Prof. Dragoş Mihael Ciuparu is a chemical engineer by training with a Ph.D. from the University of Paris 7 “Denis Diderot”. He spent almost 7 years with the Department of Chemical Engineering at Yale University, first as a post-doctoral fellow, and later as Research Scientist. At the end of 2005 he returned to the Petroleum – Gas University of Ploieşti, Romania, establishing a new research group and obtaining the title of professor.

Prof. Ciuparu has published over 70 peer reviewed papers, coauthored 3 technical books, and holds 5 US patents. Prof. Ciuparu’s involvement in public administration and policymaking started as a member of the Presidential Commission for Education and Research Policy, widely credited with contributing to the jumpstart of the sectoral reform process in Romania, and of the National Council for Scientific Research. Between 2010 and 2012 he was President of the National Authority for Scientific Research, managing all policymaking and competitive research funding programs in Romania. Starting with January 2020 he was appointed Secretary of State for research within Ministry of Education and Research, and from June to September 2021, he was Secretary of State for research within the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization.

Rosario de Blasio has been working for the last five years as the EU High Level Adviser on Customs and Tax Policy in the Republic of Moldova providing policy recommendations on the implementation of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement/DCFTA.

Previously, he worked for 10 years (2005-2015) at the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine, advising both countries in the development of their customs and border policies, regulatory and institutional reform in approximation and alignment with EU and Association Agreements/DCFTA requirements. He gained extensive experience in improving Moldova-Ukraine cross-border cooperation in line with EU best practices, especially through implementation of modern cooperation tools, such as joint control and exchange of pre-arrival information on goods and people. His home experience includes twenty years at Customs Agency in Italy.

Rosario’s current assignment in the Republic of Moldova includes policy advice in the implementation of the EU-Moldova AA/DCFTA through strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation, simplified procedures and effective measures to fight against smuggling with a view to ensuring revenue collection, safety and security at the customs borders. He provided support in the structural reform of the Customs Service, including a new organisational structure and incentive schemes for staff, with the aim of improving its institutional capacities and reducing corruption. The EU High-Level Adviser is also advising his beneficiaries in the approximation of customs and tax regulations with those of the EU, including the development of new draft Customs Code.

Dr. Daniel P. Funeriu is a researcher by training. In 1999 he received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Strasbourg, under the guidance of Nobel Laureate J.-M. Lehn. After holding research positions at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Amagasaki, Japan, he joined the Technical University Munchen in 2006 on a Marie Currie Excellence Grant. In 2009 he became Member of the European Parliament and later that year Minister for Education, Research, Youth and Sports of the Romanian Government. In that capacity, he promoted a comprehensive modernisation of the Romanian education landscape, by adopting a new education law, new research legislation, strong anti-corruption measures as well as transparency, fight against plagiarism and performance-based allocation of research funds. In 2012 he became senior advisor to the Romanian president, with ministerial rank, until 2014. Before joining the team of High-Level Advisers to the Moldova Government he was pursuing research in the Institut Charles Sadron, France.

With a BS and MS in macro-economics 1986, Department of Planning and Economic Cybernetics – Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Victor has more than 21 years of experience as top manager in Romanian central and local public administration and as international expert. He was municipal counsellor (1992-2000 and 2004) and deputy mayor (1996-2000) in Romanian local government. At central level Victor Giosan was State Secretary in General Secretariat of Romanian Government (2005-2009), coordinating the system of policy making and strategic planning and State Adviser of the Prime Minister (2016) in charge of the public administration reform. As international consultant he worked in Romania (1998-2017) in different areas as: intergovernmental fiscal system, developing the local government institutional capacity, municipal service management; functional reviews of central institutions, strategic planning; public investment management - long term resident adviser of World Bank in Ministry of Public Finance. Outside Romania he worked in Albania (2002), Serbia (2003-2011), Bosnia Herzegovina (2004), Kosovo (2006-2007 and 2009), Tajikistan (2012), Moldova (2010-2015 and 2017) in different areas: decentralization strategy, fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental transfer design, decentralization of social services, functional reviews of CoG, strategic planning in projects funded by DfID, USAID, European Commission, UNDP/UNICEF, Council of Europe, World Bank.

Justina Grigaravičienė has about 20 years of experience in the field of environment, having held senior managerial positions in the Ministry of Environment of Lithuania, the most recent one being Deputy Minister of Environment. She has also been Adviser to the Committee of environmental protection of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania; and adviser to the Deputy Chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament.

In the Republic of Moldova, Justina will provide policy advice to Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment to mainstream and integrate environmental and climate targets and considerations into all key economic policies; will review relevant strategic policy documents, provide policy recommendation and guidance on the implementation of the EU-Moldova AA with particular focus on the elements stemming from the European Green Deal.

Ms Grigaravičienė has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology.

Martin Sieg has served as an advisor to German and international governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Most recently he was Director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Romania and the Republic of Moldova from 2017-2021. Sieg holds doctorates in history and political science and has taught security policy, European integration, and EU foreign relations at the Universität Frankfurt/Oder, Freie Universität Berlin, and Universität Passau.

Kalman Mizsei was the European Union Special Representative for Moldova between 2007 and 2011. In this capacity he was mainly responsible for representing the European Union in the Transnistrian settlement process. He initiated the confidence building process in 2007 to the Moldovan government. He was the founding Head of Mission of the EU Advisory Mission for Civilian Security Sector Reform in Ukraine in 2014-15. Kalman was Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Regional Director for Europe and the CIS Countries in 2001 – 2006. He was Chairman of the Hungarian Export Import Bank in 1995 to 1997. Kalman has a PhD in Economics from the Corvinus University in Hungary.

He has joined the European Union High Level Advisers' Mission in August 2019 to help the Moldovan government to strengthen its reintegration policy with a particular emphasis on confidence building measures.

Oscar Rivera Rivera has worked for nine years at the Spanish Treasury on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing in Madrid and as a Seconded National Expert on AM-CFT in the European Commission in Brussels. He has also been a reviewer and assessor for the FATF and FSRBs, speaker and representative for Spain in multiple fora. With legal and economic background, Master in Foreign trade and in Banking and Finance, his experience also covers economic and trade matters in the Spanish Economic Diplomatic Service.

His current assignment in the Republic of Moldova includes policy advice in the implementation of the EU AML Directives and effective measures on AML and assets recovery.

Mr. Sandulescu obtained his MsC in Energy, at Bucharest Technical University. He also holds a PhD in Energy Markets and studied utility regulation at University of Gainesville Florida and Sherbrooke University Montreal. Before joining the European Union High Level Advisers' Mission to the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Sandulescu was Director General for energy in the Romanian Ministry of Economy, Director General in the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority, researcher and programme director in ICEMENRG, a national energy engineering and research institute.

His current assignment in Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure includes policy advice in creating a competitive energy market by transposing EU energy acquis, in increasing energy security of supply by promoting the gas and electricity interconnections with EU networks, in development of a sustainable energy sector by increasing the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency projects.

Satu Seppanen has been working as a judge in Finland for over 20 years. She has been dealing with both civil and criminal cases.

She has also been working in the area of crisis management as a Strategic Planner/Rule of Law adviser in the Crisis Management and Planning Directorate (CMPD) of the European Union External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels, Belgium (2009-2012) and as Head of Justice Team for the European Union Planning Team (EUPT) in Pristina, Kosovo (2006-2007). In addition to that she has been working as Resident Twinning Adviser for the EU Project of Reform of the Croatian Court System in Zagreb, Croatia (2004-2006).

She has joined the European Union High Level Advisers's mission in Moldova in November 2019. She will provide strategic policy advice to the Moldovan Government and especially to the Ministry of Justice as well as to the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova on Justice and Prosecution and other legal affairs.

Polish diplomat since 1990, German philologist and Historian by formation. Before the collapse of the Communist regime active in the democratic opposition, including in the Solidarnosc movement. Entered the diplomatic service in 1990 and since then executed i.e. posts of Ambassador to Slovenia, to Bosnia-Hercegovina, to France and Permanent Representative of Poland to the European Union. From 2012 to 2020 consecutively Head of EU Delegations in Kyiv and in Rome (Holy See, UN Agencies, San Marino, Sovereign Order of Malta). Member of the administrative council of Jean Monnet Foundation (Lausanne) and of the Senate of the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv).

Dr. Vytautas Valvonis received his PhD in economics from Vilnius University in 2008. He is author and co-author of various research publications on bank credit risk management, for which he got V. Jurgutis award from the Central bank of Lithuania and Lithuania Academy of Sciences. The last 8 years he was a director of Supervision Service at the Central Bank of Lithuania, responsible both for prudential and business conduct supervision. During his duty at the central bank, he was a voting member at ECB SSM, EBA, ESMA and EIOPA.