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 ten years of experience in providing EU and international law advice within the fields of environmental law, climate change policy, internal market law and fundamental rights and is an experienced project manager. Sophie worked for Milieu between 2007 and 2009 where she was mainly involved in the management and quality assurance of complex multi-country projects and in the drafting of legal analyses in the area of various public policies.

In 2009, Sophie took a two-year leave of absence from Milieu to work as a legal advisor to the Belgian Presidency of the European Union on international climate change policy. In this capacity, she participated actively, as a member of the Belgian delegation to the UNFCCC and co-chair of the EU legal expert team, in COP15 and COP16, in Copenhagen and Cancun. She also provided support on the implementation of the EU climate and energy package within the Belgian legal order.

Since relocating to Mexico in 2013 Sophie has continued to collaborate extensively with Milieu.  She has written legal analyses for highly publicised projects such as the 2010 Report on EU Citizenship covering free movement of persons within the EU, the fitness check of the Nature Directives, and on an EU-wide reporting mechanism on nanomaterials. She has also directed projects outside of Europe, including a project on the development of a sound regulatory framework for CCS in Mexico, for the World Bank.

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.