Adina Claici

Dr. Adina Claici is a competition economics expert whose background combines consulting experience, academia, and nearly a decade at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (DG Competition). She specialises in mergers, antitrust, and state aid cases. She also provides clients with insights concerning competition policy and regulatory developments in the EU and has supported the European Commission in European General Court hearings related to mergers and state aid. Dr. Claici is named among global leaders in competition economics by Who’s Who Legal. She has been published in numerous academic journals and authored several book chapters. In addition to her consulting work, Dr. Claici is currently a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe as well as at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

Alexandros Bellis

Student of the College of Europe

Alfonso Lamadrid

Alfonso Lamadrid is a Partner at Garrigues (Brussels), a Professor at the College of Europe and a member of the GCLC’s Executive Committee.

Barbara Seelos

Barbara Seelos is Head of the Staff Unit at the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (AFCA), focusing on digitalisation, competition monitoring, stakeholder management, and strategic internal matters. A lawyer by training, she previously served as Deputy Head of Staff at the AFCA and worked at a leading Austrian law firm. She also gained international experience at the Court of Justice of the EU and as a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley. From 2022 to 2025, she worked in the financial sector, specialising in digitalisation and innovation.

Bernd Meyring

Bernd Meyring, President of the GCLC, is a senior competition lawyer advising major corporates, banks, and institutions on merger control, cartel investigations, state aid, and foreign direct investment matters. He has acted before authorities across Europe and globally, conducting proceedings in English, French, German, and Dutch. Bernd has represented clients in over one hundred cases before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union. He co-heads his firm’s global automotive sector team and teaches competition law at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Eddy de Smijter

Eddy De Smijter is Head of Unit in the Foreign Subsidies Directorate of DG Competition. He joined the European Commission in 2001 as a member of the team that negotiated Regulation 1/2003. After the adoption of the Regulation, Eddy stayed within the unit responsible for the European Competition Network until his move, in 2005, to the team that developed the Commission's policy on private enforcement of the EU antitrust rules. From 2016 to 2023, Eddy was heading DG Competition’s International Relations Unit. In that capacity, he was leading the Commission’s team in the co-decision procedure on the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

Elias Deutscher

Elias works at the Directorate General for Competition within the European Commission. Elias is also a Visiting Scholar at the School of Law and the Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) at the University of East Anglia where he was a Lecturer and an Associate Professor in competition law (2018-2023) before joining the European Commission. The focus of his research and publications lies on the normative, conceptual, and economic foundations of competition law, and new challenges for competition policy in digital and innovation-driven markets, as well as global value chains.

Elisabetta Righini

Elisabetta Righini is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, where she advises leading multinationals, including large technology companies, on European law with a focus on regulation and litigation in the rapidly evolving EU landscape. She has more than 25 years of experience, including 15 years in high-level positions at the European Commission, where she worked as a member of its Legal Service and as a legal advisor to former Competition Commissioner and Vice President Joaquín Almunia. She has extensive experience in EU antitrust and competition law, with a focus on the EU Digital Market, and has appeared before the European Court of Justice, the World Trade Organization, and international arbitration tribunals in over 100 cases. She is a member of the advisory board of the Centre of European Law of Kings College's Dickson Poon School of Law in London and has authored and co-authored numerous publications on EU law. She is ranked as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, and Who's Who Legal, among others.

Fernando Castillo de la Torre

Fernando Castillo de la Torre is Director (Principal Legal Adviser) in the Legal Service of the European Commission, where he now leads the team for competition and mergers. He has been working in the Legal Service since 1996 in the teams for internal market, competition, external relations, and agriculture, fisheries and animal and plant health. He studied both law and political science in Madrid (Spain), graduating in 1989 and 1990 respectively, and undertook postgraduate studies in EU law at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). He worked in the chambers of the President of the European Court of Justice between 1997 and 2002. He has been agent for the European Commission in more than 450 cases in the European Court of Justice, some 300 of which in competition matters (mergers and antitrust) and has pleaded in many of the most important competition cases over the last 23 years. He has published widely on the relationship between legal orders (international, EU and national), judicial review and litigation before EU Courts, competition law, the internal market and the external relations of the EU. 

 

Flore Borel 

Flore Borel is currently an LL.M. student at the College of Europe, specializing in Competition Law. She holds a Master’s degree in European Economic Law from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. In September 2025, she will sit the French Bar exam, followed by an internship at the Paris Court of Appeal. In 2026, she is set to join the Paris office of Geradin Partners, where she will focus on the private enforcement of competition law.

Giorgio Monti

Giorgio Monti is Professor of Competition Law at the Tilburg Law and Economics Center and Research Fellow at the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE). He is joint editor of the Common Market Law Review.

Guillaume Loriot

Guillaume Loriot is Deputy Director-General for Mergers (COMP.DDG2) at the European Commission.

Inge Govaere

Inge Govaere is Professor of EU Law and Director of the Ghent European Law Institute (G.E.L.I.) at Ghent University, as well as Director of the European Legal Studies Department at the College of Europe in Bruges. 
She is co-President of the Belgian Association for EU Law (BEDER) and a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB).

Jacques Derenne

Jacques Derenne is Head of EU Competition & Regulatory, of Sheppard Mullin. He is a member of the Brussels and Paris Bars. He has over 35 years of EU competition law experience across all areas, including mergers, cartels, abuses of dominance and State aid, as well as extensive experience in EU regulatory and related competition law issues in a variety of regulated sectors (such as energy, transport, postal services, telecoms, automotive). He regularly appears at competition hearings before the European Commission, and pleads cases before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, national competition authorities, and the Belgian and French courts. 


Jacques Derenne is also a professor at the University of Liège and at the Brussels School of Competition (now Brussels Study Center), teaching State aid law. He is a founding member of the Global Competition Law Centre (College of Europe, Scientific Council and Executive Committee). He graduated from the University of Liège (Belgium, 1987) and from the College of Europe (Bruges, 1988).

Jesús María Calderon Argüello

Jesús María Calderón Argüello is an Academic Assistant at the College of Europe, Bruges, Department of European Legal Studies. Jesús graduated with a Master of Laws from the College, receiving the prize for the best Law-ELEA student. He holds a Double Degree in Law and Economics from Carlos III University and has interned at the Spanish Ministry of Justice and the Department of Economics of the OECD. His main area of interest is Economic Law, and more particularly, Competition Law

Jose Rivas

Co-Head of our Bird & Bird’ Competition & EU Group 

Over 30 years’ experience in representing leading US, Japanese and European clients across a broad range of industries including aviation, ICT, Sports, Media, Retail and Food & Beverages 

Extensive litigation experience before the European Courts in Luxembourg with more than 100 cases, including three in the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice 

Head of a leading US firm’s Brussels office and co-head of the firm’s European competition group before joining Bird & Bird 

Editor of World Competition, Law and Economics Journal (Walters Kluwer) and has written extensively on competition law 

Visiting professor at the College of Europe (Natolin) from 2001 to 2021 and frequent speaker at conferences and seminars 

Member of the Working Groups on Competition and State Aids Law of the European Confederation of Business Associations (Business Europe) 

Member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC)

Juan Jorge Piernas López

Juan Jorge Piernas López is a Doctor of Laws from the European University Institute (Florence, 2013). Formerly, he graduated from Harvard University (LL.M., Harvard Law School, 2007), the College of Europe (Master in Advanced European Studies, Natolin, Poland, 2005) and the University of Murcia (Law degree, Spain, 2003). Juan Jorge holds a Jean Monnet Chair on the Transformative Power of European Union Law (TEULP II), is Tenured Professor of European Union Law and Public International Law at the University of Murcia (Spain) and international consultant on European Union law and policy for the World Bank and several governments.

Koen Van de Casteele

Koen Van de Casteele holds law degrees from the University of Michigan Law School, the College of Europe and K.U. Leuven, Belgium. 

He is currently Director for State aid (General scrutiny and enforcement). Before that, he was head of unit in charge of State aid policy and case support. 

Before joining DG Competition, he worked in DG Agriculture where he was involved in agricultural competition law. 

Prior to his work at the Commission, he was a senior associate in the Business and Finance Department of De Bandt, van Hecke & Lagae (now Linklaters De Bandt) in Brussels and London

Lars Bay Larsen

Lars Bay Larsen is Senior Consultant at Gorrissen Federspiel and former Vice President of the Court of Justice of the European Union. He previously served as a judge at the Court from 2006 to 2024. Earlier in his career, he held several senior positions at the Danish Ministry of Justice and the Danish Bar Association. He was a judge at the Supreme Court of Denmark and has combined legal practice with teaching at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Luxembourg, specialising in family and European criminal law.

 

Lena Hornkohl

Dr. Lena Hornkohl is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law, specialising in European and Comparative Procedural Law. She holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Heidelberg and an LL.M. in European Law and Economic Analysis from the College of Europe. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge and the University of Graz. Her work focuses on corporate and commercial law, European competition law, and civil procedure.

Leo Flynn

Leo Flynn became the head of the AIDE team of the Commission’s Legal Service in 2021, having been previously a member of that team for 9 years in total. He has been involved in some 200 cases on State aid questions as agent for the Commission. In that context, he has defended decisions on aid to banks during the financial crisis and on aid to airlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also handled cases on fiscal aid, including the Apple appeal. A Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, in 2022 Lund University awarded him an honorary Doctorate for his academic work on State aid law.

Lluis Sauri-Romero

Lluís Saurí is Deputy Chief Competition Economist and Deputy Director at the European Commission. From August 2023 to December 2024 he was Acting Chief Competition Economist. Lluís has been responsible for the economic analysis at DG Competition across all policy areas, including Antitrust, Mergers, State aid, Foreign Subsidies and Digital Markets Act. He has over fifteen years of experience, both in the private and public sectors, in competition and industrial policies, with a focus on energy, environment, innovation, pharmaceuticals and healthcare

Luigi Malferrari

Luigi Malferrari is a member of the Legal Service (Internal Market team) of the European Commission in Brussels, working mostly in the fields of free movement and fundamental rights. Luigi obtained his law degree (laurea) at the University of Bologna, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg (Max-Planck-Institute for international law). Luigi was admitted to the Italian bar and did a stint at the law firm Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) in Brussels. Luigi's previous experience includes several years as a clerk ("référendaire") at the CJEU and 2 years as legal officer at Directorate-General for Internal Market of the European Commission. In addition, Luigi is a lecturer at SciencePo of the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg and at the LL.M. program of the University of Saarland, and a member of the advisory board of the European Journal of Business Law (EuZW). During the present academic year, he is a fellow at the Schuman Centre of the European University Institute.

Maciej Bernatt

Prof. dr hab. Maciej Bernatt is Director of the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies at the University of Warsaw and Head of the European Economic Law Department at the Faculty of Management. His research focuses on competition law, constitutional law, EU law, administrative proceedings, and human rights. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, University of Melbourne, and UNSW Sydney, and teaches at Bocconi University. His latest book, Populism and Antitrust, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.

Marc van der Woude

Marc van der Woude is the president of the General Court of the European Union. He started his career as a tutor at the College of Europe in Bruges (1984-1986) and as a lecturer at Leiden University (1986-1987). He then joined the European institutions where he worked for DG Competition (1987-1989, 1992-1993), the European Court of Justice as a legal secretary (1989-1992) and the Commission’s legal Service (1993-1995). He resigned from the European civil service to become a member of the Brussels bar, where he practiced European and competition law for fifteen years (1995-2010). Marc van der Woude became a professor in competition law at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (since 2000) and acted four years as an advisor on energy policy for the Dutch government (2002-2006). Marc van der Woude is an author of numerous publications on European and competition law and still teaches at Rotterdam University.

Maria Segura

Partner, Clayton and Segura State Aid Lawyers, Brussels 

Maria Segura holds an Master on European Law from the Europa Institute with a thesis on recovery of unlawfully granted state aid. After a traineeship with the State Aid Team of the Legal Service, she was associate lawyer at Freshfield’s Berlin office. From 2002 to 2004, she worked for the State aid unit “State-owned undertakings and services” of DG Competition and then joined the State Aid Unit of the EFTA Surveillance Authority holding the position of Deputy Director for State aid from 2009. In 2013 she founded Clayton & Segura State Aid Lawyers. 

Managing editor of the journal European State Aid Law Quarterly (EStAL), she is also one of the authors on State aid of the von der Groeben "Europäisches Unionsrecht" commentary
 

Massimo Merola

Massimo Merola is Partner and Managing Partner of the Brussels office of BonelliErede, specialising in EU law, state aid, competition law, and litigation before EU courts. He advises governments, public authorities, and major companies across sectors such as energy, finance, transport, and telecommunications. He lectures at the College of Europe and Université Paris II and is a member of the Rome and Brussels Bars. Massimo is a former President of the Global Competition Law Centre and is ranked among the leading experts on state aid and competition law by Chambers & Partners and Legal 500.

Merit Olthoff

Merit is a partner in our antitrust team, where her practice focuses on EU and international M&A transactions and antitrust investigations. She regularly advises clients on cross-border merger control and foreign investment screening.  Merit is actively engaged in the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation and co-heads the firm’s internal skills group. She also brings vast experience in EU state aid and funding procedures before the European Commission and EU Courts and is currently advising at the forefront of green transformation and its funding. Merit advises clients from various sectors including technology, telecom, industrial and private equity.

Michela Angeli

Dr. Michela Angeli was appointed Deputy Legal Advisor at the Permanent Representation of Italy to the EU in 2022. She is an official of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) since 2014, where she served at the Legal Affairs and Litigation Department. From 2021 to 2022, she was member of the Legal Service of the European Commission (COMP Team). She previously worked as a case handler at DG Competition, focusing on Antitrust and State aid cases. She is an Italian-qualified lawyer, holds an LLM from the College of Europe (2007), and a PhD from the University of Macerata (2012) on recovery of illegal State aid.

Miguel Mota Delgado

Miguel Mota Delgado is a Ph.D. researcher in EU law at the European University Institute and Managing Editor of the European Journal of Legal Studies. His research focuses on EU constitutional and administrative law, competition law, and European integration. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the European Parliamentary Research Service and teaches European law at Católica Global School of Law. Previously, he practiced EU and competition law and interned at the Court of Justice of the European Union. He holds degrees from the EUI, the College of Europe, and Universidade de Lisboa.

Nektaria Kalliopi Tsori

Student of the College of Europe

René Repasi

René Repasi is Member of the European Parliament for the S&D group (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) since February 2022 and Professor of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is chairman of the German Social Democrats in the European Parliament and coordinator for the S&D-Group in the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI). In addition, he is a member of the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and substitute Member in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and acts as first vice-chair of the EU-China delegation of the European Parliament. He was involved in the adoption of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and currently works on the future of European research policy, the so-called 28th regime, European wide framework of company rules, and an update of the rules for payment services. Prior to his mandate, he was a full-time professor of law at Erasmus University Rotterdam and director of the Erasmus Centre for Economic and Financial Governance (ECEFG). His research focused on the law of the Economic and Monetary Union, financial market regulation, competition law, and constitutional questions of EU law including the legal challenges of ‘Brexit’. Repasi holds a PhD in law from Heidelberg University.

Sonsoles Centeno

Sonsoles Centeno joined Pérez-Llorca in 2021 as a partner in the Administrative Law and European 
Union Law practice areas. She is a State Advocate on leave of absence. She advises clients on 
regulatory matters and she is a ligitator before the courts of the European Union and before the 
Spanish contentious-administrative courts. 
Sonsoles was responsible for the opening of the firm’s Brussels office and has advised her clients 
on proceedings before the European Commission and before the EU Courts, particularly in relation 
to State aid and internal market matters. 
Prior to joining the firm, she has more than 18 years of experience through various positions within 
the public administration, particularly in the field of the European Union. She has been head of the 
EU Legal Service before the Court of Justice of the European Union (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 
European Union and Cooperation) and Agent of the Kingdom of Spain intervening in more than a 
100 cases before the CJEU, legal Adviser at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European 
Union and State Advocate before the National High Court (Administrative Chamber).

Sven Kölling

With a master’s degree in business administration and a professional background in auditing public finances within the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Sven Kölling has been working at the European Court of Auditors since 1997.

After several years conducting financial and compliance audits across various EU policy areas, Sven lead performance audits of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Cohesion Policy, Research as well as in the field of competition enforcement in the EU Internal Market. Sven has been the head of task for the European Court of Auditors’ recent special report 21/2024 on State aid in times of crisis.

Victor De Peslin Lachert

Victor de Peslin Lachert holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and is currently pursuing a Master’s in European Legal Studies at the College of Europe