The EED Board of Governors has 42 members: representatives of the 27 EU member states, the UK, Norway, the European External Action Service, a representative designated by the European Commission, up to nine Members of the European Parliament, and three members elected to represent European civil society. The Board meets every six months and is responsible for the mandate, mission, and overall guidance of EED’s operations and development. It receives regular reports from the Executive Committee and the Executive Director.
Member of the European Parliament (Chair)
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
Civil society expert
Civil society expert
Civil society expert
Designated by the European Commission
Representatives from the 27 EU member states, the UK and Norway.
The EED Executive Committee consists of seven members who represent a variety of expertise, including those with strong experience in civil society and foundation work, as well as EU member state representatives that meet on average every two months to take funding decisions.
Member of the European Parliament
The Brussels-based EED Secretariat is responsible for EED’s day-to-day grant making work. Jerzy Pomianowski is EED Executive Director.
Lisbeth Pilegaard is a member of the Board of Governors and is the chair of the Executive Committee of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) since its establishment in 2013. She has undertaken several missions with EED to Ukraine, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Turkey/Syria, and Moldova to engage with former and current democracy activists.
From 2019 to 2023 Lisbeth Pilegaard has been the Executive Director of the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy (DIPD), which works with Danish political parties to support the development of well-functioning democratic political parties, multi-party systems and other institutions globally. Pilegaard was previously the Executive Director of the Danish Fund Outside, working for the rights of socially marginalized groups. Pilegaard founded and ran a Foreign Policy Consultancy from 2012 to 2017 serving and advising the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Civil Society, think tanks and the UN.
Pilegaard has been seconded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an Expert Adviser to support the UN High Level Panel for Humanitarian Financing set up by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations to address global humanitarian crises by developing the ‘Grand Bargain’ launched at the Global Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
Pilegaard previously headed the Department for Middle East & North Africa at KVINFO – a leading Danish institution on Gender, Equality and Diversity – leading the development of strategic partnerships between Denmark and the MENA region, working with over 90 partners within the public, private and civil society sector, and the academic world to help increase women’s economic, social, and political participation in the region. Pilegaard also headed the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Global Technical Support Unit and established and led NRC in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran as Regional Representative for three years.
She has as an NGO representative and consultant worked in more than 40 conflict ridden countries across all continents with long term missions to Iraq, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Pilegaard has served in various NGO/UN/EU committees and working groups on development and humanitarian aid coordination, coherence, and transparency. She has been a civil society member of the Danish Delegation to the UN Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) and sat in the Council of the NGO Action Aid – Denmark. She has also been a board member of Transparency International – DK Chapter and was appointed Adviser to UN Compact Cities Programme in Australia. Pilegaard is a Steering Member of the Nordic Women Mediators Network working for the inclusion of women into peace processes globally and a is Leadership Fellow at the St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, UK. She has held board positions in the LIVIA Foundation, the Anna Lindh Foundation and has been the chairperson of the Danish Council for International Conflict Resolution (RIKO). Pilegaard has been a guest lecturer at different institutions as the University of Aalborg and the NATO School in Oberammergau. Pilegaard has a MA in Rhetoric with a focus on peace negotiations from the University of Copenhagen.
Pavol Demes is an independent foreign policy analyst, civil society expert and TV anchor based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Prior to the "Velvet Revolution" in November 1989, Demes was a bio-medical researcher at Comenius University in Bratislava. He is a graduate of Charles University in Prague (1980).
After democratic changes in 1989 he served as the Executive Director of the Slovak Academic Information Agency-Service Centre for the Third Sector. From 1991-92 he was the Slovak Minister of International Relations and he also served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic (1993-97). From 2000 until September 2010 he was the Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF US).
Now he is a non-resident senior transatlantic fellow with GMF US and serves as a board member of the European Endowment for Democracy. He has his own TV program on international relations and diplomacy on the tasr.tv internet TV station (within The News Agency of the Slovak Republic - TASR). He has published numerous articles and books on international relations and civil society and had many photographic exhibitions in multiple countries.
Selected awards: the EU-US Democracy and Civil Society Award (in 1998), the USAID Democracy and Governance Award (1999), Royal Dutch decoration Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau (2005), Yugoslav Star of First Class (2005), South East Europe Media Organization Human Rights Award (2009), Medal of Honor from the Friends of Slovakia, USA (2011), AIPES Freedom Award (2018), Woodrow Wilson Award (2018), Golden Medal of the Slovak Ministry of Foreign and European Affaires (2019), Medal for Merit for Slovak Diplomacy (2023).
Sandra Breka is a senior executive who has been at the forefront of international affairs for more than 25 years. She has provided strategic leadership and has built public-private partnerships on the local, national, and global levels with a focus on conflict transformation, democracy, inequality, migration, and climate change. Her geographic experience spans Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the United States.
Breka is Vice President and COO for the Open Society Foundations. In her role, she oversees Open Society’s operations, strategy and impact, and leads its organizational change process.
She has extensive experience on both the programmatic and operational sides of philanthropy and served as CEO of the Robert Bosch Foundation, one of Europe’s largest private operational and grant-making foundations active in the funding areas Global Issues, Health, and Education from 2017 to 2022. In this capacity, Breka spearheaded the most comprehensive strategic and structural realignment of the foundation in its 60-year history. She established the Global Issues funding area, the foundation’s Strategic Partnerships, the Robert Bosch Academy and oversaw advocacy and communications as well as the Berlin representative office. Breka previously led the foundation’s funding area focusing on Peace and its Southeast Europe portfolio, including the International Commission on the Balkans as well as the European Fund for the Balkans. She implemented, among others, programs covering Asia, Europe, and transatlantic relations.
Before joining the Robert Bosch Foundation, Breka worked as director of programs for Southeast Europe and Security Issues at the Aspen Institute Germany responsible for security as well as Southeast Europe, and with the American Council on Germany in New York. She previously served on the boards of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, the Munich Security Conference, and the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung.
She is a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the European Endowment for Democracy and serves on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, as well as the Board of the Berghof Foundation. She is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Breka holds an MA from Columbia University in New York and was a Yale World Fellow.
Maria Ligor started the activity of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania in Finland on January 16, 2021.
A career diplomat since 1996, she was a member of the Government in 2016, holding the portfolio of Minister Delegate for Relations with Romanians Abroad. At the end of her term, she resumed her diplomatic activity as Special Representative for International Cooperation, Democracy and Human Rights.
Since November 2012, she has been a member of the Board of Governors of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), an elected member of the Executive Committee and moderator of the EED Strategic Reflection Meetings.
Between 2013 and 2016, she was Ambassador to Canada, contributing decisively to the elimination of visas for Romanian citizens. She was also accredited as a Permanent Representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Ms Ligor was Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, between 2006 and 2011, where among other things she succeeded to enlarge the consular network and laid the foundations for the program of teaching the Romanian language, culture and civilization in Spanish schools. During the same period, Maria Ligor held the position of Permanent Representative to the World Tourism Organization, Romania becoming in 2010, vice-president of the Executive Council.
Previously, she served as an ad interim Secretary General of the MFA, in April-May 2012 and as Director General for European Affairs (EU and bilateral relations) between 2003 and 2006, during the negotiations for Romania's accession to the Union.
As a diplomat, she worked in Brussels at the Romanian Mission to the European Union (1998-2002), at the Embassy in Luxembourg (1997) and at the MFA Headquarters, at the Political Planning Directorate, at the European Union Directorate and at Western Europe Directorate. In 1997, she received a Robert Schuman Fellowship from the European Parliament, and in 1996, completed a stage at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Maria Ligor obtained in 1995 the Master of Art degree from the College of Europe in Bruges, and in 2000, Diploma of Advanced Studies in Political Sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her training also includes studies at the European Institute of the University of Geneva, as well as the Managing and Shaping Change in the Information Society program, Harvard University, JFK School of Government, Kokkalis Project, Athens. In Romania, she graduated from the postgraduate program in International Relations at SNSPA in 1993, and the Polytechnic University in 1990.
In 2004, she received the National Order of Merit, in the rank of Knight, and in 2007, the Order for Diplomatic Merit in the rank of Officer. In 2010, she received the Cross of the Royal House of Romania from King Michael, as well as the Order of the Holy Emperors Constantine and Helen conferred by Patriarch Daniel. In 2012, she received the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Catolica of Spain.
She is fluent in English, French and Spanish and has a passive knowledge of Italian and Russian.
José María Muriel Palomino has served in the Spanish Diplomatic Service since 1990. He is, at present, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to the Republic of Malta. He has been, up until July 2021, Technical Secretary General at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. He is also a present member – since 2017 - of the Executive Committee of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), representing the Member States, and of the EED Board of Governors.
Mr. Muriel has served in the Foreign Service at various posts, including the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union and the Spanish Embassies in the United States and Canada. He has also held the positions of Ambassador-at-Large for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain. He was as well General Consul of Spain in Hannover, Germany. He was the Chair of the Support Group of Countries to the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. In addition, he was an advisor in the Cabinet of the President of the Government of Spain on European Union affairs and bilateral relations in Europe.
While working for the EU institutions, he held posts of “Referendaire” at the Court of Justice of the European Union and of Head of the Justice, Security and Human Rights Team at the EU Delegation to the United States of America.
He has represented Spain and the EU in several international conferences, including the OSCE Human Dimension meetings and the American States Organization Assembly.
In addition to his diplomatic career, Mr. Muriel has taught European affairs, Human Rights and other subjects at the Spanish Diplomatic School and other institutions in Spain and abroad.
He holds a Law Degree from the University of Córdoba, and a Master in High European Legal Studies from the College of Europe (Brugges, Belgium). He has published numerous articles and contributions to different books predominantly focusing on European affairs.
Jerzy Pomianowski, EED founding Executive Director, took the leadership of the organisation in 2013 after two years as Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland. As the director of OECD-UNDP’s Partnership for Democratic Governance (2008-2011), Pomianowski supported countries destabilised by armed conflict or natural disasters. This followed his launch of Poland Aid (2006-08) and work as Director General of the Polish Foreign Service (2005-06). Pomianowski began his career as a civil servant in 1990, just after the fall of communism, first in the Ministry of Education, and then in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He then headed Poland’s relations with Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and was Ambassador to Japan from 1997-2002. From 1980-89, Pomianowski was an active member of the democratic opposition in Poland.
