He also gave visiting lectures at numerous universities e.g. Princeton University, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. He is an author of several books on sociology, philosophy and politics. In 2014 he run the elections and received a mandate of the Member of the European Parliament of the eighth term. He is a member of Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committee and a substitute member of Culture and Education (CULT) and Security and Defence (SEDE) committees. He serves as an ECR coordinator in ITRE and is also as a co-chair of Working Group on Demography, Intergenerational and Family Policies. Since March 2018 Zdzisław Krasnodebski is a vice-president of the European Parliament.  

Elżbieta Bojanowska, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy. Sociologist, social politician, doctorate degrees in the humanities, in the field of sociology. She completed the faculty of Political Science and Social Science at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (former ATK) and specialisation in social politics in the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the Warsaw University. She also completed postgraduate studies in the field of social service organizations at the Warsaw University.

Currently, she is the assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology at the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. She was the Director of a Social Welfare Home. She worked in the Polish Senate Chancellery, PKN ORLEN SA and the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, where she held the position of Director of the Department. She is the author of scientific publications in the field of sociology and social policy, in particular different aspects of age and ageing of Polish society.

As Minister of State for Family and Youth Affairs and as a mother of three children, Mrs. Katalin Novák is personally dedicated to promoting family values, such as adressing family as a resource and commitment of having children as a desirability. Within the framework of the national Family-Friendly Country concept initiated by her, she works to ensure that everybody, from childhood until retirement years, may experience a supporting environment to achieve family goals and fulfill their dreams. Her work has been acknowledged with several national and international awards.

Lene Buer Blomqvist, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Children and Equality, Department of Childhood, Youth and Family Affairs. Lene has a Master's degree in political science from University of Oslo and University of Tromsø. She has worked in the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Equality since 2008, the last year acting as Deputy Director General for the section responsible for family policy including several family benefits. Her fields of interest are family policy, demography and fertility and she values to work knowledge based with these subjects.

Rasa Žemaitė. Chief Specialist of Strategic planning, monitoring and ommunication unit. Experience in this field: the ten-year evolution and development activities of the Lithuanian family policy at the national and regional level, as the leader of the Active Mothers Assembly. The main goal of NAAM is a responsible family in functioning and cohesive society, and an open, friendly Family environment in which motherhood and parenthood / childhood and social synergy ensure the well-being of each person.

Viveca Arrhenius. Ministerial Counsellor for Social Affairs, Permanent Secretary´s Cabinet, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Worked at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health since 1992. Main tasks: strategic planning and preparation and coordination of cross administrative governmental key projects. Main fields of know-how at present; child strategy and immigration policies.

Andrej Del Fabro is Director-General of Family Affairs Directorate at Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Slovenia. Before that he worked as the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia and as a policy adviser in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. He has a university degree in sociology - human resource management and a master’s degree in political sciences. He is a member of Council of Europe Ad hoc Committee for the Rights of the Child and The Council of the Republic of Slovenia for Children and Families.