Baiba Miltovica has been appointed in 2020 President of the “Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and Information Society” Section (TEN) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). At the same time, Ms Miltovica serves as Board Member of the Latvian National Association for Consumer Protection (LPIAA) and actively co-operates with the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) on the European Commission Horizon 2020 and DG Justice and Consumers projects. She is member of the European Consumer Consultative Group (ECCG) of the European Commission, subgroup on Energy and Sub-Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI), connected products and other new challenges in product safety.

In her previous mandate at the EESC, Ms Miltovica held a position as Vice-President of the Diversity Europe Group of the European Economic and Social Committee and was an active member of TEN, appointed Rapporteur of 6 opinions (on energy and climate policy, energy performance of buildings, internal gas market, heating and cooling, etc.) and of the Single Market, Production and Consumption Section (INT) and Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion Section (ECO) of the EESC.

At the national level Baiba Miltovica continues to fulfil responsibilities in the LPIAA and is Member of the Advisory Board of the Latvian Public Utilities Commission.

Ms Miltovica holds a degree in political science and lectures at Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Social Development.

Dr. Virgil Popescu was elected as a member of the European Parliament in June 2024. Prior to this, he was appointed Romanian Minister of Energy in December 2020, a mandate he completed in June 2023. He also served as the Minister of Economy, Energy, and the Business Environment from 2019 to 2020. Also, he served as interim at Romanian Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitalization, in 2022.

Additionally, he held the position of Vice President of the Commission of Industry and Services in the Romanian Parliament's Chamber of Deputies from 2016 to 2019, and was the President of the Environment Commission from June 2023 to June 2024. Dr. Popescu has been a parliamentary representative in the Romanian Parliament from 2016 to 2024.

Beyond his political career, Dr. Popescu is actively involved in academic and research activities, serving as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Craiova University. He holds a Ph.D. in management from Craiova University and a BS in engineering/automation and computing from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania.

Laban Coblentz’s career crisscrosses multiple sectors of science, technology, education, and sustainable development. At the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he applied mathematical models of probabilistic risk to improve safety practices at nuclear power plants. In the U.S. Congress, he led Senator Joe Lieberman’s effort to create The E-Government Act of 2002. At the International Atomic Energy Agency from 2000 to 2008, he worked with Director General Mohamed ElBaradei on nuclear diplomacy in Iraq, Iran, and other political hotspots – while also promoting hi-tech improvements to agricultural productivity, medicine, and groundwater management in developing countries. From the IAEA, he returned to New York to create new university- and community-based models for entrepreneurship, drawing on the Maker Movement and the democratization of advanced manufacturing. For the past 9 years, he has been the Head of Communication at ITER, in the south of France, where 35 countries are collaborating to make fusion power a practical reality for clean energy generation.

Stine Strand holds the position as Research Manager and Business Developer within Human Factors at the Institute for Energy Technology in Norway. She has background in Psychology, specializing in Social Psychology and Human-Machine Interaction. Strand is dedicated to advancing understanding of the collaboration between humans and advanced technology & automation. She is passionate about creating safe, secure and efficient Human-Technology Systems.

She has 20+ years of experience in conducting controlled and realistic simulator studies, focusing on evaluation of human performance in digital control rooms.

Her experience is mainly within the nuclear industry, but she has also been deeply involved in Human Factors research in other safety-critical domains, such as the Maritime industry and Air Traffic Control.

Kostadin Sirleshtov

Managing Partner | Head of Energy & Climate Change

Kostadin Sirleshtov is Managing Partner of CMS Sofia and Head of Energy & Climate Change for Central and Eastern Europe and for Bulgaria.

Kostadin is leading the CMS nuclear initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe and in Bulgaria and is coordinating the ongoing nuclear energy assignments that the firm has across CEE.

His particular area of expertise is in conventional power, nuclear, electricity, oil & gas, renewables, infrastructure, projects, PPP, public procurement, underground resources. He has worked on the largest nuclear energy projects in Bulgaria.

Some highlights of Kostadin’s nuclear energy experience include advising:

·   Enel in relation to the EUR 7 billion Belene nuclear power plant project. The transaction involved a competitive bid to participate in a joint venture arrangement with the national electricity provider, NEK. The matter involved preparing legal due diligence, full review of the EPC pre-agreement and of the draft EPC agreement, advising the client on the terms and conditions of the draft project agreements, advising in relation to electricity market deregulation issues, nuclear power plant regulation and project finance matters (with BNP Paribas).

·    Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Authority in relation to various public procurement and regulatory matters.

·  Iberdrola Nuclear, a leading European utility company, on a project financed by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund of the EBRD. The work included advice on various regulatory matters related to nuclear damage and decommissioning.

·  An international energy company on implementation of an upgrade project of the existing Units 5/6 of the Kozloduy NPP.

·   A Bulgarian energy company on providing legal assistance with potential nuclear opportunities in the Balkan region.

CEO

Attila Hugyecz is an economist, materials engineer and nuclear power plant operation engineer. He has been involved in the Paks II. project since its beginning, 2014. He worked on different topics of the project, like environmental licensing, electricity market analyses, state aid related questions. Currently Mr. Hugyecz works as the chief international officer of Paks II Ltd., he is responsible for establishing the international relationship network of Paks II.

For 15 years as the head of a reactor unit, in a nuclear power plant, managed the operation of the VVER 440 unit. Since 2001 at the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the Slovak Republic, since 2002 as the director of the Division of Nuclear Materials. Head of the division responsible for state supervision on nuclear safety and nuclear security of, among other things, the storage of nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuel. Since taking the position, licenses for an existing interim spent fuel storage facility, including storage containers, and a new interim spent fuel storage facility have been issued. Also, a license for a transport container for transporting spent nuclear fuel was licensed.

Holding a degree in nuclear engineering; including a PhD. in Thermal Power Engineering Machinery and Equipment. In addition, a degree in management from City University.

Dr. Linus Bettermann 

 GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH, Essen / Germany 

Professional Experience 

Since 03/2021 GNS: Vice President Sales and Marketing 

Since 01/2023 CEO of WTI (GNS-Subsidiary) 

 01/2021 – 05/2024 CEO of GNS Japan K.K. 

 2016 – 2021 GNS: Head of Sales Department (Nuclear Casks) 

 2012 – 2016 GNS: Product Development Team Manager (Cask Design) 

 2011 – 2012 GNS: Project Manager Product Development (Cask Design) 

Education 

 2008- 2011 PhD Studies Nuclear Physics, University of Cologne / Germany 

 2009 Doctoral Researcher Nuclear Physics, Yale University / USA 

 2003- 2008 Physics, University of Cologne / Germany