Responsibilities
EU Green Capital Expert for Energy Performance
EU Green Leaf Expert for Climate Change and Energy Performance
Vesna Kolega obtained her BSc and MSc at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Croatia and has 27 years of experience in the field of sustainable energy, particularly sustainable energy urban planning. With 2 years at the Croatian Power Utility Institute, 14 years at Energy Institute Hrvoje Pozar, 8 years at North-west Croatia Regional Energy Agency and most recently 3 years as an independent consultant.
In her role as a member of the European Commission (EC) Joint Research Centre Working Group for Development of EU official methodologies for development, implementation and verification of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) of Cities and Municipalities, she supported numerous municipalities in joining the EC initiative Covenant of Mayors (CoM), both technically and organisationally, to fulfil all their commitments.
Vesna has been project coordinator of numerous strategic energy planning documents at national, regional, county and municipal level (with more than 30 SEAPs according to CoM methodology including SEAPs of 6 European capital cities: Podgorica, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Tirana and Zagreb). She previously worked as national coordinator of the first Croatian National Energy Programme for the Improvement of Energy Efficiency in Buildings which was established by the Croatian Government in February 1997 and ran until May 2008.
Furthermore, Vesna has an in-depth knowledge of energy legislation from her experience as the member of the Croatian negotiation team for EU access – Chapter 15: Energy and Environment, member of numerous working groups for transposition of EU energy policies and legislation into the national legislative framework, author of numerous position papers and different analyses of energy legislation and policies.
Throughout her professional career, as an engineer, researcher, projects coordinator, head of different departments, and finally an independent consultant, Vesna has been fully dedicated to sustainable energy and environmental protection as the most important imperative of the 21st century.