The European Values Network was founded in 2006 as a joint project of the civic association of European Values, based in Prague, and several friends and colleagues from Germany, Poland, and Hungary. Supported by the European Values association, a legal entity acting on behalf of EVN, the International Organizational Committee runs every year EVN Programme.

European Values is a non-governmental, not-for-profit, pro-European think-and-action tank that works to promote freedom, personal responsibility, and active civil society. Based in Prague, European Values is active Europe-wide.

Our vision is of a European society aware of the values and identity it is based on. We stand up for a European political community that draws from these values and is able to protect and promote them. We endorse the values we consider to be the very foundation of the development of Western civilization. We insist on personal freedom and responsibility, human dignity, solidarity, active civil society, the market economy, democracy, and the rule of law. Preservation of the European way of life based on these values is far from certain today. Europe may easily turn into a passive object of global developments, and thus lose any chance to determine its own destiny. Our mission is to formulate and promote solutions to enhance Europe’s freedom, safety, strength and prosperity. Hence we conduct research and educational activities, address politicians, experts, and the wider public.

Radko Hokovsky, President of the EVN
Radko Hokovsky serves as a Chairman of the association European Values o.s. and has worked as its Executive Director since July 2007. He has co-found and since 2005 volunteered for the Association for European Values gradually as a project manager, coordinator of international cooperation and executive secretary. In 2006 he led the development of the European Values Network programme and become its president. Currently he is a PhD candidate at the Department for International Relation of the Charles University in Prague. He holds a Master of European Studies degree from the Centre for European Integration Studies (ZEI) at the University of Bonn, and Bachelors Degree in Politics and International Relations from Charles University in Prague. He had completed a quarterly internship in the European Parliament in 2005. He has also attended the Robinson-Martin Security Scholars Program at the Prague Security Studies Institute in 2004. He has been member of the European Youth Parliament in the Czech Republic since 2002, and the Association for International Affairs (AMO) for which he volunteered in 2003-2005. He focuses on issues of European integration, especially decision-making processes and role of the European political parties.

Igor Breitner, Coordinator: Working Group on Demography
Igor Breitner graduated from ELTE with a master’s degree in Political Science. During his studies, he had been working for the Antall József Foundation as a research fellow, specializing in international relations. During 2007 he interned for the Washington-based Hudson Institute and Hungarian American Coalition, and in the New York office of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation. Currently, he is the International Secretary of the Antall József Foundation and the columnist of the think tank section at the Equity Centre for Political Analyses in Budapest. Igor has also worked as a campaign manager, and blogs on political technology. He participated in European Values Network in previous years.

Maximo Miccinilli, Coordinator: Working Group on Energy
Since March 2008, Maximo Miccinilli has been consultant at Burson-Marsteller (Brussels) in the Government Relations and Energy teams. Prior to that, he worked in the Italian Ministry of European Affairs as a policy adviser, notably in the reform of the Lisbon Strategy, the implementation of Solvit Network and the EU energy liberalization process. He has also concluded an internship at the European Commission in Directorate General Relex in which he supported the Mercosur, Brazil and Chile desks on institutional and legal cooperation. Maximo holds a Master of Arts in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and a Bachelors Degree in International Relations from the Universidad del Salvador (Argentina). He was distinguished in the St. Gallen Symposium 2006 and the World Business Dialogue 2007 (University of Cologne) for his written contributions on EU energy security. He has been recently appointed as Secretary of the Europe, Middle East and Africa Energy and Climate Change Practice for Burson Marsteller. He speaks fluently English, French, Italian and Spanish.

Rafal Riedel, Coordinator: Working Group on Climate
Dr Riedel is currently adjunct at the State University of Opole and guest researcher at the Centre for European Studies ARENA - University of Oslo. He obtained his PhD degree at the Faculty of International Relations at Silesian University in Katowice. He holds an MA in Marketing and Management from the Academy of Economics and EU, self-government and communication at Silesian University. He had been a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute, where he lead workshops on the future of the EU Constitutional treaty and European Cohesion and regionalism in Europe. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Valencia, University of Rotterdam etc. He worked as the Director of International Studies Centre and as coordinator of the Jean Monnet program. His publication activities focus mainly on the economy, politics and social issues. He is experienced in preparing educational programs, organizing conferences and panels etc. He speaks English and has a basic understanding of German.

Nuno Wahnon Martins, Coordinator: Working Group on Proliferation
Nuno holds MA Europeaum degree as part of a Joint Programme from the Universities of Leiden, Sorbonne Paris I, and Oxford in “European history and civilization”, masters degree in “Political Science and International Realations: Security and Defense” from the Portuguese Catholic University, and Law Degree from Portuguese Catholic University. He has extensive experience working as a lawyer and until recently worked with Le Cercle Institute in Paris as a research fellow, He is a regular contributer to the Magazine of the Diplomatic Institute in Portugal. A native Portuguese speaker, Nuno is fluent in French, English, Italian , and Spanish.

Thomas Winzen, Coordinator: Working Group on Democracy
Thomas holds a BA degree in European Studies from the University of Maastricht and a MA degree in politics and research methods from the University of Sheffield. Currently he works as a research assistant at the Center for Comparative and International Studies of both ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. He is also enrolled in the Center's MA program. Thomas' research interests currently lie with the role of national parliaments in the European Union, as well as with the internal politics of the European Parliament.

Sargis Ghazaryan, Coordinator: Working Group on Conflicts
Sargis is Adjunct Professor of Conflict Analysis and Methodology of Conflict Resolution in Caucasus at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy, University of Trieste, Italy. He is also EuFoA’s (European Friends of Armenia) Senior Research Fellow. Sargis holds an MA in International Relations and Diplomacy and a PhD in Political Geography and Geopolitics from the University of Trieste. He has been awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in EFSPS (European Foreign and Security Policy Studies) jointly by Compagnia di San Paolo, VolkswagenStiftung and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. He has been a lecturer of Geopolitics: EU Foreign and Security Policy at the University of Trieste. He specialises in the Common Foreign and Security Policy, European Neighbourhood Policy, security sector governance and conflict resolution in the former Soviet Union. He speaks Armenian, Italian, Russian, English and French.

Theo Vassilopoulos, Coordinator: Working Group on Competitivness
Theo Vassilopoulos took Economics as an undergraduate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued his academic endeavour with an MBA (double concentration in both Marketing and Entrepreneurship). Moving on, he decided to pursue a MSc in Applied Informatics and IT (major in Business Informatics) and thereafter an International Master in European Studies with focus on Community Advisory. Theo Vassilopoulos was engaged with a number of professional activities that began as a trainee for TD Canada Trust Bank in Calgary, AB, Canada (through AIESEC) and others, and as a junior project manager position at a hometown consultancy firm. During the course of his career he set up his own consultancy firm on strategic management while he was offered a CFO position at A.I.T. SA (Advanced Industrial Technologies), a spin-off company, where he stayed for 4 years. He is currently an external advisor and the last two years has been involved in lobbying activities on behalf of the Greek Federation of Accountants / Economists / Tax Consultants to CFE (Confédération Fiscale Européenne) as a member of the Fiscal Committee and Professional Affairs Committee while also representing the Greek Delegation at the General Assembly. He has attended a number of conferences/events across the world and also participated as invited speaker/coordinator in a few of them.