Tony Venables (Founder of ECIT Foundation)
Tony Venables founded ECIT Foundation in 2015. He has a long working experience in European issues, in particular in the areas of the EU’s relationship with NGOs, free movement of people, citizenship rights, and the protection of consumers in Europe. His work also relates to transparency, governance and institutional reform of the European Union.
After graduating from the University of Cambridge with a first class degree in 1966, Tony started to work as an Administrator with the Council of Europe as Secretary of different Parliamentary Committees, including the Political Affairs Committee. From 1973 to 1978, he was an administrator in the Council of Ministers’ Secretariat in the department dealing with institutional affairs and relations with the European Parliament. In 1978, he became Director of BEUC (European Bureau of Consumer Unions) and successfully built up the organisation, before leaving in April 1990 to found the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS). He then also founded the Maison des Associations Internationales as an incubator for CSOs — a formula that also inspired the Salon for European Civic Organisations (SECO) where ECIT is currently based. He was a member of the Commission’s high level panel on free movement of people chaired by Simone Veil. He has published a book on European citizenship titled Piecing together Europe’s Citizenship: Searching for Cinderella.
ECIT Foundation Board Members
- Suzana Carp, Executive Director of Carbon Free Europe
- Anna Comacchio, EU Project Manager at AER, Former Voters Without Borders ECI Co-ordinator
- Federico Guerrieri, Campaign Coordinator, Eurocities
- Dora Kostakopoulou, Professor of European Law, University of Warwick
- Niccolo Milanese, Founder and Co-chair of European Alternatives
- Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford
- Jo Shaw, Professor of Law, University of Edinburgh
- Igor Stiks, Writer and Scholar
- Tony Venables, Founder of the ECIT Foundation