Lorena Lopez de Lacalle
Born in Gasteiz (Basque Country) in 1959, Lorena graduated from the University of Geneva as a Translator and Conference Interpreter. She worked in many institutions such as the European Parliament and NATO. From August 2007 until December 2010 she was a member of the Regional Government of Araba as head of the Regional Ministry of Culture, Basque Language and Sports.
Since 2010, Lorena has been the Secretary for International Relations at EA. In 2011 she became member of the regional Parliament of Araba (Bildu Coalition). Lorena has been Vice-President of the Alkartasuna Foundation and of Eurobask (Basque Council of the European Movement) since February 2012. She speaks 7 languages. Since 2013 she is a member of the EFA Bureau.
Jordi Solé Ferrando
Born in Caldes de Montbui (Catalunya) in 1976, Jordi Solé has been Mayor of Caldes de Montbui, Barcelona, from 2007 until 2019. Prior to that, he was assistent to several Catalan MEP’s from 2002 to 2007. He became ERC’s National Secretary for International Relations in 2011. From 2012 to 2015, Jordi was a Member of the Catalan Parliament, where he chaired the foreign affairs committee. Since 2016 he seats in the EFA Bureau as Secretary-General. In January 2017, he became Member of the European Parliament for ERC in the Greens/EFA group.
Jordi holds a degree in Political Science (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Master in European Studies (Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt Oder, Germany).
Anke Spoorendonk
Anke Spoorendonk belongs to the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig. Since 1996, she has been on the national SSW executive board. From 1990 to 1996, Anke was councillor of the district of Schleswig-Flensburg. From 1996 to 2012, she was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Parliament. Until 2009, she was the president of the SSW parliamentary group. From 2012 to 2017, Spoorendonk was Minister of Justice, Europe and Culture in the government of Schleswig-Holstein.
Anke studied German language and history in Copenhagen and graduated in 1976 as Master of Arts. She was a teacher for several years before starting her political career.
Peggy Eriksson
Born in Helsinki in 1966, she has lived in Denmark, Sweden and in the Netherlands. She went to an International School and studied at the Uppsala University. Back to Helsinki, she completed studies in the field of airplane mechanics and moved to the Åland Islands in 1990, where she started working with social security in 2000.
She joined the political party Ålands Framtid in 2008. She got a seat on the board of the Municipality in Jomala in 2011, 2015 and now from 2019. Currently, she is the President of Ålands Framtid and joined the EFA Bureau in April 2020.
Jill Evans
Born 1959 in Rhondda, Jill was a councillor for seven years: at the former Rhondda Borough and Mid Glamorgan County Councils and later at Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council. She was elected as Plaid Cymru's Alternate Member of the Committee of the Regions in 1993 and served for four years. Jill was Chair of Plaid Cymru between 1994 and 1996. In June 1999 she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Wales. She was re-elected as MEP in 2004, 2009 and 2014 and has worked for the defence of the Welsh language but was also a respected member of the Environment committe of the EP.
Jill was President of the EFA Group from 2009 to 2014. She holds a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Aberystwyth University.
Jill was re-elected as an MEP in 2019 until Wales left the EU in 2020. She is now an EFA Observer MEP and Plaid Cymru Director of International Affairs.
Fernando Fuente Cortina
Born in Burjassot (País Valencià) in 1993.
Fernando is graduated in Economics by the Universitat de València and holds a Master in Public Management by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During his university studies, he spent a year abroad in Universität Paderborn (Germany).
In 2016-2017, he had a working experience in the European Parliament, completing some internships for the Greens/EFA group and MEPs.
Currently, Fernando is working in Burjassot's City Council as a political advisor for BLOC-Compromís group as well as being active in Joves PV, the youth organization of Bloc Nacionalista Valencià.
David Grosclaude
Born 1958 in Chinon, David is a journalist, translator, and activist for the preservation and promotion of Occitan. A pioneer of TV broadcasts in Occitan in the early 80s, he co-founded Occitan programmes on France 3 (a regional TV), and participated in the creation of Ràdio País, an Occitan channel. He also translated several books into Occitan. Until 2010, David was President of the Institute of Occitan studies. He was elected regional Councillor in 2010.
In 2015, David helped found the Public Office for the Promotion of Occitan language (OPLO), of which he was appointed President. In May 2015, he started a hunger strike to force the French government to keep its promises. His fight was successful. David is President of the Committee of regional languages at the French Assembly of regions.
Wouter Patho
Born in 1981 in Antwerp, Wouter Patho was a history and geography teacher for 7 years in a secondary school. Wouter joined N-VA at its very beginning. He became member of the Board of the N-VA Youth wing, where he was involved in Flemish and Republican action, political education and international contacts. In 2009 Wouter became assistant to MEP Frieda Brepoels, where he worked in close cooperation with the members of bureau of EFA. Today he works alongside MEP Mark Demesmaeker.
Wouter is an elected member of the local council of Malle, where he is responsible for social affairs and housing policy as president of the Public Centre for Social Welfare. He is member of the EFA Bureau since 2014.
Frank de Boer
Born in 1975 in Oerterp (Opsterlân, Fryslân), Frank de Boer is an engineering geologist and legal expert by education. Frank worked a number of years as a geotechnical engineer before starting to work professionally for the European minority organisations YEN and FUEN. As a consequence, he is quite familiar with the situation of many (linguistic) minorities across Europe, and also with the EU institutions and other relevant international organisations, such as the Council of Europe, OSCE and the United Nations. As the author of the text and legal coordinator, Frank was one of the architects of the Minority SafePack Initiative, the European Citizens’ Initiative for minority rights and linguistic diversity in Europe.
After moving back to Fryslân in 2017, Frank became more strongly involved in the Fryske Nasjonale Partij and is now an advisor to the FNP group in the Frisian Parliament. Since 2022 he is a member of the EFA Bureau.
Patrik Peroša
Born in Koper-Capodistria (Slovenska Istra) in 1976. Patrik educational background includes Master of Science in Business Administration – Marketing Concertation (University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business) and Bachelor of Science in Traffic Engineering (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport). He is a Secretary General of Oljka - the regional party in Slovenian Istria since its establishment in 2006.
Patrik is actively involved in the Local Community of Zusterna-Giusterna since 2006 (as president 2006-2011, as member from 2011 onwards), and in the City Municipality of Koper-Capodistria as a member of the City Municipality Council since 2010 onwards. He was Depaty Mayor in 2019, member of various City Municipality Council standing commissions and boards (for public services and transport; for mandate issues, elections and appointments; for statutes and legal affairs) and Mayor commissions and working groups (for amendments to statutes and rule of procedure; for scholarship awards; for selection of sport programs and distributions of funds following a public tender).
Livia Ceccaldi-Volpei
Born in 1980 in Bastia (Corsica). After her studies in Law and a master's in Private Judicial Law, Livia became a lawyer in Bastia Association on 20 January 2006, the date on which she presented her oath.
She has been a member of Inseme per a Corsica, a movement launched by Gilles Simeoni in 2010. On 2 December 2018, the party Femu à Corsica was created and she became an elected member of the party Bureau for 3 years. On the Congres hold on 12 December 2021, she was elected National Vice-Secretary of the party.
She is also the substitute of the Haute-Corse Senate member, Paulu-Santu Parigi, the first Corsican nationalist senate member. They were elected on 27 September 2020.
Zsolt Szilágyi
Born in 1968 in Nagyvárad, Transylvania. Graduated in Political Science. After the anti-communist revolution in 1989, he was the founder of the Hungarian Youth Movement in Transylvania (MISZSZ) and several other Hungarian organisations. He was elected in 1990 member of the Romanian Parliament. He served four mandates, until 2004. In 2007 he moved to Brussels, being chief of the cabinet to László Tőkés, Hungarian from Romania, elected member of the European Parliament. In 2014 he ran for President of Romania. In 2003 he was co-founder of the Hungarian National Council of Transylvania, an umbrella organisation claiming autonomy and self-determination for Hungarians in Romania. He has served as President of the Hungarian Peoples' Party of Transylvania for four years.
Ana Miranda
Born in Cuntis (Galiza) in 1971, Ana Miranda is the spokesperson of the BNG in Europe and Co-responsible for BNG International Relations. She is an MEP of the EFA-Greens Group 2013-2018/2019 and 2022-2024. She is a lawyer: she studied Law in Santiago de Compostela University (Galiza) and in Passau University (Germany). She got the specialization in European Law at La Coruña University (Galiza) and Leuven University (Flanders).
Roberto Visentin
Born in 1953 in Spilimbergo (Friuli), he began to get involved in politics in 1976 by joining the historic Friulian autonomist party, for which he was the provincial secretary and municipal councillor in his own town. In the 1990s he was elected as MP three times, first as a deputy and then as a senator. In 2018 he participated in the foundation of Patto per l’Autonomia, in which he was appointed as the person in charge of leading the relationships with other autonomist and pro-independence parties. In 2019, he promoted and participated in the foundation of Autonomie e Ambiente (AeA), a network between the autonomist and pro-independence forces in the Italian state.
Lorena López Sánchez
Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1983, Lorena holds a Master in Logistics, Transport and International Trade. She is a member of Nueva Canarias national executive and member of the party since 2007. She is also Chief of Staff of the First Deputy Mayor of Puerto del Rosario.