Stefani Weiss

Prior to joining ECIPE, she held senior positions at Bertelsmann Stiftung, including serving as Director of the Foundation’s Brussels Office. In recent years, her work centred on developing policy strategies to strengthen Europe’s sovereignty and capacity to act in the face of geopolitical competition and growing critical economic dependencies. She was the initiator and project leader of the Geoeconomic Interconnectivity Index (GEOII).

Throughout her career, she has worked extensively on European integration, EU governance, foreign and security policy, and transatlantic relations. Her work contributed to influential debates on the future of European governance and the efficient allocation of competences within the European Union. She also coordinated the Venusberg Group, a high-level network of foreign and security policy experts, and co-developed, together with CEPS, a Whole-of-Government Approach framework aimed at strengthening the coherence and effectiveness of European policymaking across institutional and policy boundaries.

Before joining Bertelsmann Stiftung, she headed the Europe Department at the Gustav Stresemann Institute. She began her professional career at Atlantik-Brücke, where she worked on transatlantic and European policy issues.

Stefani Weiss holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Bonn, with minors in International Law and Sociology. She has authored and edited numerous publications on European integration, foreign and security policy, economic security, strategic sovereignty, and the future of European governance.