Arbitration Board
Below you can find the current published candidacies to the Arbitration Board of JEF Europe.
List of candidates
Please allow me to introduce myself: I hold a bachelor’s Degree in Law and a Master for the Access to the Legal Profession, passing the Spanish Bar Exam on the first attempt. Furthermore, I completed an MBA from the European University of Madrid with a full talent scholarship. With a strong interest in public policy making and the functioning of EU institutions, I pursued a postgraduate course about the European Union at the Spanish Diplomatic School.
I am currently working as Senior Corporate Compliance and Data Protection Lawyer and am a certified Data Protection Officer. I’m member of the Spanish Compliance Association, as well as part of its Compliance under 35 national task force. I’m a Compliance professional certificate under the International Federation of Compliance Associations (IFCA) framework.
I have been teaching these subjects since 2019 as an associate professor at the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), a top tier educational institution in Spain owned by the Ministry of Industry. Being in contact with the students and the academic world allows be to be updated with the latest trends and discussions, as well as sharing my true passion for the topic. Since 2018, I have been working with IBEX-35 companies in key sectors such as energy, health, biomedical research, logistics, automotive, banking and transport; highlighting leading the redesign of the Public Compliance system of the Spanish biggest public company.
I joined JEF in 2015, collaborating with Andalucia’s section in projects such as Models of United Nations with more than 400 participants, UEF and JEF international congress or multi stakeholder initiatives like Talento para el Futuro. I became president of JEF Madrid, the biggest Spanish section, in June 2021. One of the main projects that I'm leading is the organization of a national public campaign as well as an educational toolkit and a national conference about digital rights in Spain (we are the second country in the world regulating those) with the support of JEF Europe in the framework of its Internet Governance project with the Council of Europe.
I consider that JEF Europe should have a clear focus in the following two years on (i) being well known as a pro European most ambitious entity (as well as the oldest one together with UEF), (ii) being able to grow and reach a broader population (such as youngsters from vocational training centers or deprived neighborhoods) and (iii) enhance its organizational structure, improving efficiency and trust on it at all levels. Systems such as performance evaluation models, secure whistleblowing lines or transparency areas of the website for members and non-members such this one that we created in Madrid: https://jefmadrid.eu/transparency are useful tools for improving JEF’s capacity building. From my position, if elected, I would like to contribute, together with my colleagues, to ensure that JEF remains a safe participation space for everyone as well as offer support and advice to JEF for developing and improving transparency and compliance tools such as the mentioned above.
Maija Maunu
About me
Hey everyone! My name is Maija (like Maya), I am 23 years old, and I come from Finland. Outside of JEF I spend a lot of my time on my final year of master’s studies in European law, my work as a teacher, socializing (as I love people and organizing get-togethers), and also reading many kinds of books with a cat or a dog on my lap, depending on which of my home countries I am in at that moment. I currently live in the Netherlands where I study, and I expect to live around here with my partner and our two cats at least for another few years.
I started my JEF journey with JEF Turku, you may remember my hometown from the 2018 Boat FC. After JEF Turku I joined the Federal Committee for the 2018-2019 term and contributed as the chair of the European Parliamentary Elections 2019 Task Force, and since January 2020 I have been the International Officer of JEF Finland. I have always been interested in international and European politics. My interest was sparked in an environmental policy themed scholarship program to the US I attended when I was 16 (well, maybe initially after the embarrassment of my 9th grade social science teacher having me interview a politician and me not really understanding much about the answers he gave me). Since then, I have also been in JEF, spent some years in my local youth council, a year as a Youth Delegate at the Congress of the Council of Europe, 3 of my university years in different board levels of the European Law Students Association (ELSA), and took part in many other organizations and projects to learn more about European and international legal and policy affairs and advocate for the values and policies I believe in.
Motivation for the position
After being actively involved in different levels of JEF policy-making, organizational development and more, I hope to continue to contribute to JEF in the Arbitration Board for the next two years. While my term in JEF Finland ends, my conviction for a federal Europe has gotten ever stronger, and I hope to keep contributing to JEF’s work in different ways for the next few years and in the future. I believe my legal background would be suitable for this position as well as my time spent in JEF, being in the FC during and therefore being able to follow the discussions on the statutory reform, and my active contribution to the new Code of Conduct drafting and debates. In addition to feeling qualified and motivated to contribute to JEF as an Arbitration Board member, I also would very much look forward to joining the AB as a learning opportunity, to gain further perspective on the government of JEF and bringing these perspectives to the discussions on JEF’s organizational development in the future. After all, I may still have 12 great JEF years ahead of me, right?
I see a lot of potential to further activate the Arbitration Board. For example, the AB could be more interactive and participate in different TFs where previously questions on the compliance with the statutes have been raised (e.g., in the Code of Conduct drafting process), either of their own initiative or when so agreed with TF chairs. I also think we should look into possibilities to involve the AB with the newly established harassment contact persons system to ensure impartiality if the harassment contact persons are elected from among the current representatives in the bodies of JEF Europe.
Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions about my candidacy or background. Looking forward to seeing everyone *finally in person* in Liege!
Dvir Aviam Ezra
About me
A bit about myself: I am Dvir, 24 years old Dutch-Israeli international lawyer. I hold a bachelor and master's degree in international law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, worked in several human rights NGOs and attended variety of training programs related to European integration and society. I have also been active in various areas of conflict resolution, both in the context of international conflicts (the Israeli-Palestinian mock negotiations, participation in programs regarding international disputes in the Balkans) and intra-organizational conflicts (active in the arbitration boards of my student association and local political party).
Currently, I am working in Brussels as a financial policy analyst in the field of corporate governance, ensuring audit processes are optimized and enhanced, drafting best practice codes, and evaluating ESG aspects of multinational corporations.
My motivation
My JEF path began by participating in local events of JEF Belgium, which than transformed into participation in board meetings, helping to organize our annual training days, and coming to the congress as out national delegate. Further, I have been focusing on policy formulation and worked with the PC3 on its two resolutions brought to approval in this congress. Recently, I also took part in the Expert Meeting on Global Governance and Climate Change as part of the Global Solutions for Global Problems program by JEF Europe, contributing ideas on international governance and its connection to effective protection of the environment.
My motivation to join the arbitration board stems from my motivation to be active in JEF. I believe Europe deserves and needs a strong federalist movement in order to prosper and succeed in facing its current global challenges. As part of this, we also need an effective arbitration board that would bridge disputes and help differing parties to settle differences in the way that is most beneficial to our organization. Such ways could include mediation, formulating creative solutions to existing problems, facilitating informal compromises, and more. All of this should be done with maximum transparency and integrity to assure everyone's trust in the process. We should also adapt ourselves for the changing times, making our outmost efforts to ensure safe space for people from all genders, races, religions and nationalities. My personal background as an immigrant and a member of the LGBTQ+ community could prove beneficial in that respect and I would do my best to make the arbitration processes as inclusive as possible.
I also believe that my professional legal background as a lawyer could help me understand the relevant statutes if any disputes arise, without resorting to over-legalized terminology. If chosen, I will try to communicate the reasons for any decisions in a transparent and simple manner, with the main consideration being the benefit of JEF Europe, its members, and meeting the expectations set by our values.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions regarding my ideas or candidacy, I wish all a fruitful congress!
Gerhard Soyka
About me
I have joined JEF in 2011 in Saxony-Anhalt and have been active on the local, federal and European level. Nowadays, I live and work in Berlin as a Public Affairs Manager for METRO AG. I like squirrels and yoga and would like to be successful on TikTok, but I have neither the time or skills to do so.
Motivation for the position
After 10 years of JEF, I have gained much experience on a national and European level of JEF. In Germany I have been Co-Chair of the working group which worked on the statutes in 2014-2016. During the last term of the Federal Committee, I was as part of the Presidium already involved in the governance of JEF Europe. I am motivated to join the arbitration board, because I would like to still contribute to our cause.
My vision of the future of JEF
JEF is on a good and successful path. By ensuring good governance within our internal structures, I would like to contribute to our fight for the United States of Europe.
Leonie Martin
About me
Hi, my name is Leonie Martin, I am 31 years old. I have been a JEFer for 11 years now, active on the European level for 8 years and have been in the Executive Board for 6 years (4 years as Senior Vice President and 1 as President).
I am a federalist, I have a M.A. in European Studies and a LL.M. in International and European Law. These studies allow me to think politically and legally.
You can contact me under [email protected] if you have any questions.
My motivation
In the past four years JEF Europe has been going through changes, be it the long statutory process which is hopefully going to be voted in favour during this European Congress.
I am familiar with the process, I am familiar with the work of the Arbitration Board through the side of a person occasionally requesting and occasionally reading a request. Furthermore, I am familiar with the statutory changes that will be coming up.
The new version of the statutes creates the possibility of more questions of statutory interpretation being raised. The work in the AB hence is going to be formative and will be a contribution to our association.
Ophélie Omnes
I am hereby running for the arbitration board of JEF Europe.
As a qualified lawyer, involved at European level of JEF since 2015 - as VP and then as presidium and task force chair - I have had quite some experience with handling rules in general, and in JEF specifically.
It would be my pleasure to help the organisation with my skills in the next mandate.
Best regards,
Ophélie
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