Degree in Economic Sciences by the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Assistant Professor at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (1979/80 to 1983/84). Member of the negotiation team for Portugal’s Accession to the European Union in charge of economic and financial affairs (1979-85). In 1986 he was appointed Deputy Director General and then Director General for Regional Development (Ministry of Planning) up to 1995. During this period he was responsible for the co-ordination of the National Development Plan (NDP) and became national Fund coordinator for the European Regional Fund and the Cohesion Fund and chairman of the coordination bodies of all EU Structural Fund implementation in Portugal.

 

Early 1995 he moved to private consultancy on regional development and planning and on EU Structural Funds and provided expertise to ministries, regions and municipalities in Portugal and eight Eastern European countries, to the European Commission, to the World Bank, to the United Nations Development Program and to USAID. Angola, Cape Verde and Kazakhstan were other countries where he carried out consultancy activity.

Since 2013 he has managed the Cidadania Ativa Programme and from 2018 the Active Citizens Programme, both programmes funded by the EEA Grants, operated by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal and addressing civil society organisations.

 

Commander of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (Prince Henry the Navigator), 1994.

Former senior European Commission official with extensive expertise in competition, media and digital single market policies.

 

He has held a number of senior roles across the European Commission including for State aid in the area of R&D, innovation and risk finance (2011-2016), and antitrust enforcement in consumer goods, basic industries, agriculture and manufacturing markets (2003-2010) in DG Competition. He also served as Head of the Media Convergence and Social Media unit in DG Connect (2017-2020), and led initiatives addressing the technological transition of the European media industry, the interdependency of societal issues and digital media, online disinformation and the innovation gap between research, technology and culture. Before joining the European Commission in 1989, he worked as member of the Legal Service at the International Labour Organisation.

 

He has also been teaching EU competition law at Siena and Montpellier Universities, and is a frequent public speaker and author of various publications on EU competition and media policies.

 

Paolo holds a Master in International Law from Siena University and a Diploma of Higher European Studies from the College of Europe, Bruges.

Joanna Krawczyk is a media development executive who builds socially impactful projects, with over 15 years of experience in media management and philanthropy. For over 4 years she has been the Head of News Partnerships in the Polish biggest legacy newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. Joanna has led major news collaborations with European and international media organisations and is the initiator and President of Gazeta Wyborcza Foundation, running the Ukrainian Media Fund and the first in Poland Investigative Reporting Grant Program. She is also the Chairwoman of Leading European Newspaper Alliance, the largest media network in Europe aiming at sharing content and technology practices, with Die Welt, El País, La Repubblica, Le Figaro, Le Soir, Tages-Anzeiger, Tribune de Genève and Gazeta Wyborcza on board.