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Diana Pieper is a journalist and foreign policy editor. She writes for WELT.

Michele Pignatelli is senior editor of the Foreign Affairs desk at Il Sole 24 Ore. Born in Vigevano (Pavia) on March 3, 1970, he holds a degree in Modern Literature. A professional journalist since 1999, after attending the Institute for Journalism Training in Urbino, he first worked for Radio Popolare and later for Radio 24, the radio station of Il Sole 24 Ore. In 2006, he joined the newspaper’s Foreign Affairs desk, specializing mainly in European and EU-related topics, with a particular focus on certain countries and regions: Ireland, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, the Baltic States, and Austria. Since April 2024, he has been curating the Europa24 newsletter for Il Sole 24 Ore.

Mariangela Pira works as a journalist at Sky TG24 and anchor a daily business programme. Her experience is in financial and economic journalism, she has also been a foreign policy journalist. 

Martin Larch has been with the European Commission since 2000. Currently serving as Head of the Secretariat of the European Fiscal Board, he previously led the unit responsible for Ireland during the country’s financial assistance programme. Earlier in his career at the Commission, he worked as an Adviser in the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA), reporting directly to the Commission President.

His research and publications focus on macro-fiscal issues, with a particular emphasis on fiscal policy-making in the European Union and income distribution. Martin Larch holds a degree and a PhD in economics from Vienna University and completed doctoral and post-doctoral studies at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna and the European Institute at the London School of Economics.

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard is a Senior fellow at Bruegel and a Non-resident Senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). From 2020 to August 2024, he was a senior fellow with the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). From 2013 until 2020, he was a senior fellow at PIIE, based in Washington, DC.  He has also worked with the Danish Ministry of Defence, the United Nations in Iraq, and in the private financial sector.