Secretariat of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Vademecum of speakers Public Hearing Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee EEA - Switzerland: Obstacles with regard to the full implementation of the internal market 7 May 2015 from 11h00 to 12h25 European Parliament, Brussels Józseph Antall building (JAN), Room 4Q1
Ambassador Dr. Roberto BALZARETTI Personal information Dr. Roberto Balzaretti Born in Mendrisio (Switzerland), on February 22, 1965 Married to Cristina Ferrari, father of Sophie, Elena, Arun, Kitsada and Kirana Business address: Swiss Mission to the EU Place de Luxembourg 1 B 1050 Brussels (e-mail: roberto.balzaretti@eda.admin.ch) Professional experience 1.7.2012 Ambassador, Head of Mission, Mission of Switzerland to the European Union, Brussels 2009-2012 Secretary general of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Berne 1.9. 2008 Special Representative of Switzerland to the Human Rights Council, Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva, Swiss Mission to the UNOG, Geneva 2008 Director, Entrepreneur Desk, Credit Suisse, Lausanne 2004-2007 Ambassador, Director of the Cabinet of the Minister, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Berne 2003-2004 Minister, Deputy Director, Head of the Division of International Legal Affairs, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Directorate for International Legal Affairs, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Berne 1999-2003 Head of the Section of Public International Law, Directorate for International Legal Affairs, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Berne 1997-1999 Councillor, Swiss Embassy to the United States, Washington 1993-1997 Diplomatic Officer, Directorate for International Legal Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs, Berne 1991-1993 Diplomatic Trainee, Berne, Brussels (Swis s Mission to the EC) and Geneva (Graduate Institute of International Studies) Education 1996 PhD in Constitutional Law, University of Berne 1989 Law degree, University of Berne
Ambassador Mrs. Bergdís ELLERTSDÓTTIR Professional Career Ambassador of Iceland to Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and San Marino. Head of the Icelandic Mission to the European Union, September 2014- present Director, International Trade Negotiations. Chief negotiator Iceland-China FTA. Directorate for Trade and Economic Affairs, September 2012 Deputy Secretary General. European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Brussels, 2007-2012 Director General for International Security and Development Co-operation Affairs. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, January 2007 Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Iceland, 2005-2006 Head of European Affairs, Deputy Director General. Trade Department. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 2003-2004 Deputy Director, Political Department. Dealing with security issues, NATO, OSCE, bilateral relations with the United States, Canada and Russia, 2000-2003 Political Officer. NATO HQ, Political Division, Brussels, 1998-2000 Deputy Head of Mission. Embassy of Iceland in Bonn with accreditation to Switzerland, Austria and the OSCE, 1995-1998 First Secretary. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Trade Department, 1991-1995 Education European Studies (M.A.), University of Essex, UK, 1988-1989 Political Science and English (B.A.), University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 1985-1987 Political Science, English and History, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Heidelberg, Germany, 1983-1985 German, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Freiburg, Germany, 1982-1983 Mrs Ellertsdóttir was born in 1962. She is married with four children.
Prof. Christa TOBLER Prof. Christa Tobler (born 1961) is professor of European law at the Europa Institutes of the Universities of Leiden, The Netherlands, and Basel, Switzerland. In her research she puts a particular emphasis on two areas of EU law: 1. the complex legal relationship between Switzerland and the European Union (the so-called "bilateral law") and 2. legal equality and discrimination, both in economic and in social law. Prof. Tobler wrote her habilitation thesis on indirect discrimination (Christa Tobler, Indirect Discrimination. A Case Study into the Development of the Legal Concept of Indirect Discrimination under EC Law, Antwerp/Oxford: Intersentia 2005). She is a member of an expert network of the European Commission in the field of antidiscrimination law. Prof. Tobler writes regularly on the bilateral law between the EU and Switzerland, and also on EEA law. A recent example concerning EEA law is a contribution to the liber amicorum on the occasion of the EFTA Court's anniversary. 1 Two recent examples concerning the bilateral law relate to the in Switzerland much debated questions of a) whether Swiss employers are allowed to lower the salary of frontier workers in view of the strong Swiss Franc. 2 Prof. Tobler is the co-author of an introduction into the legal relationship between Switzerland and the European Union: Grundzüge des bilateralen (Wirtschafts-)Rechts. Systematische Darstellung in Text und Tafeln, 2 Bände (Text und Tafeln), Zürich/St. Gallen: Dike 2013 (together with Jacques Beglinger; see www.eur-charts.eu). She very regularly appears on the Swiss media on issues of the legal relationship between the EU and Switzerland. 1 A look at the EEA from Switzerland, in: EFTA Court (ed), The EEA and the EFTA Court. Decentred Integration, Oxford: Hart 2014, 541-554). 2 Indirekte Diskriminierung wegen der Staatsangehörigkeit durch Lohnsenkungen bei schwachem Euro-Kurs. Zum Entscheid des Kantonsgerichts Basel-Landschaft vom 17. Dezember 2012 und insbesondere zur Frage der Vergleichbarkeit, in: Eva- Maria Bäni/Angela Obrist (eds), Festschrift zur Emeritierung von Jean-Fritz Stöckli, Zürich/St. Gallen: Dike 2014, 650-675) and b) safeguard clauses in the free movement of persons (Christa Tobler, Schutzklauseln in der Personenfreizügigkeit mit der EU, Jusletter 16 February 2015 (w.ww.weblaw.ch/jusletter/jusletter.asp)
Mrs. Kristin SCHREIBER Kristin Schreiber, Director of Directorate B Governance of the Single Market at DG GROW, was born in Berlin; she is married and has three children. After Studies of International Relations, Economics and European Law at the Institut d'etudes Politiques in Paris ("avec mention lauréat"), the University of Kent at Canterbury and the College of Europe in Bruges, she worked as a Graduate Lecturer in Kent and a researcher on the Single Market in Bonn, before joining the European Commission in 1990 where she held a variety of positions. She has been Director for Governance of the Single Market and International Affairs, first in DG MARKT and now in DG GROW since February 2014. Previously, she was Head of Cabinet of Employment Commissioner Vladimir Špidla, Deputy Head of Cabinet of Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and member of the Cabinets of Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen, in charge i.a. of the accession negotiations with Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Malta and Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert. She also served as Head of Unit for International Affairs in DG Employment and administrator in different DG's. Kristin speaks German, French, English and Spanish, some Italian and has notions of Czech and Slovak.