Conference of Participants
The Conference of Participants (COP), where each Participant and Associate Member is represented, is the top governing body of the Register. It holds the overall responsibility for the fulfilment of the Register’s mandate.
The COP is tasked with filling key positions within the Register by appointing the members of the Board and designating the Executive Director. It approves the rules and regulations of the Register proposed by the Board, adopts the annual budget of the Register and provides oversight.
Throughout 2023, the COP convened three times.
The inaugural meeting was held on 27 June 2023 in Strasbourg. During this meeting, Ambassador Sandy Moss (United Kingdom) was elected as Chair, Ambassador Tanja Gonggrijp (the Netherlands) and Mr Emil Ruffer (Czechia) as Vice-Chairs, each serving a three-year term. The Conference also adopted its Rules of Procedure and Rules concerning the Appointment and Removal of Board Members. Mr. Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi (Ukraine) was designated as the Executive Director of the Register.
The COP’s second meeting, held in Riga on 12 September 2023, was devoted to financial issues, including approving the Register’s budget for 2023, and the procedure for the appointment of the members of the Board.
On 16 November 2023, the COP met for its third meeting during which it elected seven members to the Register’s Board and adopted the Register’s annual budget for 2024, and provisionally, for 2025.
COP Bureau
The work of the Conference of Participants is coordinated by the Bureau of the Conference, consisting of Chair and Vice Chairs.
Sandy Moss, Chair of the COP
Sandy Moss qualified as a solicitor in his native Scotland before joining the UK diplomatic service in 2001. He has spent the majority of his career working on multilateral issues with postings to NATO, the African Union and, since 2021, Strasbourg where he is the UK Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe.
Tanja Gonggrijp, Vice-Chair of the COP
Currently Tanja Gonggrijp is Permanent Representative designate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Council of Europe. Since 2004, Tanja has been working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, fulfilling different positions. Before moving to Strasbourg she was Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Earlier she was, inter alia, member of the management team of the Department for Sustainable Economic Development, senior adviser to the Director-General International Cooperation and secretary political and cultural affairs at the Netherlands Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Tanja started her career at the Clingendael Institute for International Relations in The Hague. In her different capacities, Tanja has paid special attention to sustainability, democracy, rule of law and human rights, including empowerment of women.
Emil Ruffer, Vice-Chair of the COP
Ambassador Emil Ruffer is Director of the International Law Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and Deputy Director General of the Legal and Consular Section. He served as Director of the EU Law Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He is an expert in public international law and European law and member of the Czech Society of International Law, the Czech Association for European Studies, and a regular contributor to the Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law.
