Marcel Kolaja is the Policy and Advocacy Director for Europe at Access Now, an organization defending and extending the digital rights of people and communities at risk. He leads a team of digital rights policy experts and drives the advocacy agenda at the intersection of human rights and digital technologies in Europe.

From 2019 through 2024, Marcel served as a Member of the European Parliament. Throughout his tenure, he was also a Member of the Bureau of the European Parliament: from 2019 through 2022 as Vice-President and from 2022 through 2024 as Quaestor.

In his work in the European Parliament, Marcel focused mainly on topics related to fundamental rights and consumer protection in the digital age, privacy protection, cybersecurity, encryption, transparency, Free and Open Source Software, artificial intelligence, the Digital Single Market, and media freedom. Legislative acts that Marcel directly worked on include the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, the Product Liability Directive, the Cyber Resilience Act, the Media Freedom Act, the Political Advertising Regulation, the European Digital Identity, and more.

Marcel graduated from the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University in Brno. He had been working in various capacities in the IT industry in technical and managerial roles before he was elected Member of the European Parliament.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time in the mountains and in nature.