The State of the European Union. The European Parliament faces its most important elections yet

BIOGRAPHIES 147 and collaborating member of the Observatory of Foreign Policy, Fundación Alternativas. Thierry Pech , aged 50, is a graduate of France’s École Normale Superior and a professor of mod- ern literature. He began as a lecturer-researcher at Paris X-Nanterre University, where he defended his Ph.D thesis in 1997. He then joined the French National Institute for Advanced Studies in Security and Justice, where he was Assistant Secretary General from 1997 to 2000. At the beginning of the 2000s, he set up the think-tank La République des Idées (The Republic of Ideas) with Pierre Rosanvallon. Between 2001 and 2007, they both published more than 30 books on the changes in French society and the country’s economy. Alongside this, he joined the French Democratic Confederation of Labour as adviser to trade un- ionists Nicole Notat and then François Chérèque. He was in charge of relations with intellectuals and experts. In 2006 he became an editor for Editions Seuil, where he became Managing Director between 2008 and 2010. In 2010, he joined the group Alternatives Economiques (Economic Alternatives), of which he was Chairman and Director General until 2013. In late 2013, he became director of the think-tank Terra Nova, which he had contributed to founding in 2008, together with Olivier Ferrand. Thierry Pech has published several books ( Insoumissions : por- trait de la France qui vient ; Les Multinationales du coeur ; La nouvelle critique sociale ; Le Temps des riches ) and many articles. He often appears in the media, particularly on Sunday mornings on the radio station France Culture . Martha Posthofen is a consultant in the field of political research at YouGov Deutschland GmbH. Domènec Ruiz Devesa holds degrees in Law and Economics from the University Carlos III, a de- gree in Political Science and Sociology from the UNED and a Master in International Relations with a concentration in European Studies from Johns Hopkins University. He has provided consulting services for international organisations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Union for the Mediterranean, inter- national consulting firms including Oxford Policy Management and Family Health International, and think tanks such as the FundaciónAlternativas, where he is a member of the Council for European Affairs, and Fundación Sistema, in which he serves as a member of the editorial board of the journal Temas para el Debate. Domènec has been Senior Advisor of the Minister for the Presidency (2011), and Advisor to the Spanish Socialist Delegation in the European Parliament (2014-2018), and is cur- rently a member of the Federal Committee of the Union of European Federalists, of the Executive Commission of the Spanish Federal Council of the European Movement, and Deputy Chief of Cabinet for Political and Parliamentary Affairs of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. Frieder Schmid is a senior consultant in the field of political research at YouGov Deutschland GmbH.