Vladimíř Hořovský transferred to the position of Business Development Manager at Philip Morris in the Czech Republic after working for three years at Anheuser Busch Inbev. He teaches Economy in International Relations at his alma mater, the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Charles University in Prague. The program helped him to gain a better understanding of the ongoing structural changes in Germany’s economy, as well as enhancing his knowledge in the field of national economic competitiveness.

Irena Kalhousová works as the Head of the Middle East Program and as an analyst for AMO, where she works on projects concerning the Middle East and European integration, and prepares analysis and policy papers. She also makes live commentaries and analyses of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for Czech television and radio and publishes articles in major Czech newspapers and journals. Irena lectures at the Anglo-American University, teaching courses on European integration and the modern Middle East. She obtained her B.A. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, majoring in Political Science, and followed on with a master’s degree in Contemporary European Studies at Cambridge University.

Tomáš Kollarczyk works for Český rozhlas (Czech Radio) as Head of the Commerce Department in Prague and as the Marketing and PR Director in České Budějovice. He graduated in Structural Policies of the EU at the University of South Bohemia. By joining the CGYPP, he sought to learn more about the impact the European Union has on the relationship between the Czech Republic and Germany, especially at a regional level. He also wanted to exchange experiences with similar-minded people.

Karolína Linhartová works for Caritas Czech Republic as a migration coordinator. As such she is involved nationally and internationally in improving the rights of migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees. She leads legal counseling in the Career Counseling Agency for the Deaf and also works as a legal advisor for the Association for Probation and Mediation in Justice. She is currently pursuing her PhD studies at the Faculty of Law at the Charles University in Prague. Within the CGYPP she sought to understand more about the nature of Czech-German relations in the context of migration and European integration.

Norman Ranke works within the Ministry of Economics, Labour and Transport of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) and is responsible for all affairs related to the Federal Chamber (Bundesrat). He studied Economics (with a focus on taxes and tax policy) in Germany and Belgium. He is also very interested in the Central-European region and especially in the countries’ different views on the economic challenges of European integration.

Juliane Rosin works at the headquarters of the NAJU (German Youth Association for the Protection of Nature). Her tasks mainly are the coordination of international affairs of the NAJU and of the JUUS-project (Youth for Environment and Sports). She also has experiences in design and photography and in organizing of cultural events. Within the CGYPP, she found an exchange with people both working in similar fields and different fields, yet dealing with the challenges of European integration, too. Additionally, she got to know more about the Czech Republic.

Claudia von Salzen works as political editor at the daily newspaper “Der Tagesspiegel”. She studied History, German literature and Slavic studies and graduated from the Berlin School of Journalism. She mainly writes about Russia, Eastern and Central Europe and works at the news desk. Her interest in the CGYPP was to get a deeper insight into the year’s topics as well as some new ideas and perspectives coming from a dialogue in a Czech-German group. She also wanted to explore the different approaches to globalization in the two countries.

Petra Vojnovičová works within the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic where she deals with asylum and migration policies. She graduated in European Studies at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt/Oder. She is interested in learning more about the impact of the European Union on the development of Czech-German relations and looking at the differences in socio-economic approaches in both countries, with particular emphasis on labor mobility and migration.