Catalan Government appoints delegates in Poland, Geneva and Scandinavia

Barcelona (CNA).- On Tuesday, the Catalan executive announced the new delegates of the Catalan Government in Poland, Geneva and Scandinavia. Manuel Manonelles,  an International Relations’professor at the Universitat Ramon Llull and the former general director of Multilateral and European Affairs in the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs, will be the Catalan delegate in Geneva. Ewa Adela Cylwik, born in Warsaw and specializing in Constitutional Law and Human Rights, has been appointed delegate in Poland and the Baltic countries. The Catalan delegation in Scandinavia will be located in Copenhagen and will be led by Francesca Guardiola, who has more than 30 years experience in public administration. These new delegations will be added to the seven existing delegations in the UK and Ireland, Brussels, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal, the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Manuel Manonelles, born in Sabadell in 1975, is the former general director of Multilateral and European Affairs in the Catalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Before this, he was a member of the Steering Committee at Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence on Intercultural Dialogue, Human Rights and Multi-level Governance, based at Padova University. Between 2005 and 2014 he was the director of Barcelona’s Foundation Culture of Peace and was also special adviser for the High Level Group - United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

The delegation in Geneva is set to strengthen multilateral relations in a city which boasts the highest number of international institutions in the world. 

Francesca Guardiola i Sala, born in Santpedor in 1963, has been appointed Catalan Delegate in Scandinavia. The office, located in Copenhagen, is due to consolidate relations with Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland. With more than 30 years experience in public administration, she has specialized in International Relations during the last 11 years. In 2016 she was the Institutional Relations’ director for ACCIÓ, the public business competitiveness and internationalization agency. In 2015 she was appointed Foreign Relations’ general director at the Foreign and EU Affairs Department. Between 2011 and 2016, Guardiola was head of International Relations in the Catalan Parliament. 

Ewa Adela Cylwik, born in Warsaw in 1984, is specialized in Constitutional Law and Human Rights and in Sports Law.

Since 2012 she has been the legal advisor at various international organizations, most of them related to sports and human rights. She is a member of the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) which aims to fight terrorism and violent extremism by working on the prevention of radicalization. 

Between 2012 and 2015 she was the representative for Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE). Cylwik speaks English, German, Russian, Spanish, and Catalan, in addition to Polish.

The delegation to Poland will be based in Warsaw and is also expected to cover the Baltic countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.