Preliminary agenda
(subject to change)
Wednesday, 19 February
09:00-09:30 Registration and coffee
09:30-09:45 Introduction and welcome
Steven Blockmans, Conference Director, Senior Fellow at the ICDS
Ave Schank-Lukas, Acting Head, European Commission Representation in Estonia
Charlotte Wrangberg, Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden in Tallinn
09:45-11:00 Panel I: Keeping momentum
Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Gert Jan Koopman, Director General, DG ENEST, European Commission (online)
Megi Fino, Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania
Rodica Crudu, State Secretary for European Integration of Moldova
Moderator: Helga Kalm, Director of the Lennart Meri Conference, ICDS
10:30-10:45 Intermezzo: Year 4 of Russia’s full-scale invasion
Introduction: Gert Antsu, Director of the Ukraine, Moldova and South Caucasus Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Olesia Mamchych, Ukrainian Poet
10:45-11:00 Reactions
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-13:00 Panel II: Principled pragmatism?
Merits-based approach – ‘Ukraine will accede in 2 years’ time’ – Economic concerns of member states demand gradual integration and transitional measures – ‘For the EU, other interests trump democracy promotion and rule of law’ – Estonia’s experience and expectations.
Thomas Hagleitner, Head of Unit, European Commission – Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood A1
Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Negotiator of Ukraine (online)
Alar Streimann, Visiting professor, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu; former Estonian chief negotiator for EU accession
Luka Glušac, Deputy Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
Moderator: Steven Blockmans, Conference Director, Senior Fellow at the ICDS
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:15 Panel III: Convincing citizens
Will accession of vulnerable candidates really enhance our security? Is the EU’s next enlargement wave really in our economic interest? How to address enlargement ‘fatigue’ in EU member states and candidate countries?
Engjellushe Morina, Senior Research Fellow, ECFR
Damir Kapidžic, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Sarajevo
Ave Schank-Lukas, Acting Head, European Commission Representation in Estonia
Hannes Rumm, Communication expert at PractNet, former journalist and former Head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia
Moderator: Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor of Comparative Governance, Leiden University
15:15-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:45 Panel IV: Black Sea Security
Maritime battlefield – Big power dynamics – Freedom of navigation & economic zones – Towards a new EU strategy
Maksym Kyiak, Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Kornely Kakachia, Professor of Political Science, Tbilisi State University
Tacan Ildem, Chairman of EDAM, former Assistant Secretary General of NATO
Edward Iosiper, Director General for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania
Moderator: Erika Ellamaa-Ots, Director General for Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
16:45-17:00 Closing remarks
Janne Jõesaar-Ruusalu, Director of Division for South-Eastern Europe and EU General Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Artur Orzechowski, Head of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn
17:00-18:00 Reception offered by the Embassy of Poland in Estonia
Speakers
(subject to change, updated constantly)
Gert Antsu
Director of the Ukraine, Moldova, and the South Caucasus Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Gert Antsu is the Director for Ukraine, Moldova, and the South Caucasus and Special Envoy for Eastern Partnership at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has spent much of his career on Estonia’s European integration. Mr Antsu participated in the coordination of Estonia’s preparations for EU membership in the Office of European Integration from 1997, becoming the Director for EU Affairs in the Government Office and EU Adviser to successive prime ministers upon the EU accession in 2004. He was heavily engaged in training Estonian civil servants in EU matters and taught courses on the EU at several Estonian. Mr Antsu spent four years as Estonia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU (Coreper I). He served as the Estonian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland (2012-16) and Ukraine (2016-19). He combined his EU and regional expertise to assist the reforms in Ukraine and other countries in the region as the Director of the Estonian Centre of Eastern Partnership in 2019-21.
Steven Blockmans
Conference Director, Senior Fellow at the ICDS
Dr Steven Blockmans is Senior Fellow at ICDS, as well as Associate Senior Research Fellow, and previously Research Director, at the Brussels-based think tank CEPS. He is the author of Tough Love: the EU’s relations with the Western Balkans (Springer 2007) and The Obsolescence of the European Neighbourhood Policy (Rowman & Littlefield 2017). He is a frequent commentator on EU affairs at major media outlets and regularly briefs senior policy practitioners from the European Union, its member states and G20 country governments. He has testified at the foreign affairs and international trade committees of the European Parliament and the UK House of Commons. He was a member of a track 1,5 process between the EU and Russia. He has served as a long-term expert on legal approximation in support of the Ministry of European Integration of Albania (2007-2009) and continues to offer expertise in EU-funded capacity-building projects, currently in Ukraine.
Rodica Crudu
State Secretary for European Integration, Government the Republic of Moldova
Dr Rodica Crudu is currently serving as the Secretary of State for European Integration at the Government of the Republic of Moldova. She is responsible for the national coordination mechanism for accession to the EU, coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the National Accession Programme to the European Union, and coordination of the Bureau for European Integration. Dr Crudu is also the Chair of the Interinstitutional Coordination Council and a member of the Republic of Moldova’s negotiation team. She is in charge of monitoring the implementation and application of the Association Agreement. Prior to her current role, Dr Crudu held the positions of Deputy Secretary General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (2023-24), Deputy Director of the Organization for SMEs Development (2022-23), and Dean of the Faculty of International Economic Relations (2018-21). Since 2024, Dr Crudu has been an Associate Professor at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (2004-present).
Antoaneta Dimitrova
Professor of Comparative Governance, Leiden University
Dr Antoaneta L Dimitrova is a Professor of Comparative Governance at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs of Leiden University. Having published extensively on EU enlargement, reforms in candidate states, and democratic backsliding, she is currently actively involved in policy debates on EU reform and future enlargements. She is the Head of the Research Group Diplomacy and Global Affairs and a member of the European integration committee of the Advisory Council on International Affairs of the Netherlands.
Erika Ellamaa-Ots
Director General for Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Erika Ellamaa-Ots has been the Director of the Department of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia in the Estonian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) since 2024. She has significant experience in EU affairs. Between 2020 and 2024, Ms Ellamaa-Ots served as the Estonian Ambassador to the EU Political and Security Committee. Before that, he was a director of several divisions in the Estonian MFA, including Western Europe and the Common Foreign and Security Policy divisions. She spent several years in the EU External Action Service as the Deputy Chair of the Member States Working group dealing with Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russia. Ms Ellamaa-Ots graduated from Tartu University with a degree in sociology and political science, after which she continued her studies at the Estonian School of Diplomacy and Geneva Centre for Security Policy, where she focussed on developments in the South Caucasus.
Megi Fino
Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania
Megi Fino has served as the Deputy Minister in the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs since June 2021. Ms Fino began her professional career as a legal advisor. From 2018, she worked as a lawyer at CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni before transitioning to the role of regulatory expert in the legal and external relations department at Vodafone Albania. In 2021, Ms Fino designed the Integrity Index as part of the UNDP’s STAR 3 project on local governance reform. Since June 2023, Ms Fino has served as Deputy Chair of Tirana City Council. She possesses an extensive academic background, having completed the international baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme in Beijing in 2012, before pursuing law at City, University of London. She earned a master’s degree (LLM) in public international law, followed by a professional master’s degree in legal practice. She also obtained a Diploma in Chinese (Mandarin) from SOAS University of London.
Luka Glušac
Deputy Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
Dr Luka Glušac is Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade. Before transitioning to academia, he worked for more than ten years in government and international organisations in Serbia and abroad. His research and expert advice centre on security, human rights, and good governance, with a particular interest in independent oversight institutions. His research has appeared in, inter alia, Politics and Governance, Human Rights Law Review, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, and International Journal of Human Rights. As an international expert, he has supported strengthening parliaments and independent oversight bodies in numerous countries. He is active in civil society, currently serving as the President of the Board of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), a leading regional think tank in the Western Balkans.
Thomas Hagleitner
Head of Unit, European Commission
Thomas Hagleitner is the Head of the Unit for Enlargement Strategy and Coordination in the Directorate-General (DG) for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood. He has worked for the European Commission since 1995. After several years at the Secretariat General, he focused on enlargement policy and notably the Western Balkans for 15 years. He has dealt, in particular, with the Croatian accession process, from the application to accession, as well as the EU’s overall enlargement strategy. Mr Hagleitner was responsible for the accession negotiations with Montenegro in the Commission’s DG for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiation for 7 years. He was then the Head of the Unit for Western Balkans Policy and Regional Strategy for more than 3 years. Mr Hagleitner studied at the University of Vienna and the College of Europe in Bruges.
Tacan Ildem
Chairman, the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM)
Tacan Ildem is the Chairman of the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), a Turkish think-tank on foreign and security policy, and a former Assistant Secretary General of NATO. Throughout his diplomatic career, Amb Ildem has held several high-level bilateral and multilateral positions, including NATO Assistant Secretary-General (2016-20). He was a member of the Independent Experts Group of NATO 2030 reflection process that prepared the report titled NATO 2030: United for a New Era. He served as Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to NATO and the OSCE. His earlier postings were Director-General for International Security Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chief of Cabinet, and Principal Foreign Policy Advisor of the President of the Republic. His postings abroad also included Brussels (NATO), New Delhi, Washington DC, and Athens. Amb Ildem is a recipient of the Decoration of Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity and the Medal of Gratitude of Albania.
Edward Iosiper
Director General for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania
Edward Iosiper is the Director General for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Romania. Having joined the foreign service in 2001, he began his diplomatic career as a Political Officer in the North America Department of the MFA, followed by a posting as a Political Officer at the Embassy of Romania in Washington DC (2002-06). He then served as Deputy Director of the Middle East and Africa Department (2006-07). In 2007, he was appointed Ambassador of Romania to Israel, a position he held with distinction until 2013. Mr Iosiper then served as Director of the Analysis and Policy Planning Department (2013-16) and Political Officer (Minister Plenipotentiary) at the Embassy of Romania in Tokyo, where he served (2016-21). In 2021, he was appointed Advisor for the Secretary of State for Interinstitutional Affairs at the MFA and later Director of EU General Affairs, Finance, Justice, and Home Affairs (2022-24). In July 2024, Mr Iosiper became Director General for Political Affairs/Political Director. Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Iosiper worked at the National Institute for Statistics and in the private sector. He is a recipient of an award for diplomatic excellence – The Diplomatic Merit (2007).
Janne Jõesaar-Ruusalu
Director of Division for South-Eastern Europe and EU General Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Janne Jõesaar-Ruusalu is the Director for South-Eastern Europe and EU General Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. Her responsibilities cover a wide range of topics, including the EU enlargement and bilateral relations with Western Balkans. From 2022, she is also Estonia’s non-residing Ambassador to Kosovo. She has long experience in the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has held several positions related to European affairs, Nordic-Baltic cooperation, Baltic Sea regional cooperation, and bilateral relations with European countries. She served as Estonia’s Ambassador to Norway and Iceland from 2016 to 2020.
Kornely Kakachia
Professor of Political Science, Tbilisi State University
Kornely Kakachia is a Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia. He is also the Director of the Georgian Institute of Politics, a Tbilisi-based think tank. His current research focuses on Georgian domestic and foreign policy, security issues of the wider Black Sea area, and comparative party politics. He was a recipient of the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) and Open Society (OSI) fellowships. Prof Kakachia was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Black Sea Security programme (2009–10), Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2011), and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Prof Kakachia is co-editor of the book titled Security Dynamics in the Black Sea Region: Geopolitical Shifts and Regional Orders (Springer 2024).
Helga Kalm
Director of the Lennart Meri Conference / Research Fellow at the ICDS
Helga Kalm started in the position of the Lennart Meri Conference director in September 2023. Before joining the Lennart Meri Conference team, she served as the director of the NATO and Security Policy Division at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked as a political councillor at the Estonian Embassy in Washington, DC. She has also spent several years with the Estonian Ministry of Defence, where she most recently served as the deputy director for the Policy Planning Department. Throughout her career, she has always maintained focus on NATO, Trans-Atlantic relations, and the Baltic Sea security. Ms Kalm graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Tartu. She also studied at Sciences Po, Georgetown University, and Renmin University of China.
Damir Kapidžic
Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Sarajevo
Damir Kapidžić is an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Sarajevo. He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in 2023–24. His research looks at how democratic innovations and authoritarian politics work in institutions after ethnic conflict and power-sharing. He consults the Council of Europe and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) on deliberative processes. Mr Kapidžić is a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), an EU Horizon principal investigator, and editor of Illiberal Politics in Southeast Europe.
Gert Jan Koopman
Director-General, DG ENEST, European Commission (online)
Gert Jan Koopman has been the Director-General at the Directorate-General (DG) Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (ENEST) since February 2025. Between 2023 and January 2025, he was the Director-General of the Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations and, between 2018 and 2022, the Director-General of the European Commission’s budget department. Mr Koopman has been serving the EU for roughly three decades. Previously, he was in charge of State Aid control at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition. His earlier assignments included senior management posts in the Department for Economic and Financial Affairs – the Commission’s economic service – as well as Enterprise and Industry which supervises the smooth running of the single market. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr Koopman was an associate of the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, an independent research institute that prepares policy analysis for the Dutch government.
Maksym Kyiak
Chief Scientist, Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies
Dr Maksym Kyiak is a Chief Scientist at the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv) and the Deputy Director of the Central European Institute. Throughout his career, Dr Kiyak has worked at various academic and governmental institutions in Ukraine and abroad. In particular, he has represented Ukraine at the Ad hoc Committee of Experts on Roma and Traveller Issues (CAHROM) in the Council of Europe and co-authored research of the NATO StratCom. Dr Kiyak’s research interests include global security, European integration, countering disinformation, foreign policy, and sociology of religion.
Olesya Mamchych
Ukrainian Poet
Olesia Mamchych is a Ukrainian poet. Her first poem appeared in the children’s magazine Sunflower in 1992, while her first collection, Perekotybole, was published in 2004. Her other collections include The Cover (2014), The Sun on Maternity Leave, and Love is as defenceless as a knife (2024). Ms Mamchych has published 11 books for children and translated from Polish. She received the Blagovist Award (2006), the Urba-Crossing Award (2014), the Top Barabuka Award (2020), the Lviv BookForum Best Book Award (2021), and the Lesia Ukrainka Award (2022). In 2021, Ms Mamchych was a recipient of the Lane Kirkland Scholarship in Kraków, Poland. Her poems have been translated into 14 languages and are part of the school curriculum. Ms Mamchych works as an editor for a Polish-Ukrainian literary online magazine, Posestry.eu. She graduated from Taras Shevchenko University (Kyiv) where she studied creative writing.
Engjellushe Morina
Senior Research Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations
Engjellushe Morina is a Senior Policy Fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Wider Europe Programme, based in Berlin. Her work mainly addresses the geopolitics of EU enlargement, Kosovo-Serbia relations, and the geopolitical aspects of the green agenda. Previously, Ms Morina was the Chairperson of the Prishtina Council for Foreign Relations and the Executive Director of Iniciativa Kosovare për Stabilitet – IKS. Following archaeological experience in Egypt, Albania, Italy, and the UK, she returned to Kosovo in 1999 to help further the country’s social, economic, and political development, voluntarily assisting with the establishment of the third-largest political party at the time. During the negotiations over Kosovo’s political status, she served as an expert and consultant in the Cultural Heritage group within the Unity Team (2005-07). Ms Morina has co-authored numerous reports and analyses on the political economy of Kosovo and the country’s current affairs and continues to be a regular contributor to local media.
Artur Orzechowski
Head of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn
Artur Orzechowski is the Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Estonia. He has an extensive career in Poland’s diplomatic service, with a focus on European policy and international cooperation. From 1997 to 2001, Mr Orzechowski served as Consul for Legal Affairs at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Montreal, Canada. He then moved on to roles of the Minister’s Counsellor within the Department of America (2001-04) and later the Head of the Political Section at the Embassy of Poland in Washington DC. (2004-07). Mr Orzechowski furthered his career as Deputy Permanent Representative and Minister-Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Poland to NATO in Brussels (2007-08), as Director of the Department of America (2008-09) and the Department of European Policy (2009-16). From 2016 to 2021, Mr Orzechowski served as the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Kingdom of Belgium, before returning to the Department of European Policy in 2021, where he became Deputy Director in 2024. Artur Orzechowski holds a Master’s degree in Romance Philology from the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin.
Hannes Rumm
Communications expert, PractNet, former Head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia
Hannes Rumm is a communications expert at the International Practitioners’ Partnership Network (PractNet, an NGO), where he currently advises the Moldovan government on strategic communication. Previously, he led the Estonian government’s communication task force ahead of the 2003 referendum on joining the European Union. From 2011 to 2016, Mr Rumm served as the head of the European Commission’s Representation in Estonia. He was a member of the 11th Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) and has extensive experience as a journalist.
Ave Schank-Lukas
Acting Head, European Commission Representation in Estonia
Ave Schank-Lukas has been working as the Acting Head of the Commission Representation in Estonia since August 2024. Before taking up her current duties, she was the economic counsellor at the Representation. In her role in the European Commission, she worked on the EU’s agricultural and trade policy, in particular on agricultural markets and relations with China. Ms Schank-Lukas also worked in the Secretariat-General’s European Green Deal team and contributed to the Estonian Presidency of the EU in 2017 as an adviser at the Estonian Permanent Representation to the EU. Before joining the Commission, she was an Estonian civil servant, working for the Ministry of Agriculture. Ms Schank-Lukas holds a degree in economics from the University of Tartu (Estonia) and a post-graduate diploma in European studies from the University of Southern Denmark.
Olha Stefanishyna
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, Minister of Justice of Ukraine
Olga Stefanishyna has been the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine since June 2020. A lawyer with over 15 years of experience in Ukrainian and EU Law, she started her career in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. From 2017 to 2019, she served as a Director-General in the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine and then had a private legal practice. In the government, Ms Stefanishyna oversees Ukraine’s integration into the EU and NATO and coordinates gender equality policies.
Alar Streimann
former Chief Negotiator of Estonia
Alar Streimann has served as an Estonian diplomat since 1991, first as the Trade Negotiator and then as Estonian Chief Negotiator for EU Accession (1997-2004). Throughout his career in foreign service, he held various ambassadorial postings, including to Sweden, France, and Germany, as well as to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Council of Europe (CoE). In 2011-15, Mr Streimann was the Secretary General of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2023, he has been a visiting professor at Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu and has served as a member of the Nordic-Baltic High-Level Group of Advisors for Ukraine’s EU Accession.
Margus Tsahkna
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Margus Tsahkna has been serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia since April 2023, continuing in this role after the formation of the new coalition in July 2024. Having started his career in local politics in 2002, Minister Tsahkna was a member of the 11th, 12th (2007-15), and 13th (2017-19) Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament). He has also held several ministerial positions: Minister of Defence (2016-17) and Minister of Social Protection (2015-16). Minister Tsahkna was the head of the Pro Patria political party from 2015 to 2017, after which he left politics to work in the private sector in the field of war and disaster medicine. During his years in the private sector, Minister Tsahkna created the new political party E200, which successfully entered the Riigikogu after the general elections in March 2023. Minister Tsahkna studied theology and religious studies, as well as international law.
Tomasz Wiśniewski
Head of Unit for EU Enlargement, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Poland
Dr Tomasz Wiśniewski is the Head of Unit for EU Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy in the European Union External Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. He has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2007, holding different posts in Warsaw and abroad, including Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Republic of Poland in the Hellenic Republic, Economic Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in New Delhi, and Head of the Economic Unit of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Bucharest. He has many years of professional experience in central administration in departments responsible for EU affairs. Dr Wiśniewski actively participated in the preparations of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the area of EU enlargement policy. He studied at the University of Warsaw and the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, where he obtained a PhD in political science and administration.
Charlotte Wrangberg
Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden in Tallinn
Charlotte Wrangberg has been serving as the Ambassador of Sweden to Estonia since 2024. Amb Wrangberg began her career as a journalist, working for several leading newspapers, with her primary focus on domestic and foreign politics, and then joined the Swedish Foreign Service in 1987. Over the years, she has served in key diplomatic positions, including as Press Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Second Secretary at the Embassy of Sweden in Mexico, and First Secretary at the Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa. She held leadership roles in the Department for the Americas and the Department for Africa, focusing on Southern and East Africa. Amb Wrangberg was also involved in Sweden’s engagement with the European Union during her time as Counsellor at the Embassy of Sweden in Madrid and as Deputy Director at the Department for the European Union. She has held ambassadorial postings in Buenos Aires (2010-13), Athens (2013-17), and Copenhagen (2020-24), as well as served as the Ambassador and Chief of Protocol at the MFA from 2017 to 2020.