Špela Kolarič, Senior Consultant

Špela Kolarič is a Senior Consultant at CEP and an environmental and spatial planning professional experienced in international academic research and consultancy in territorial cohesion, environmental, economic and social aspects of European Union’s sector policies, environmental impact assessment and strategic decision-making processes and evaluations.

Before joining CEP she worked as Researcher at the University of Ljubljana on European projects where she helped to develop a method for Territorial Impact Assessment of European Directives. Špela further broadened her experience in policy studies through an extended analysis of Integrated Territorial Strategies for the delivery of Services of General Interest within Alpine regions. She has written and co-authored papers, reports, and guidelines on EU policies, mainly dealing with biodiversity (e.g. evaluating efficiency of biodiversity offsets; and the social, economic, and environmental impacts of Natura 2000), and renewable energy sources. She also worked as a part of the consultancy team on the Strategic Evaluation of the Slovenian Spatial Development Strategy 2050.

Interested in harmonising development, environmental protection, social values and economy Špela complemented her degree in Landscape Architecture and Planning with an MSc in Environmental Legislation and Management from Brunel University, where she was analysing measures for sustainable consumption within the smartphone industry.