Jana Kobzova is ECFR's Wider Europe Programme co-coordinator and Policy Fellow. She covers the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbours including Russia, works on increasing ECFR's profile in this area and expanding the programme's activities. Before joining ECFR, Jana headed the Belarus democratization programme at the Bratislava-based Pontis Foundation between 2006 and 2009. Before that, she helped establish the Slovak branch of the European webzine ‘Café Babel'.
She studied Russia and Central Asia studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London and political science at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her research interests include the EU’s foreign policy towards the Eastern partnership countries and Russia, Central Asia and democratization in the post-Soviet space. Jana has co-authored several book chapters on Eastern Europe (most recent include ‘The GreatPower (mis)Management’, 2011, and ‘Bruselenie valasiek’ [on Slovakia’s new foreign policy], 2010) as well as articles on the same topic for various academic journals and media outlets, including EUObserver, E!Sharp or Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.