Platform of European Memory and Conscience
Representatives
as of May 2026
President
Dr. Marek Mutor
A Polonist and historian, founder and director of the Remembrance and Future Centre in Wroclaw, Poland. Author of the main exhibition in the Depot History Centre – “Wroclaw 1945-2016”. In the years 2002-2009, he served on the Municipal Council of Wroclaw. Director of the National Centre for Culture in the years 2006-2007 and in 2016. Since 2013, a member of the Supervisory Board and, in the years 2019-2021, a Platform Executive Board member. Elected President of the Platform in November 2021.
Governance
Executive Board
Biliana Kotsakova
lawyer, Citizens` Initiative for Dismantling the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia / The Sofia Platform Foundation, Bulgaria.
Peter Keup
Historian and researcher. Union of the Associations of the Victims of Communist Tyranny (UOKG), Germany.
Zsolt Szilágyi
Political scientist, former Head of Cabinet of László Tökés, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Romania.
Toomas Hiio
Historian, Research Director, Estonian Institute of Historical Memory
Prof. Antoine Arjakovsky
Research Director at the Collège des Bernadins, Paris, France.
Dr. Paweł Ukielski
Deputy Director, Warsaw Rising Museum, Poland.
Peter Rendek
Former PEMC Managing Director (2018–2025), researcher, IT specialist in Security Services Archive, Czech Republic.
Managing Director
Dr. Wojciech Bednarski
Historian. Head of Research Centre for the Opposition in Communist Poland at the National Ossolinski Institute.
Lecturer at the University of Wrocław.
Managing Director of the Platform since January 2026.
Governance
Supervisory Board
Dr. Brisejda Lala
Albanian historian, lecturer, and researcher focused on memory studies and the legacy of communism. She also serves as Director of the Studies Department at the Institute for Crimes and Consequences of Communism (ISKK) in Albania.
Yana Hrynko
National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, Ukraine
Maria Axinte
is the founder of Pitesti Prison Memorial Foundation and of Manuscris Publishing House. She is a museologist, a graduate of the University of the Arts London, Wimbledon College of Art, and the University of Bucharest, UNESCO Chair, MBA program.
Advisory body
Board of Trustees
Rasa Juknevičienė
Member of the European Parliament, head of the Informal group on European Remembrance of the European Parliament, fromer Lithuanian Minster of Defence.
Göran Lindblad
Sweden, former MP and former Chairman, Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. First President of the Platform in 2011 – 2017.
Pavel Svoboda
Czech Republic, former Member of the European Parliament, former Chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs
Vytautas Landsbergis
former leader of the democratic opposition, former Member of the European Parliament, former President of Lithuania
László Tökés
former Member of the European Parliament, Bishop of Temesvár, leader of the democratic opposition in the 1989 revolution in Romania.
Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė
former Member of the European Parliament from Lithuania.
Alexandr Vondra
former Czech Minister of Defence, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, former dissident, in 2019 elected Member of the European Parliament.
Janez Janša
Prime Minister of Slovenia, former Prime Minister of Slovenia (2004-2008 and 2012-2013), former Minister of Defence (1990-1994), former dissident.
Ondřej Vetchý
Czech award-winning actor.
Dr. Łukasz Kamiński
Polish historian and Director of the Ossoliński National Institute; 2011-2016 President of the Institute of National Remembrance. Second President of the Platform in 2017 – 2021.
prof. Stéphane Courtois
French historian, author of the “Black book of Communism
Sandra Kalniete
Member of the European Parliament, former Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs and EU Commissioner
Tunne Kelam
former Member of the European Parliament, former leader of the democratic opposition in Estonia and Member of Parliament
Dr. Neela Winkelmann
Natural scientist, teacher, consultant, founder and first Managing Director of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience (2011-2018).
prof. Pawel Robert Kowal
Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, former Member of the European Parliament.
Monica Luisa Macovei
is a Romanian politician, lawyer and former prosecutor, former Member of the European Parliament .
Martin Mejstřík
student leader of the 1989 “Velvet revolution”, former Czech Senator.
prof. Wojciech Roszkowski
former Solidarność leader, historian, former Member of the European Parliament from Poland.
Pavel Žáček
Czech MP, historian, journalist, founder of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
In memoriam
Former Trustees
Werner Schulz (1950-2022)
former Member of the European Parliament, former East German dissident. His CV on Wikipedia.
Dr. Lee Edwards (1932-2024)
Dr. Lee Edwards is the Founding Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and recipient of its Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom. He is an Adjunct Professor of Politics Emeritus and former Distinguished Lecturer at the Catholic University of America. He has published 25 books about American Conservatism including biographies of Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and William F. Buckley and a history of the Conservative Movement. His most recent book is a memoir, Just Right: A life in Pursuit of Liberty (2017). His books about world politics include The Collapse of Communism and A Brief History of the Cold War (with Dr. Elizabeth Spalding). His CV on the VOC website.