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Team members

Fredrik Wesslau Founding Director

Matteo Mecacci Director

Stefan Meister Visiting Policy Fellow

Iryna Borovets Deputy Director

Yevheniia Yemshenetska Chief of Staff

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Ivan Nagornyak

Policy Fellow

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Ivan Nagornyak is a Policy Fellow at EPIK, and also serves as a pro bono advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.

Ivan has over a decade of experience in EU–Ukraine relations, EU enlargement policy, and institutional alignment with the EU acquis. He previously served as Deputy Director General of the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, where he supervised a team of over 40 professionals and coordinated cross-government European integration efforts.

In 2020–2021, he coordinated the comprehensive review and update of the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement, leading a task force and facilitating stakeholder consultations to align Ukraine’s strategic objectives with evolving EU policies and internal market priorities.

In 2022, he coordinated Ukraine’s application for EU membership and co-managed the government’s response to the European Commission Questionnaire. He also oversaw the implementation of the seven key political reforms required by the European Commission for the opening of accession negotiations.

Currently, his work focuses on designing a dynamic EU accession model for Ukraine, aimed at accelerating sectoral integration, enabling phased access to EU policies and funding instruments, and strengthening institutional preparedness for membership. In parallel, he supports the implementation of key EU-related projects at CIVITTA Ukraine.

Ivan holds a PhD in Political Science from the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and has completed executive training at the London School of Economics (LSE IDEAS Programme).

ORCiD: 0000-0002-2699-0474