Speakers list

Elsi Katainen is a Finnish Member of the European Parliament in Renew Europe Group on her second parliamentary term. She is member and vice-chair of AGRI committee and member of TRAN committee. She is teacher of natural resources and agricultural sciences by profession and has had dairy farm together with her family, currently ran by her son. Mrs Katainen acted as rapporteur for CAP transitional regulation on 2020 and she is her group’s negotiator on Biodiversity Strategy in AGRI committee. She has worked as a rapporteur in Horizon Europe’s agri cluster and shadow rapporteur for unfair trading practices directive in the food chain. Before joining European Parliament she served as a Member of Finnish Parliament for 11 years. During that time, Mrs Katainen also worked as a member of the regional board of Northern Savonia for eight years, with topics consist rural development, distribution of EU-funding and sustainable growth.

Views on Smart Villages and the EU’s Long Term Vision for Rural Areas:

I see that rural areas has lot to offer and it is the important base for the whole society. It is significant that we recognise that we don’t look it with narrow scope as the challenges are different on the level of the region or local communities. What come to practise of the vision drafted by European Commission, bottom-up approach needs to be in the centre of planning and implementation. The most critical infrastructure for rural areas are undeniably road network, broadband, local services as well as education. These are essential services for vibrant rural areas. Already now and in the future, even more attention will be paid for the teleworking possibilities and digitalization in rural areas.

EU must recognise the importance of appropriate level of funding for rural communities and development of rural areas.

Dr Qu Dongyu, who took office on 1 August 2019 as Director-General of FAO, fully engaging with how to eradicate hunger worldwide.

Born in 1963 in Hunan Province, China, Qu studied horticultural science at Hunan Agricultural University and then plant breeding and genetics at the graduate school , CAAS. He later added a PhD on agriculture and environmental science at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands.

Before coming to FAO, Qu served as China’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, where one of his achievements was to promote inclusive and innovative development and make sure information and communication technologies (ICT) were available in rural areas so that more than 400 million farmers could use their smartphones as a new farming tool. That vision has been consistent across a professional career that includes periods in central and local government, in and leading research institutes, and as a human resources leader at the China Three Gorges Project Development Corporation (the largest green energy Co in the world). Among his national initiatives has been to improve marketing mechanism for agricultural products in China and foster the establishment of national specialty production areas geared to making local comparative advantages work to the benefit of local farmers. As Vice Governor of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, one of China’s landlocked and poorest areas, Qu formulated action plans aimed at poverty reduction, women empowerment, youth startups, agritourism and solidarity between ethnic groups.

Qu says he represents the combination of an “Asian soul” and a “global mind”. Recognized for scientific innovation as a young scholar, Qu has for 30 years been involved in international exchanges and orchestrated major events including the World Potato Congress, the International Rice Congress and the International Conference on Plant Protection, and participated in multilateral initiatives such as the World Trade Organization and the G20 as well as numerous bilateral initiatives involving Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has also directly helped design flagship South-South Cooperation projects with FAO and the World Bank. As the DG of FAO, Qu makes the full range of his efforts to build a dynamic, open, transparent and deliverable FAO for a better world, with transformation of agri-food systems and successful achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms. Cifre Wibrow is the Joint-Managing Director of the newly established joint venture, Bosch BASF Smart Farming GmbH, which is based in Cologne, Germany.

In this role, she works in partnership with Florian Gwodsz, Joint-Managing Director of the company, to manage its growing team, set its strategic direction and focus on developing, marketing and selling its unique products – Smart Spraying and Intelligent Planting Solution.

Ms. Cifre Wibrow is a highly experienced business executive, having worked in the international agriculture industry with BASF for more than 20 years. With BASF, she has held significant global business and marketing roles including county manager positions in Spain and Austria. Prior to this, she was Product Manager at K+S/Compo responsible for introducing new fertilizer product lines into the South American market.

Passionate about agriculture and positive impact new technology will continue to deliver to this industry, she is a strong advocate for sustainable farming practices that benefit farmers, society and the environment.

Ms. Cifre Wibrow holds an Agricultural Engineer degree from the Universidad-Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain and a Master’s degree in Marketing from ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain.

Janez Cigler Kralj, born on 28 December 1978, graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana and obtained a university degree in political studies, policy analysis and public administration.

In 2006, he started working for the NSi  – Christian Democrats Deputy Group at the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia as a specialised assistant in public relations. In 2008, he joined the Infonet media d. d. media network. In 2010, he continued his career at the Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund as a senior adviser in public relations. Since 2012, until his appointment as Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, he has worked as a specialised assistant, undersecretary of the NSi. Throughout his career, he has worked in the field of labour, family, social affairs, and disabled persons.

In 2015, he became head of the NSi Workers’ Association, an organisational unit within the NSi and a member of two EU-level workers’ organisations: the EZA and EUCDW. Since 2019, he has been a member of the presidency of the EUCDW (European Union of Christian Democratic Workers), an important workers’ organisation within the EPP. He was also actively involved in the work of the EZA (das Europäische Zentrum für Arbeitnehmerfragen – European Centre for Workers’ Questions). As part of this, he regularly worked with representatives of trade unions and employers from Slovenia and the entire EU. The main objective of these organisations is to foster social dialogue.

Since December 2019, Dubravka Šuica is Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography. Mrs Šuica a Croatian politician from the city of Dubrovnik, where she served for two terms as its first female mayor and was awarded the 2006 World Mayor Award. Dubravka Šuica entered politics in the 1990s as a Member of the Croatian Democratic Union and served as a Member of the Croatian Parliament and Vice-Chair of the EU Integration Committee. Between 2004 and 2009 she was a Board Member of the Union of the Association of Towns and Municipalities of the Republic of Croatia. During ten years she was the Vice-President of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. From 2013 to 2019 Dubravka Šuica served as a Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee. In June 2019, Šuica was elected as first Vice-Chair of EPP Group in the European Parliament. Since 2012, she is the Vice-President of EPP Women.