The Egnatia Council consists of artists, writers, academics and activists who publicly endorse the Food Frontiers initiative.
The Council is named after the Via Egnatia, the ancient Roman road leading from Istanbul via Durres in Albania to Brindisi in Italy. The Via Egnatia symbolizes the continuous cultural exchange that has taken place in this region along these transit routes.
Current members are:
Jordan Plevnes is writer, filmmaker, playwright and former ambassador to France, Spain and Portugal. Jordan is also founder and rector of the University of Audiovisual Arts, ESRA Paris-Skopje-New York. Jordan lives in Paris and is French-Macedonian.
Fiachra Gibbons, is AFP correspondent. Fiachra worked also on the Guardian for almost 15 years, as arts correspondent, comment editor and deputy arts editor. He is a specialist on the southern Balkans, Turkey and the Via Egnatia. Fiachra is Irish.
Simone Filippini is CEO of development aid agency Cordaid and former ambassador to Macedonia. She is also on the advisory board of the Via Egnatia Foundation. Simone is a Dutch national.
Yiannis Boutaris is winemaker and current mayor of Thessaloniki. In 2012 the City Mayors Foundation elected him best mayor of the world. He is one of the founding members of the Arcturos ecological organization. Yiannis is a Greek with Vlach roots.
Nedim Gursel is acclaimed writer. His most famous novels are The Daughters of Allah, A Summer without End and The First Woman. Nedim is a founding member of the International Parliament of Writers. He teaches contemporary Turkish literature at the Sorbonne and works as the research director on Turkish Literature at the International French Science Research Center (CNRS). Nedim is a French-Turkish national with ancestral roots in the Balkan.
Nikola Dimitrov, Macedonian national, is former deputy minister of foreign affairs and former ambassador to the USA and the Netherlands. He is currently Fellow of the The Hague Institute for Global Justice.