Biography

Mr. Antoine Avignon was born in Paris, France, in 1975, and spent part of his childhood in the French Alps, where he learnt about the Alpine fauna and flora, before moving to Toulouse, where his passion for diplomacy and international development continued to grow. In 2003, he moved to work with the European Union in Africa on large portfolio of infrastructures, water supply/sanitation and wildlife conservation. He moved to Albania in 2009 to work on EU accession and in particular, on the EU Chapter 27 for environment and climate, where he launched a series of projects, such as Natura 2000, alignment with EU Acquis and law enforcement. He co-founded in 2013 the first Environmental Film Festival in Albania (EFFA) to support environmental awareness and young filmmakers. Since 2017 based in Belgrade, Antoine works at the European Union Delegation to Serbia in charge of the environment and climate action portfolio. His activities cover policy dialogue with Serbia, programming investments, participation to donor coordination, and lately kick starting the Green Agenda for Western Balkans.