Eurocities Annual Conference 2026 Utrecht

Jury members 2026

Sharon Dijksma - chair of the jury

Sharon Dijksma has been the mayor of Utrecht since December 16, 2020. In 1994, she was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party (PvdA). She served as State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science from 2007 to 2010, as State Secretary for Economic Affairs from 2012 to 2015, and as State Secretary for Infrastructure and the Environment from 2015 to 2017. From 2018 to 2020, she was Deputy Mayor for Traffic and Transport, Water and Air Quality for the Municipality of Amsterdam.
Sharon Dijksma is the 332nd Mayor of Utrecht. In her capacity as mayor, she is committed to promoting a safe, healthy, and climate-neutral city, as well as to ensuring equal opportunities for all. She places particular emphasis on the city’s youth, as she believes they both need and deserve sustained investment in their future by Utrecht. Furthermore, she considers it her responsibility to act as a bridge-builder between the various parties and institutions that collectively shape the city, and to represent the interest of Utrecht at national level, in Europe, and at international level. Dijksma is also president of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities.

Dario Nardella

Dario Nardella is a Member of the European Parliament (S&D Group), serving as Coordinator for the Agriculture Committee. He was President of Eurocities from 2020 to 2023, Mayor of Florence from 2014 to 2024, and Member of the Committee of the Regions from 2022 to 2024. During his Eurocities presidency, he championed direct EU funding access for cities and stronger urban participation in EU policymaking. He led European city diplomacy initiatives, including support for Ukrainian cities' reconstruction. Nardella holds a law degree and Ph.D. in public law from the University of Florence.

Maarten Hajer is distinguished professor Urban Futures and Futuring and Director of the Urban Futures Studio. He was trained as a political scientist (MA UvA 1988 Cum Laude) and as urban planner (UvA, 1987 Cum Laude), and received a D.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford. Previously, Hajer was professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam (1998-2015) and Director-General of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (2008-2015). For his innovations and bridge-building as director of this institute he was elected Government Manager of the Year in 2014.
After completing his term at the Agency, Hajer came to Utrecht University where he started the Urban Futures Studio. In 2021 his team won the second prize from the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science for the 'Mixed Classroom', a newly created format in which MA students sit together in a class with policy makers.
Moreover, he is well known as curator and government advisor and is the author of many scholarly books and articles. He fulfilled numerous societal roles such as member of the Governing Board of the Amsterdam Arts Council, member of the advisory board to the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, or as jury chair for the International Spinoza Price in philosophy. He now sits on the Governing Board of the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) of Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Marijke Honing is a socially engaged entrepreneur, with a strong focus on how to make a real difference for people furthest from the labour market. She has a background in social work. Today, she runs five McDonald’s locations in the city of Utrecht together with her partner. They employ a total of 400 staff members from many walks of life, who represent more than 33 different nationalities. Refugees and ‘status holders’ (refugees with residence permits) are employed there, but also people with different abilities who thrive with the right guidance and support. Learning to manage money responsibly is one of the life skills her employees are taught. Marijke believes that employers are an important part of the solution when it comes to debt-related issues of members of their workforce. That realization was a reason for her to join Utrecht Debt-Free, an employers alliance through which they aim to increase awareness around this issue.