Email:
vera [at] consult-poseidon [dot] com
Vera Kellen
Associate Director
Vera is an Associate Director at Poseidon and an environmental and fisheries specialist with over ten years of experience across EU external action, international cooperation and consultancy. Her work is driven by a focus on sustainable resource management in the context of climate change, bringing together expertise in fisheries governance, ocean policy, climate resilience, decarbonisation, circular economy, waste management and resource efficiency. Vera holds an MSc in Environmental Technologies and International Affairs from the Technical University of Vienna. She provides strategic and technical advice, including evaluation, impact assessment, policy advisory, programme management, stakeholder engagement and technical assistance services, to European and international institutions, donor agencies, national and local governments, NGOs and other partners working across marine, coastal and environmental sectors.
Vera’s thematic expertise lies at the intersection of fisheries governance, ocean policy, climate resilience and Better Regulation. She has worked on ex-post and ex-ante evaluations of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements, external fleet governance, IUU fishing, aquaculture consenting, fisheries management planning, marine environmental protection and institutional strengthening. Her wider advisory work includes climate impact assessment, disaster risk management, project design and formulation, policy development and support to complex EU-funded and donor-funded programmes. Across these areas, she helps institutions and partners respond to the environmental, economic and governance challenges affecting marine and coastal systems, with a strong emphasis on participatory approaches and cross-sector coordination.
Her past experiences include extensive work for the European Commission, EU Delegations and international partners across Europe, Africa, the Indian Ocean region and wider ACP contexts. She has supported fisheries, ocean governance, marine environmental protection, climate adaptation and resilience initiatives in countries and regions including Liberia, Mauritius, Madagascar, Tunisia, West Africa, Ireland, France and Poland. This geographical reach is complemented by experience working from both EU headquarters and partner-country contexts, giving her a strong understanding of EU policy processes, donor requirements and partner-country institutional settings.
Vera’s additional strengths include administrative burden assessment, institutional performance review, stakeholder facilitation, programme coordination, monitoring, evaluation and learning. She has managed consultant inputs, contractors and multi-stakeholder workflows, developed logframes, indicators, KPIs and reporting frameworks, and translated technical and policy concepts into practical recommendations for implementation and decision-making. She works fluently in English, French, German and Luxembourgish with working knowledge of Spanish.
Vera’s recent work has included:
Ireland/France: Analysis of European aquaculture consenting processes, with a focus on regulatory and geographic expertise for France, covering aquaculture licensing, competent authorities, environmental permitting and administrative procedures (2026 - 2027).
EU/Madagascar: Ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of the EU-Madagascar Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement and Protocol, generating lessons and recommendations on SFPA performance, fisheries governance and policy coherence (2026).
Global: Impact assessment and mid-term evaluation for Trygg Mat Tracking, assessing and supporting the strategic reframing of work delivered over ten years, with a specific focus on Norad funding (2026).
EU: Evaluation of Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets, covering the international dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy, external fleet governance, legal and institutional issues, stakeholder consultation and implementation performance (2025-2026).
Ireland/EU: Review of the EMFF and EMFAF contribution to the protection of the marine environment in Ireland, including conclusions and recommendations for future programming under FAMENET auxiliary tasks (2025 - 2026).
EU/Mauritius: Ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of the EU-Mauritius Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement and Protocol, including assessment of SFPA performance, administrative burden, implementation challenges and recommendations for future cooperation (2025).
Global: Data collection and consultations for the 2025 update of the IUU Fishing Risk Index, covering vulnerability, prevalence and response indicators for 152 coastal countries and supporting comparative analysis of IUU fishing risk (2025).
Tunisia: Team Leader for EU Mission Ocean technical assistance supporting sustainable small-scale fisheries, marine ecosystem restoration and socio-economic resilience, including funding strategy, environmental and socio-economic indicators, ecosystem-based methodology and outreach planning (2025).
Albania. Team Leader for EU Mission Ocean technical assistance in support of Dürres municipality’s efforts in addressing plastic and microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean. Support was provided in areas related to water testing and mapping of pollution flows and impacts, contributing to the identification of hotspots, and developing a sustainable action plan to reduce plastics pollution (2025).
Poland: Technical assistance under EU Mission Ocean to strengthen fisheries and aquaculture sectors through restoration of endangered salmonid populations, support to sustainable fish stocks and enhancement of genetic diversity (2025).
EU/Global: Management and monitoring of global EU-funded climate programmes contributing to the EU Green Deal and the Paris Agreement, including delivery against policy objectives, key performance indicators, environmental performance indicators, emissions and resilience metrics, and reporting frameworks across multi-country programmes (2022 - 2024).
Africa: Technical contribution to EU blue economy and oceans programmes, supporting regional ocean governance initiatives and links between climate resilience and maritime development (2022 - 2024).