Dr Sven M. G. Koopmans is a mediation practitioner, diplomat, international lawyer, academic, and politician. In 2021 the Foreign Ministers of the European Union appointed him EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process. He is a former member of the United Nations' Mediation Standby Team, former Senior Mediation Expert to the UN Envoy for Syria and former Advisor to the European Union Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan. He advised both the African Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on settling border disputes. He has been part of numerous negotiation, mediation, and/or constitutional processes, including for Burundi, the Arab/Israeli and Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Central African Republic, Cyprus, Darfur, Guyana/Venezuela, Kosovo, Mali, Sudan/South Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. He was a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands from 2017 to 2021. He studied law, history, and politics at Leiden University and Oxford Unversity.
