About

Buongiorno from beautiful Florence and welcome to my blog!

I started writing this blog as part of my EU Fellowship at the inspiring European University Institute in the academic year 2017/2018 where I was taking a closer look at aspects of Antisemitism, integration and religion. The opinions expressed were entirely my own personal thoughts about these issues and how they might be interlinked.

A few words about myself. I was appointed the first European Commission Coordinator on combatting Antisemitism and fostering Jewish life in December 2015. My aim is to establish close relationships with the Jewish communities across Europe, to listen to their concerns and propose and implement policies that will ensure a future for Jewish life in Europe. If you are interested in my work at the European Commission you can have a look here or follow me on twitter @kschnurbein.

I started working for the European Commission in 2002 as press officer for the EU Delegation in Prague. With EU enlargement in 2004, I moved to Brussels as the spokesperson for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal opportunities under the responsibility of the Czech EU Commissioner Vladimir Špidla. In 2010 I became advisor to President Barroso for the dialogue with religions and non-confessional organisations.

My educational background includes undergraduate studies of Political Science and Slavonic Studies at Charles University in Prague and the University of Bonn, a Master of Slavonic Studies from Oxford University (1997) and a Master of European Studies from the Center for European Integration Studies in Bonn (1999).

I am married to Alexander and we have four children. I speak German, English, Czech, Dutch and French. And we, of course, learnt some Italian…. the kids quicker than the parents!  And we all very much enjoyed the local gelato at Ferro battuto!

I love singing and participating in a recording to celebrate 25th anniversary of the EUI Choir’s Lilia Nympha Colit by Johannes Brauhart (Versus de instantis temporis fato imminente, extracted from the manuscript of Naometria, 1604) was a special treat. The recording took place across beautiful EUI campus in June 2018.

The views of this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent positions of the European Commission.

Enjoy reading!

Katharina