OUR BOARD

Authors’ Rights, freedom of speech, and cooperation across borders: The writers and translators of the European book sector stand together for a sustainable future and the diversity of books.

62 delegates and representatives of 34v EWC member organisations from 23 countries participated in the three-days Congress-days (2-4 June 2023) and General Assembly of the European Writers’ Council in Berlin/Germany.

On 4th of June 2023, the General Assembly elected a new Board for the term 2023-2025:

Miguel Ángel Serrano: President (Vice President 2021-2023)

Maïa Bensimon: First Vice President (re-elected)

Eystein Hanssen: Second Vice President (re-elected, Board Member 2021-2023)

Members of Board: Alena Makouskaya (re-elected, Board Member since 2019), Monika Pfundmeier, Paula Havaste, Arno Jundze.

Future Secretary General: Nicole Pfister Fetz.

Coordinator of the EWC: Zsuzsánna Dóczy.

Outgoing President Nina George (2019-2023) was appointed as the first President of Honor of the European Writers’ Council, and as official Commissioner for Political Affairs.

Five new members were ratified to the European Writers’ Council:

–– Authors’ Association Austria / IG Autorinnen Autoren, Austria

–– Association of Writers of Macedonia / Друштво на писателите на Македонија

–– National Union Of Authors and Composers / SNAC, France

–– Danish Authors of Fiction and Poetry / Danske Skønlitterære Forfattere, Denmark

––La Scam, France

The EWC consists now of 49 organisations from 33 countries in the EU and EEA area, including Iceland, Norway, Montenegro, Macedonia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, representing over 220.000 writers of all genres, and is the largest federation worldwide, solely representing writers from the book sector.

Miguel Ángel Serrano

Poet, Writer, Consultant | Spain

President

Nicole Pfister Fetz

art historian, cultural lobbyist | Swiss

Secretary-General

Alena Makouskaya

Human Rights Activist | Belarus

Board Member

Eystein Hanssen

Writer | Norway

Vice President

Dr. Paula Havaste

Writer, Translator | Finland

Board Member

Monika Pfundmeier

Writer, Novelist, Consultant | Germany

Board Member

Zsuzsánna Dóczy

Coordinator, EWC Secretariat

Please contact Mrs. Dóczy for all requests to the EWC.

Maïa Bensimon

General Counsel | France

Vice President

Arno Jundze

Writer | Latvia

Board Member

Nina George

Novelist, Journalist | Germany

President of Honor, Commissioner for Political Affairs

Miguel Ángel Serrano, President
“As professionals, we face a lot of threats: declining remunerations, bad social protection systems, not always fair contracts, aggressions towards copyright and a rampant piracy. And now it seems that the robots try to substitute us, the writers. This is a strong and rather new threat, that we need to tackle to defend our rights, but also the rights of readers and free citizens. That is why we stand against writoids: robots trying to imitate the style and ways of a human writer. Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, sustained that humanity begun when we waited for a member of our clan to heal a broken femur. To that I add the moment in which we begin gathering around a fire and telling stories to elevate ourselves or simply to not being afraid. We need to protect that way of being humans. Our stories build History. We cannot forget that.”

Miguel Ángel Serrano is an awarded Spanish poet, novelist, and essayist. He has a lasting career as a consultant in communications and strategy. Mr. Serrano has a Ph. D. in Economic Sciences and Business Administration. He is an expert in stakeholder analysis and strategy. He has been Secretary General of Asociación Colegial de Escritores de España for five years, and Vice President of EWC from 2021 to 2023.

Nicole Pfister Fetz, Secretary-General
“Doing the rights thing since 1977, the slogan of the EWC, will also be my future guiding principle. In times of upcoming generative Informatics as so-called AI, it becomes more important to defend writers and their human created contents. I am ready to dedicate my passion and my political skills to serve and promote the needs and interests of European writers.”

Nicole Pfister Fetz has a University degree in history of art and history. She has published numerous articles in the fields of the history of art, cultural studies and the politics of literature and is a guest lecturer at various universities and colleges – among others, for cultural lobbying at the University of Basel. She has established and maintains cultural-political and interdisciplinary networks on a regional, national, and international level, brings in broad knowledge of cultural support and promotion and is experienced in leadership and management. Also, her scientific and journalistic activities are clear benefits.

Alena Makouskaya is a competent and innovative culture development manager with 20+ years senior management experience in the Belarusian cultural civic society sector achieving significant results in the delivery and development of big public events and campaigns at local and international levels in Belarus. Since June 2022 has been a project manager of Freeallwords – text and translation fund established by EWC to support Belarusian and Ukrainian writers.

Dr. Paula Havaste, Board Member
“The income of writers is on stake, and that influences the whole culture and education everywhere. EWC can have a strong international effect, when cooperating countries put their strength together.”

Dr. Paula Havaste wrote her PhD on cultural studies. She has been an active professional writer since the 1990, starting with textbooks for upper secondary schools and non-fiction books, translating childrens’ books from English to Finnish, and then expanding her publication into fiction. She has written for example 17 historical novels. She has been active on positions of trust in cultural associations and foundations both in Finland and abroad. She is vice president of the Union of Finnish Writers, and member of Sanasto and the Finnish Association of Non-Fiction Writers. Havaste has worked as a teacher in Helsinki University, PR and communication person in the Finnish National Theatre, and works now besides writing on science communication field at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre. As an EWC Board member Havaste is interested to work especially on communication and copyright issues.

Monika Pfundmeier, Board Member

“Courage creates future. There is no future but the one we shape. Words are the very first to spark thoughts, inspire and build a base for future concepts. Our/Writers‘ words & work create value and enable profits. Facing the challenges especially towards cuts into creators rights, digitalisation and Machine Generated Output /AI its crucial to protect our minds, work and us against exploitation to be able to keep our ability to shape with our work A and OUR better future.

Monika Pfundmeier is publishing as a German Writer since 2016 and was awarded for her second book as „one of the strongest voices of Germanys young contemporary literature“. She joined German Authors’ Association – VS/Verband dt. Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller. Also the Association of German Crime Writers SYNDIKAT e.V. as part of the board and started to work on improving Authors Rights.
In her past she managed as a consultant projects in finance and IT, improving /designing working and production processes, lead change management projects.

Maïa Bensimon, Vice President
We are at a time when authors should be strongly united to face major technology changes and protect their ART rights (Authorisation, Remuneration and Transparency) and all humans rights, first and foremost freedom of expression.

Maïa Bensimon, raised in a family of teachers and art lovers, is highly attached to Culture and Education. She has worked as an attorney for 10 years in the field of intellectual property rights, before starting advocating for authors as in-house counsel for the French Societe des Gens de Lettres (www.sgdl.org) since 2015, then for the French federation of authors in the Book Sector (www.conseilpermanentdesecrivains.org) as secretary general, then for EWC, as Vice President since 2019. She has published a little more than a dozen articles on intellectual property related issues

Arno Jundze, Board Member

“ Europe, if it wants to be a world leader in future, must treat the languages and cultures of all its peoples with great respect. Only in diversity is real development possible. Bridges built by translators and publishers are needed for writers’ voices to be heard. Our future a hundred years ago and now is written in books. If there are no books, there will be no future. Our mission is to support creativity and diversity.

Nina George, President of Honor, Commissioner of Political Affairs
… is a multiple-awarded and international bestselling novelist. As the Political Commissioner of the EWC, she focuses on intellectual property rights, the digital economy and the importance of writers’ work for society, democracy and opinion forming. In 2022, she was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her honorary work in the field of literary politics.

OUR BOARD