Jana Špero was the Director-General for Prisons and Probation in Croatia and board member/Vice-President of CEP. She is Master of Law and Master-Specialist of Criminal Investigation. As an International Consultant of the Council of Europe she was involved in different activities regarding the development of probation services: workshops, round tables and projects. She has been engaged as an expert in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece and other countries. Jana was also engaged as a TAIEX expert on probation and she has excellent cooperation with UNAFEI. She has been presenting Croatian Probation Service in many international conferences and was representative of Croatia in different international projects (STREAM Project, ISTEP etc.). She was the Project leader of the different EU Projects (IPA, Transition Facility, ESF) and Norway Grants Projects aimed to support  development and strengthening of the Probation Service in Croatia. On regular basis she is speaker/lecturer at seminars and workshops regarding the probation in Croatia.

“I am expecting that Jana will build on the efforts already made to have a robust organization, oriented on ethics and integrity and valuing the diversity of us, professionals from the member organizations.” said Iuliana Carbunaru, CEP board member and Probation Inspector for the National Probation Directorate, Romanian Ministry of Justice. “I hope that Jana`s new role within the CEP will inspire more women to embrace a management career in our challenging but rewarding area of criminal justice and will continue to support the professionalization of our services!”

Fergus McNeil, CEP board member and Professor of Criminology and Social Work, University of Glasgow said “Jana’s track record as an imaginative, dynamic and effective leader of the development of probation in Croatia— and her proven commitment to probation’s worth and to its European values — make her the perfect fit for CEP as we seek to support probation in Europe to play its part in delivering justice and safety for all”.

Ms Špero brings years of progressive experience in probation. And she will continue to be the voice of probation in Europe by maintaining, promoting and expanding the CEP network, stimulating the exchange of knowledge on probation and be a partner in relevant EU projects.