As European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides is leading a number of initiatives in the area of health aiming to establish a strong European Health Union. These include Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the implementation of the EU Pharmaceutical Strategy, the proposal for a European Health Data Space, the operationalization of the EU4Health Programme and the Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health.

Stella Kyriakides has been leading the Commission’s work on the public health response to COVID-19. This includes overseeing the creation of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority as part of a strengthened EU health security framework.

Commissioner Kyriakides is responsible for the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy for sustainable food, covering every step in the transformation of the food chain from production to consumption. Her responsibilities include animal welfare, food safety and plant health.

In 2006-2019, she was elected to the Cyprus Parliament for the Democratic Rally party, of which she was the Vice-President for ten years. She was the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.

In 2011, she was appointed Head of the Cyprus Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

In 2017, she was elected President of the PACE, the fourth woman to hold this position in the history of the Assembly and the first Cypriot since the accession of Cyprus to the Council of Europe in 1961.

She has been an active advocate on patients’ rights, founding the first Cypriot breast cancer organisation Europa Donna Cyprus, for which she served as President for over 15 years. She was elected President to the European Breast Cancer Coalition Europa Donna and served on numerous European patient advocacy and scientific boards.

Commissioner Kyriakides graduated from Reading University attaining a BA in Psychology.

She received numerous awards for her community service in Cyprus and globally.

Laurent Muschel is Acting Director General of HERA (Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority) following the departure of Pierre Delsaux in September 2023. He joined as a Director-Deputy Head of HERA in March 2023. From September 2018 to February 2023, Laurent Muschel was the Director for Internal Security in the Directorate-General for Home Affairs, European Commission. His Directorate dealt with police cooperation (including Europol), counterterrorism, drugs, organised crime and cybercrime. He was also the Counterterrorism Coordinator for the European Commission. From September 2013 to August 2018, he was the Director for Migration and Protection, dealing with the management of the migration crisis, borders and the governance of the Schengen area. Previously, he has been Deputy Head of Cabinet to Ms. Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Home Affairs and before of Mr. Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission for Justice, Freedom and Security. He started his career as policy officer in DG Transport where he dealt with the European aviation market, he then became Assistant to the Director General for Energy and Transport and afterwards Head of Unit for "International energy relations". He joined the European Commission in 1994 after studying Political sciences at Sciences-Po Paris, philosophy at the Sorbonne and corporate finance in a French business school (ESCP-Europe). He is married and has three children.

Irene Norstedt works at the European Commission where she is the Director responsible for the People: Health and Society Directorate within the DG for Research and Innovation.

The People Directorate works towards the development of a healthy, safe, more equal, free, open and fair society, where the voice of the citizen and different communities are better heard.

Irene has been at the European Commission since 1996, and has worked on various aspects of research in life sciences and particular health research throughout her career in the Commission. Areas of particular interest have been the set up of the public private partnership the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC).

Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked for the Swedish life science company Biacore AB and at the Swedish embassy in London.

Irene studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and University of Sussex, and holds a Master of Science (MsC) in Chemical Engineering.