Sophie Vancauwenbergh is a Belgian lawyer with a particular interest in the development of sound EU and international public policies from a legal point of view. She has more than 17 years of experience in providing EU and international law advice within the fields of justice and home affairs, labour law, environmental law, climate change policy, internal market law and fundamental rights, and is an experienced project manager and director for the European institutions.

She has authored a number of legal and policy reports, including several analytical reports on intra-EU labour mobility for the ELA, on asylum for the EUAA and on legal migration for DG HOME. She was also one of the lead legal experts on a study on the risk of fraud in the EU ETS and on the possible extension of the EU ETS to new sectors. She has also directed projects outside of Europe, including a project on the development of a sound regulatory framework for CCUS in Mexico, for the World Bank. In recent years, she is increasingly involved in studies on digitalisation, including digitalisation of public services and the use of artificial intelligence.

From 2009 to 2011, Sophie was a Belgian national delegate to the UNFCCC during the Belgian Presidency of the EU. In this capacity, she co-chaired the EU legal expert team in COP 15 and COP16, in Copenhagen and Cancun.

Sophie obtained her Masters Degree in Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and an LL.M. in European Law from the ULB University in Brussels. Moreover, she received training on EU-decision-making processes and diplomacy in university and during the Belgian Presidency. She started her professional life as a trainee at the European Commission working on European labour law.