Meet our Team

Christel Delberghe has been Director General of EuroCommerce since November 2021. She acts in this role as the chief advocate for the retail and wholesale sector with the EU institutions, stakeholders and the media. Full biography

Elen joined in 2004 and has been P.A. to the Director General since 2011. She provides support to the Director General in her daily activities, and coordinates the activities of the President, the Board of Directors and the General Assembly. Elen is French and has a university degree in languages (German and English).

Els works on food, non food and sustainability policies. She focuses on farm to fork and has led the sectors positioning on official controls, food safety, organic production, market surveillance, chemical regulation and more. Els is a Belgian national and alumna of Ghent University. She speaks Dutch, English and French.

Nick advises the EuroCommerce Environment Committee and is working on files related to circular economy, performance of products and responsible business conduct. He supports the Working Groups on waste, eco-design and energy labelling and responsible supply chain management at EuroCommerce. Nick is a German expat and has a background in political science.

Anne advises the EuroCommerce Non-Food Committee and is working on files related to product policy and sustainability. Anne comes with experience from the private sector, both national and international politics. Anne is a Danish expat and holds a Master’s in Political science from the University of Copenhagen.

Marilena focuses on analysing information and drafting documents on Product policy (Food and Non-Food) and Sustainability. She is a qualified lawyer in Cyprus and a graduate of the University of Manchester and LSE. Before joining EuroCommerce, she was a blue book trainee at DG COMP. She speaks Greek, English and French.

Sofia is our Junior Product Policy and Sustainability Adviser. She has a LLM in competition Law from the University of Amsterdam and is pursuing an LLM in environmental law. Sofia worked as a bluebook trainee in the EU Commission. She is fluent in Italian and English and can communicate in French.

Carla advises and works with EuroCommerce members on files related to product policy and sustainability, including textiles. She has gained wide experience from the private sector, both in consultancy and trade association, as well from civil society. Carla holds a LL.M. in European Law from Leiden University. She speaks Spanish and English.

Ilya and his team deal with digital, payments, single market and consumer policy. They run the IMCO and Payments committees. He worked previously for the Dutch Retail Association and as a public affairs consultant. Ilya is a Dutch national and studied Public Administration at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Atze advises EuroCommerce and its members on Payments. Working with members, regulators, legislators and other merchant organisations, he strives to reduce costs of payments, coordinate influence on legislation (e.g. PSD2) and innovation (e.g. digital euro). He has a degree in Business Economics, worked 30+ years for bp, is Dutch and speaks several languages.

Ignacio is our advisor for Single Market and consumer policy, he also deals with trade barriers within the Single Market. Graduate in History and Political Science in the URJC, he holds an MBA in International Trade and has been working on trade barriers in the Spanish public sector. He speaks Spanish, English, Italian, and German.

Leena is EuroCommerce’s Director of Competitiveness coordinating advocacy on retail and wholesale ecosystem competitiveness. She is British and has a practical knowledge of EU policy-making from her experience as a legal and policy officer in the European Commission (DG GROW) and is a qualified UK lawyer.

Niccolo is advisor for competitiveness and commercial relations and coordinates the work of the EuroCommerce Supply Chain Committee on competition policy and business-to business trading practices. Niccolo is Italian and previously worked and studied in the United Kingdom.

Valeryia brings extensive knowledge and expertise in industrial relations. She has 8 years of experience at one of the Brussels-based European Trade Union Federations (ETUCE) where among other things, she supported collective bargaining processes between national trade unions in the education sector and their respective counterparts in EU, non-EU countries on the European continent, as well as in Central Asia. Valeryia speaks English, Russian, and French.

Harald heads the EuroCommerce activities on international trade and taxation matters. His mission is to facilitate trade for importing and exporting companies and to simplify the tax systems. Harald is Austrian and holds degrees from the University of Vienna.

Sophia focuses on international trade and taxation files. Previously she has gained experience at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and at the European Commission. At university, she studied economics with a focus on EU topics and she speaks German, English and French.

Daniela coordinates EuroCommerce’s Communication activities. She has launched vibrant campaign sites, published rich reports, organised interactive events and prepared insightful video stories for organisations in Brussels for almost 20 years. Daniela is a German expat and an alumna of Maastricht University.

Bastien is our communications specialist, who handles our databases, mass mailing, graphic design or events. He holds a master's degree in digital marketing and communication. He speaks French and English.

As Director for Advocacy and Political Affairs, Joanna works across all policy sectors. She has over 20 years experience working in Brussels in Public Affairs and Strategic Communications for a wide variety of sectors involved in sustainable development, agriculture, energy, key enabling technologies, food and pharma. Joanna has worked for Industry associations, in corporate affairs, for the European Commission and in consultancy. She is a British/Irish national and in addition to English Joanna speaks French.

 

Fabienne has been working for more than 20 years within EuroCommerce. She negotiates all the contracts with suppliers related to the technical installations. She is in charge of the well-being at work and is also IT coordinator. Fabienne is a Belgian national and speaks French and English.