Can Politics be Cross Border? Insights from the 2019 European Parliament Election
The Columbia European Union Student Association (CEUSA) welcomes Andrea Venzon MPA '17 (Right) and Damian Boeselager MPA ’17 (Left) back to SIPA to share their experiences building Volt, a transnational progressive party in Europe.
Andrea and Damian co-founded Volt at SIPA almost three years ago, along with Colombe Cahen-Salvador, as a pan-European, progressive and pragmatic Europe-wide movement aimed at reforming the European continent and solving the big challenges of our time, together.
Volt is now active in more than 30 countries and registered as a party in 15 European countries. It has over 60k supporters and won its first seat in the European Parliament elections this year. With their cofounder Colombe, Andrea and Damian have experienced the ups and downs of founders in a unique context - the context of transnational politics.
When: Thursday, October 31, 2019 | 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: International Affairs Building, Room 1501
Damian Boeselager MPA ’17 is a Member of the European Parliament. He holds degrees in Philosophy & Economics from University of Bayreuth and a dual-Master in Public Administration from the Hertie School of Governance and Columbia University's SIPA in New York City. In the European Parliament, Damian focuses on creating a real European parliamentary democracy, creating the framework for a competitive and innovative European economy, establishing paths for legal migration, setting up a common, fair and fast European asylum system, and ensuring that the EU works for all via budgetary stability measures.
Andrea Venzon MPA ‘17 (27, Italian) is the founder and first elected President of Volt, a political party present in 32 countries and counting more than 60,000 activists. Before founding Volt, Andrea graduated with a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University (completing an exchange semester at Hertie School of Governance) and worked for two years as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. He also holds a master from LBS and a degree in business from Bocconi University.
This event is co-sponsored by the European Institute, SIPA’s Office of Alumni Affairs and the Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG). The event is made possible thanks to the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.
Questions? Please contact Pauline Deschryver MPA ’20 at [email protected] or SIPA’s Office of Alumni Affairs at [email protected].
