Raya Marina Stephan has a background in international law. She is an international consultant with expertise in water law, at the domestic and international level. She has a wide experience in studies and international projects related to legal and institutional aspects of water management and transboundary waters with a specific focus on groundwater and transboundary aquifers. Her expertise includes the mapping, assessment and analysis of existing legal and institutional frameworks, and providing recommendations and options for future changes and improvements, including the establishment and enhancement of joint mechanisms for cooperation. Raya has experience in various regions of the world such as the Arab countries, the Mediterranean, South-East Europe and others. She collaborates with and advises international and regional organizations such as UNESCO, UNECE, UNESCWA, GWP-Med, the League of Arab States and the World Bank. She is an invited expert to lecture in Universities, and she contributed to online courses). She is a fellow member of the International Water Resources Association, and a board member of the French Water Partnership, and the French Water Academy.

Stefano Palmieri is a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), since 2009, and is currently President of the External Relations Section. He also served as President of the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion from 2018 to 2023 and as President of the EESC’s Europe 2020 Steering Committee from 2013 to 2016.
He is a member of the International and European Department at the Italian trade union: Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) (since 2016). He served as head of the CGIL’s Europe office in Brussels (2009-2010). Previously he held several positions including: Coordinator of research in “Local development and industrial policy” at Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e Sociali (IRES); member of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD, of the Steering Committee of the Institute de la Protection Sociale Européenne (IPSE), of the ICFTU/ITS/TUAC Committee for International Co-operation on Workers Capital, of the Macroeconomic Group of the Social Dialogue Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation at the European Commission; researcher at the Italian National Council for Economy and Labor (CNEL), at Monitor lavoro s.r.l., and expert on the Science of Finance and Financial Law at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.