Dr. Abdelmajid LayadiThe Vice President
Dr. Abdelmajid Layadi is the main initiator of the EMA national association. Born in Morocco in 1975, the economist provoked in 2007 at the University of Hamburg. He then completed a postdoc stay at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he played a key role in setting up the Center for Iraq Studies.
For several years, Dr. Layadi also at the Bremen University of Applied Sciences in the Faculty of Economics, with a focus on Middle East economics and society. In doing so, he combines business and science in the service of international understanding, peace and prosperity in the Euro-Mediterranean-Arab region.
For his initiative to found the EMA in 2008, Dr. Layadi a lot of encouragement. Together with his committed colleagues and well-known personalities, he succeeded in establishing the EMA as a permanent fixture in the German-Arab association landscape.
After many years as the full-time Secretary General, EMA founder Dr. Layadi, following the unanimous election as Vice President, will in future also be able to benefit from his technical and practical knowledge of the EMA and its partners in his new role.
Dr. Layadi is married and has two daughters. He lives in Hamburg, Berlin and Casablanca and connects and advises people and institutions from these metropolises.
Gabriele GronebergThe Vice President
Gabriele Groneberg was born in Essen in 1955. After many years of experience as a foreign language secretary with stays abroad in several countries in North Africa and the Middle East, she joined the SPD in her adopted home of Cloppenburg in 1988, where she worked as an employee of the then Bundestag member Günter Graf and as the head of the regional office of her party.
Ms. Groneberg was previously elected as a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament for the first time in 1996. After two electoral terms, she was elected to the German Bundestag in 2002, where she held a mandate until September 2017. As a member of the German Bundestag, Ms. Groneberg was a member of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development and a secretary. For the SPD parliamentary group she also acted as deputy spokeswoman for the working group for economic cooperation and development, where she was responsible for the topics of energy, environment and climate as well as for the countries of the Middle East, North and West Africa and the Sahel zone as well as Sudan.
“If the EMA didn’t exist, it would have to be invented.”
As a member of the Committee for the Affairs of the European Union, Ms. Groneberg dealt with the priorities of energy, agriculture and data protection. In addition, she was a member of the parliamentary groups for Eastern Africa and the Maghreb States as well as deputy chairperson of the parliamentary group for Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East. She acted as rapporteur for the SPD working group on Europe on issues such as development cooperation and EU-Africa relations.
Ms. Groneberg has been a member of the EMA Presidium since 2014. In this function, she actively helped shape and support numerous EMA activities in Germany and the Mediterranean and Middle East regions. For Ms. Groneberg, associations like the EMA are an essential aspect of social engagement: “Comprehensive and on an equal footing – this is how the EMA supports specific projects with the Arab countries. This valuable work deserves every measure of support.”