Guy Verhofstadt

Achille Van Acker
Achille Honoré Van Acker (8 April 1898—10 July 1975) was the 33rd Prime Minister of Belgium in four different cabinets from 1945 to 1958, for a total period of seven years. He was a member of the BSP-PSB - the then still national Belgian Socialist Party. He was nicknamed Achille Charbon.
Van Acker was born in Bruges on 8 April 1898 in a family with 12 children. Van Acker only went to school until his 10th year. Van Acker became a member of the city council of Bruges in 1926. The following year the 29 year old Van Acker was elected to the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives. During the Second World War, Van Acker organized the Vlaamse Centrale der Illegale Partij.
After the Second World War, Van Acker became Prime Minister of Belgium in four different cabinets (the first of which saw the passage of Belgium’s first compulsory health insurance law) and served as Minister of Labour and Social Services, Minister of Public Health, Minister of Mobility and Minister of Mining (which led to his nickname). From 1961 until 1974 he served as President of the Chamber of Representatives. He was named Minister of State in 1958.

wn.com/Achille_Van_Acker

Adina Vălean
Adina Ioana Vălean (born February 16, 1968) is a Romanian politician and social activist. A member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the Justice and Truth list for Călăraşi County (during the 2004 elections), and became a Member of the European Parliament on January 1, 2007, with the accession of Romania to the European Union.
Vălean was born in Ţintea commune, which is currently a part of Băicoi. She graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Mathematics in 1990, working as a school teacher of mathematics in Bucharest until 1997. She joined the Romanian Democratic Convention cabinet as a Head of Department in the Ministry of Youth and Sports (charged with overseeing contacts with non-governmental organizations and county-level Directorates), as well as representative in youth initiatives of the European Union. She was later employed by think tanks (the Romanian Association for Freedom and Development and the Free Initiative Institute). In 2001, she initiated the program Promovarea toleranţei prin dialog interetnic ("Promoting Tolerance through Inter-ethnic Dialog").

wn.com/Adina_Vălean

Adrian Severin
Adrian Severin (born 28 March 1954 in Bucharest) is a Romanian politician and Member of the European Parliament.
Adrian Severin started his politics career under the Communist rule, as Instructor (lector) at Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, the university for Romanian Communist cadres. After the regime change, he became a member of the National Salvation Front and the Democratic Party (which he left in April 1999). Severin was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania between December 12, 1996 and December 29, 1997, as part of the Victor Ciorbea cabinet. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies in June–July 1990 before resigning, and again was a member of that body from 1992 until December 2007, when he resigned.
He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Romania to the European Union. Previously, Severin served as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus from 2005 to 2006. He was member of PACE from 1993 till 1997 and from 2003 till 2007.

wn.com/Adrian_Severin

Alain Cadec
Alain Cadec (born on June 21, 1953 in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-du-Nord) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the West France constituency. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.
He has been a municipal councillor in Saint-Brieuc since 1995 and he is a member of the governing coalition in the city since 2001. He is also general councillor for the Canton of Saint-Brieuc-Nord since 2001.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the third candidate on the UMP list in the West region and was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Alain_Cadec

Alain Lamassoure
Alain Lamassoure (born 10 February 1944 in Pau) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets.
He is a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and a member of the EPP-ED bureau. He is also a member of the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013. Lamassoure is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.
He was in charge of writing parts of the Treaty of Lisbon. Alain Lamassoure is a well-known pro-European. He is member of the European Movement France, which he has been vice-president of, and has a privileged relationship with the diverse European federalist groups.

wn.com/Alain_Lamassoure

Albert II of Belgium
Albert II (born 6 June 1934) is the King of the Belgians, a constitutional monarch. He is a member of the royal house "of Belgium"; formerly this house was named Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He is the uncle of the current reigning Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Henri.
Albert's full name is Albert Félix Humbert Théodore Christian Eugène Marie in French (pronounced: [albɛʁ feliks œ̃bɛʁ teodɔʁ kʁistjɑ̃ øʒɛn maʁi]), Albert Felix Humbert Theodoor Christiaan Eugène Marie in Dutch (pronounced [ˈʔɑlbəɾt ˈfelɪks ˈɦʏmbəɾt teˈjodoːɾ ˈkɾɪstiːjaːn ʔøːˈʒɛːn ma̙ˈɾiː]), and Albert Felix Humbert Theodor Christian Eugen Maria in German (pronounced [ˈʔalbɛʁt ˈfeːlɪks ˈhʊmbɛʁt ˈteːodoːɐ̯ ˈkʁɪsti̯an ˈʔɔʏɡən maˈʁiːa]).
He is the second son of King Leopold III (1901–1983) and his first wife, Astrid of Sweden (1905–1935). He ascended to the throne in 1993, following the death of his older brother, King Baudouin. His godparents were Prince Felix of Luxembourg and his paternal grandmother, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. He is the first cousin of King Harald V of Norway, Princess Astrid of Norway, and Princess Ragnhild of Norway.

wn.com/Albert_II_of_Belgium

Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈaldo ˈmɔːro]; September 23, 1916 – May 9, 1978) was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years.
A leader of Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy, DC), Moro was considered an intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party. He was kidnapped on March 16, 1978, by the left-wing Red Brigades (BR), and killed after 55 days of captivity.
Moro was born in Maglie, in the province of Lecce (Puglia), into a family from Ugento. At 4, he moved with his family to Milan, but they soon moved back to Puglia, where he gained a classical high school degree at Archita lyceum in Taranto. Till 1939 he studied Law at the University of Bari, an institution where he was later to hold the post of ordinary professor of philosophy of Law and Colonial Policy (1941) and of Criminal Law (1942).

wn.com/Aldo_Moro

Aldo Patriciello
Aldo Patriciello is an Italian politician. He is a member of the European Parliament since May 8, 2006, when he took up a seat vacated after the 2006 Italian general election. He represents the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats within the EPP-ED parliamentary group.
Convicted to four months for illegal financing. He has never been jailed.

wn.com/Aldo_Patriciello

Aleksandrs Mirskis
Aleksandrs Mirskis (Russian: Александр Мирский; Latvian: Aleksandrs Mirskis, born 20 March 1964 Vilnius) is a Latvian politician.
Mirskis was born in Vilnius. He is a graduate in civil engineering from the Polytechnic Institute in Kaunas (1986). Mirskis worked as a building project leader (1986 - 1989, 1990 - 1992), taking one year break for service in the Soviet Army as commander of a radiation reconnaissance unit. Upon ending his service, with the rank of first lieutenant, he resumed his work in construction.
In 1992, Mirskis was made a technical director and seven years later became the general manager of a construction company. He retired from business to become an advisor to the mayor of Riga (2001 - 2005), later being elected to Saeima, the Latvian parliament (2006 - 2009).
Since July 2009 he is serving as 1 of the 9 Latvian MEPs in the European parliament, affiliated with the Socialists and Democrats parliamentary group. Mirskis is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and a substitute in the Committee on Regional Development.

wn.com/Aleksandrs_Mirskis

Alexandra Thein
Alexandra Thein (born on 5 October 1963 in Bochum) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Free Democratic Party of Germany and a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary faction. She grew up in Saarland, studied law in Saarbrücken and Geneva, and has been working in her profession as a lawyer and notary in her chosen home city of Berlin for 20 years. She entered politics with her first run for public office in 2009, when she was elected to the European Parliament.
She sits in the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs as a member and in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs as a substitute member. She is a member of the Delegations for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council and with Iraq and a substitute member of the Delegation for relations with Afghanistan.
See also: European Parliament election, 2009 (Germany)

wn.com/Alexandra_Thein

Alf Svensson
Alf Robert Olof Svensson (born 1 October 1938) is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament from 2009. Alf was the leader of the Christian Democrats in Sweden between 1973 and 3 April 2004. He was a Member of Parliament from 1985 to 1988 and again from 1991 until his election to the European Parliament in 2009. Between 1991 and 1994 he was Minister for Development Cooperation in the liberal-conservative Cabinet led by Prime Minister Carl Bildt.
Alf Svensson was educated as a teacher, and worked as teacher in Swedish and history at a school in Huskvarna from 1963 to 1973.
He was a member of the Christian Democrats from its foundation in 1964, and was one of the founders of its youth wing, Young Christian Democrats, in 1966, and was its chairman from 1970 to 1973. In 1973 he became the leader of the party, after its first leader Birger Ekstedt had died in 1972.
In the 1985 elections, the Christian Democrats, who had so far not won any parliamentary representation, entered into an election alliance with Centre Party. This gave Alf Svensson a seat in parliament, which made him the first Christian Democrat MP, but he was the only person of his party who received a seat, which was a disappoinment for the party. In the 1988 elections, the alliance had been dissolved, and the Christian Democrats failed to get enough votes to enter the parliament on their own. In the 1991 elections, they managed to get into parliament, and Svensson received a ministerial post in the four-party coalition government under Carl Bildt.

wn.com/Alf_Svensson

Alfrēds Rubiks
Alfrēds Rubiks (Russian: Альфред Петрович Рубикс; born September 24, 1935 in Daugavpils) is a Latvian Socialist politician and a former leader of the Communist Party of Latvia. Currently he is the Member of the European Parliament from Latvia. In the European Parliament he is a member of European United Left–Nordic Green Left.
He served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Riga City Soviet from 1984 to 1990, effectively the last Communist mayor of the city. He was member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from July 1990 until its abolishment in 24 August 1991. As head of the Communist Party of Latvia in 1991 he opposed Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union, and was imprisoned for attempting to overthrow the new democratic government. Despite his incarceration, Rubiks was a candidate in the 1996 election for the President of Latvia, but lost to incumbent Guntis Ulmanis. Rubiks was released in 1997 for good behavior, became chairman of the Socialist Party of Latvia in 1999, and has been elected Member of the European Parliament in the elections of 2009.

wn.com/Alfrēds_Rubiks

Algirdas Saudargas
Algirdas Saudargas (born April 17, 1948 in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, USSR (now Lithuania)) is a Lithuanian politician and the signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. He was the first foreign minister of post-Soviet Lithuania. He was foreign minister from March 24, 1990 to December 12, 1992 and again from December 4, 1996 to October 30, 2000. In 1992, Algirdas Saudargas, together with 9 other Baltic Ministers of Foreign Affairs and an EU commissioner, founded the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty.
He was elected to the European Parliament in 2009.

wn.com/Algirdas_Saudargas

Alyn Smith
Alyn Smith (born 15 September 1973) is a Scottish politician, and Scottish National Party Member of the European Parliament for Scotland.
He is also the SNP's agricultural spokesman.
He was born in Glasgow in 1973 and grew up in Scotland and Saudi Arabia.
He returned to Scotland in 1986, and later studied Law and European Law at Leeds University and spent a year studying on the Erasmus Programme at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
He graduated from Nottingham Law School (a department of Nottingham Trent University) in 1996, and gained a Master's degree in European Studies from the College of Europe in Natolin (class of 1994-1995). He also for one year taught English in India and worked with Scotland Europa [1] in Brussels.
Smith later moved to London where he qualified as a lawyer with commercial law firm Clifford Chance.
Prior to his election he worked on the SNP staff in Holyrood.
He contested Edinburgh West for the SNP at the 2001 general election, coming fourth. At the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, he contested the same seat, again coming fourth.

wn.com/Alyn_Smith

Ana Gomes
Ana Maria Rosa Martins Gomes, better known as Ana Gomes, GCC , (Lisbon, 9 February 1954) is a Portuguese politician, who suspended her career as a diplomat to enter party politics in 2003. In 2004, she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (Portuguese Socialist Party [1] member of the European Socialist Party) and was reelected in June 2009. She is married with one daughter, three stepchildren and six grandchildren.
Ana Gomes is currently a City Council member of Sintra.
She has been a career diplomat since 1980 and served in the Portuguese Missions at the UN in New York and Geneva, and also in the Embassies in Tokyo and London. Between 1999 and 2003, she was Head of Mission and Ambassador in Jakarta, where she played an important role both in the process leading up to the independence of East Timor and in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Portugal and Indonesia.
In the European Parliament, her main areas of activity are: human rights, security and defence, international relations, gender issues and development. In 2010 she signed the Spinelli Group manifesto.

wn.com/Ana_Gomes

Andreas Papandreou
Andreas G. Papandreou (Greek: Ανδρέας Γ. Παπανδρέου); 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Greece (21 October 1981, to 2 July 1989, and 13 October 1993, to 22 January 1996).
His assumption of power in 1981 influenced the course of Greek political history, ending an almost 50-year long system of power dominated by conservative forces; the achievements of his successive governments include the official recognition of the Greek Resistance against the Axis, the establishment of the National Health System and the Supreme Council for Personnel Selection (ASEP), the passage of Law 1264/1982 which secured the right to strike and greatly improved the rights of workers, the constitutional amendment of 1985–1986 which strengthened parliamentarism and reduced the powers of the unelected President, the conduct of an assertive and independent Greek foreign policy, the expansion in the power of local governments, many progressive reforms in Greek Law, and granting permission to the refugees of the Greek Civil War to return home in Greece. The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) which he founded and led, was the first non-communist political party in Greek history with a mass-based organization, and introduced an unprecedented level of political and social participation in Greek society. In a poll conducted by Kathimerini in 2007, 48% of those polled called Papandreou the "most important Greek Prime Minister". In the same poll, the first four years of Papandreou's government after Metapolitefsi were voted as the best government Greece ever had.

wn.com/Andreas_Papandreou

Andreas Schwab
Andreas Schwab (b. 9 April 1973, Rottweil) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Baden-Württemberg. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Andreas_Schwab

Andrew Brons
Andrew Henry William Brons MEP (born 3 June 1947, London) is a British politician. Long active in far right politics in Britain, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber for the British National Party (BNP) at the 2009 European Parliament election. He was previously the leader of the National Front during the 1980s.
Brons was born in Hackney, East London, spending his early childhood in Sidcup, on the outskirts of London, before his family moved to Harrogate when he was 11. He attended at Harrogate Grammar School until the age of 16, when he left to join the civil service, where he remained for 16 months before following part-time A Levels in law and economics at Harrogate College. He studied politics at the University of York, graduating in 1970.
After graduation, Brons started work as a lecturer at Harrogate College in 1970, continuing to work there until 2005, lecturing in A Level Law and Government and Politics. He has two daughters.

wn.com/Andrew_Brons

Andrew Duff
Andrew Duff OBE (born 25 December 1950 in Birkenhead, Cheshire) is a Liberal Democrat politician, president of the Union of European Federalists, and a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region of the UK.
He initially stood in the 1984 European Parliament election, finishing third with 22.5% of the vote. In the 1989 election he polled 8% of the vote, coming fourth, then in the 1994 election he came third with 20%. The constituencies were largely representing Cambridgeshire and at times parts of Bedfordshire. With the electoral change to regional party-list proportional representation, he was first elected in the 1999 European Parliament election when the Liberal Democrats won 12% of the regional vote, and retained his seat in the 2004 and 2009 elections when they won 14% of the regional vote.
Since October 2008 Andrew Duff is president of the Union of European Federalists (UEF). On 15 September 2010 Duff together with UEF initiated the Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are: Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Elmar Brok.

wn.com/Andrew_Duff

Andrzej Grzyb
Andrzej Grzyb (born August 23, 1956 in Siedlików) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 7986 votes in 36 Kalisz district, candidating from Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe list.
He was also a member of PRL Sejm 1989-1991, Sejm 1993-1997, and Sejm 2001-2005.

wn.com/Andrzej_Grzyb

Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel, German: [aŋˈɡeːla doʁoˈteːa ˈmɛʁkl̩] (

listen); née Kasner (born 17 July 1954) is the Chancellor of Germany and Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany.
A physical chemist by professional background, Merkel entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989 and briefly served as the deputy spokesperson for Lothar de Maizière's democratically elected East German government prior to the German reunification. Following reunification in 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag, where she has represented the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since. She served as Federal Minister for Women and Youth 1991–1994 and as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety 1994–1998 in Helmut Kohl's fourth and fifth cabinets. She was Secretary General of the CDU 1998–2000, and was elected chairperson in 2000. From 2002 to 2005, she was also chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary coalition.
After her election as Chancellor following the 2005 federal election, she led a grand coalition consisting of her own CDU party, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), until 2009. In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the votes, and formed a coalition government with the CSU and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

wn.com/Angela_Merkel

Anker Jørgensen
Anker Jørgensen (born 13 July 1922) is a former Danish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. He led or represented the Social Democratic Party for well over 30 years.
Anker Henrik Jørgensen was born on 13 July 1922 in a rich area of Copenhagen to Johannes Albert Jørgensen and Maria Jørgensen. He was brought up by close members of his family. In 1948 he married Ingrid Kvist Pedersen (17 August 1922 – 18 October 1997) whom he remained married to until her death in 1997. They had 4 children. Throughout this period, he lived in the working-class area of Sydhavnen, an inner city district of Copenhagen.
He began his political carer early, and in 1950 he became a member of a trade union. He led the Danish Workers Union, SiD, between 1968 and 1972. Whilst he was chairman of the Danish Workers Union, he was elected to the Parliament of Denmark for the first of many times in 1964.
In 1972, he succeeded Jens Otto Krag as Prime Minister of Denmark following the European Union Referendum of that year. He would hold this position for 14 months until the election when he would be succeeded by liberal Poul Hartling.

wn.com/Anker_Jørgensen

Anna Hedh
Anna Hedh (born 18 March 1967 in Uppsala) is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
She is also a substitute for the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and a member of the delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council.

wn.com/Anna_Hedh

Anna Ibrisagic
Anna Ibrisagic, born 23 May 1967 in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Moderate Party, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
She is also a member of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, a substitute for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

wn.com/Anna_Ibrisagic

Anna Záborská
Anna Záborská (born June 7, 1948 in Zürich) is a Slovak Member of the European Parliament. She was elected on the Christian Democratic Movement ticket and sits with the European People's Party group.
Záborská was the Chairwoman of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality during the 6th legislature.
Anna Záborská, along with Tiziano Motti, authored written declaration 29, which asked the Council and the Commission to extend Directive 2006/24/EC in order to monitor search engine traffic under the pretexts of implementing an "early-warning system" for pedophilia.
She is pro-life. On January 24th, 2011, she spoke at the March for Life held in Washington, D.C. addressing Eastern Europe's declining population and improving living conditions for women. (app. from 1:35:00)

wn.com/Anna_Záborská

Anne Delvaux
Anne Delvaux is a Belgian politician and a member of the cdH. She was elected as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2007.

wn.com/Anne_Delvaux

Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki, Master of Laws (born 11 February 1955 in Lapua) was the first female Prime Minister of Finland, in office from 17 April 2003 to 24 June 2003.
She worked as a lawyer from 1981 until 1987, when she was elected to the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta). Jäätteenmäki was Minister of Justice from 1994 to 1995. She was chairwoman of the Centre Party of Finland from 18 June 2000 to 5 October 2003, although the first year was as acting leader during Esko Aho's sabbatical leave to lecture at Harvard University.
After eight years in opposition, she led the Centre Party of Finland to a narrow victory over the formerly largest party, the Social Democratic Party of Finland, in the parliamentary elections of 2003. According to the new constitution, which was in effect for the first time after this election, she was thereby given the first opportunity to form a new Cabinet. After successful coalition negotiations with the Social Democrats and the Swedish People's Party, she came to head a coalition cabinet which chiefly continued on the lines of its predecessor, Paavo Lipponen's second Cabinet, but introduced new measures to stimulate the economy, including tax cuts.

wn.com/Anneli_Jäätteenmäki

Antonia Parvanova
Antonyia Parvanova (Bulgarian: Антония Първанова; born 26 April 1962 in Dobrich) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the National Movement Simeon II, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union.

wn.com/Antonia_Parvanova

António Guterres
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, GCC (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐ̃ˈtɔniu ɡuˈtɛʁɨʃ]; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician, a former prime minister and President of the Socialist International. Currently he is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
António Guterres was born and raised in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, son of Virgílio Dias Guterres (b. São José, Lisbon, 21 October 1913) and wife Ilda Cândida de Oliveira (b. Fundão, Donas, 12 February 1923). As a young child he already showed the abilities which would later garner him the award for Best High School Student for the year of 1965. He continued his studies at IST, where he pursued degrees in physics and electrical engineering. During his college years Guterres was never involved in the student opposition to the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and, from 1968, Marcelo Caetano. Instead, he dedicated himself to his studies and to meetings of the JUC (Catholic University Students Movement). In 1971 he graduated and started an academic career as Assistant Professor.

wn.com/António_Guterres

Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈniβɐɫ kɐˈvaku ˈsiɫvɐ]; born 15 July 1939), is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006.
He was previously Prime Minister of Portugal from 6 November 1985 to 28 October 1995. His tenure of ten years was the longest of any Prime Minister since Salazar, and he was the first Portuguese Prime Minister to have won an absolute parliamentary majority under the current constitutional system (which was established after the country's redemocratization following the Carnation Revolution).

wn.com/Aníbal_Cavaco_Silva

Arlene McCarthy
Arlene McCarthy (born October 10, 1960, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Member of the European Parliament for North West England for the Labour Party.
McCarthy graduated from South Bank Polytechnic (now London South Bank University) in 1983 with B.A. (Hons) proceeding to attend the Free University of Berlin and then later attending the University of Manchester to conduct Ph.D. studies.
After completing studies McCarthy was employed as a lecturer in International Politics and Regional Studies at the Free University of Berlin, and was also employed at the European Parliament working for the Socialist Group.
Upon returning to Britain McCarthy worked as the Principal European Liaison Officer at Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, until her election to the European Parliament.
First elected in 1994, McCarthy was re-elected in 1999 to represent the newly formed North West England constituency. Having represented the same constituency since, she was top of the list of candidates from the Labour Party at the 2009 European elections.

wn.com/Arlene_McCarthy

Arnaud Danjean
Arnaud Danjean (born 11 February 1971 in Louhans, Saône-et-Loire) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the East constituency. He's a former intelligence operative.
As a member of the French foreign intelligence agency DGSE between 1995 and 1996, he carried out many missions in Sarajevo, Bosnia; notably during the Siege of Sarajevo. He later was, between June 1996 and September 1998, a permanent member of the French embassy in Sarajevo. Upon his return to France in 2000, he was awarded the National Order of Merit, at only 29. He later served as an adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In the French legislative election, 2007, he ran against Socialist incumbent Arnaud Montebourg in Saône-et-Loire's 6th constituency. Despite a favourable first round, where he won 44% of the vote against 41.3% for Montebourg, Montebourg defeated him in the runoff (a more favourable climate for the left nationwide) by 400 votes.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the third candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the East region, and was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Arnaud_Danjean

Ashley Fox
Ashley Peter Fox (born 15 November 1969) is a British solicitor and politician who is currently a Member of the European Parliament, representing South West England for the Conservative Party and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) political group.
He was born in Sutton Coldfield, son of Clive and Diana Fox
Educated at The King's School, Worcester, Ashley studied law at Bristol Polytechnic before working for a year as an English assistant in France. He took his solicitors finals at Chester College of Law. After completing his articles, he qualified as a Solicitor in 1994.
Before being elected as a MEP Ashley Fox worked for 15 years as a Solicitor in Bristol, specialising in Insurance Litigation. He was a Partner at Badhams Thompson and an Associate at Morgan Cole.
From 1998 -2000 Ashley was Chairman of Bristol West Conservative Association. He stood as the Conservative candidate for Bath at the General Election in 2001. In 2002 he was elected as Councillor for Westbury-on-Trym on Bristol City Council, a position he held for 8 years.

wn.com/Ashley_Fox

Astrid Lulling
Astrid Lulling (born 11 June 1929 in Schifflange) is a politician in Luxembourg, and a Member of the European Parliament (1965–1974 and since 1989) for the Christian Social People's Party, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Astrid_Lulling

Axel Voss
Axel Voss (born 7 April 1963 in Hameln) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was elected on the CDU ticket and sits with the European People's Party group.
From 1983 to 1990 Axel Voss studied law at the Universities of Trier, Munich, Freiburg and Paris. In 1990 he got his first Staatsexamen (a German government licensing examination) specialising on European and international law. After a traineeship at the Supreme Provincial Court of Appeal in Koblenz he finished his second Staatsexamen specialising on European law and international relations. From 1994 he worked as a lawyer and was Citizens' adviser of the European Commission at the regional Commission Representation in Bonn. From 2000 to 2009 he taught European affairs at the RheinAhrCampus in Remagen of the University of Applied Sciences Koblenz.
Axel Voss is married and has two daughters.
Axel Voss is a member of the German CDU and was chair of the Bonn affiliation from 2004 to 2009. Since 2005 he is deputy district chair of the CDU in the Middle Rhine area.

wn.com/Axel_Voss

Bairbre de Brún
Bairbre de Brún (born 10 January 1954) is an Irish politician and former Member of the European Parliament, representing Northern Ireland.
Born in Terenure, Dublin on 10 January 1954, de Brún began her political career as a member of the National Committee Against the H-Blocks & Armagh Gaol in the late 1970s and early 1980s, focusing heavily on the treatment of women in Armagh Gaol. Bairbre de Brún became an early member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle (English: High Council) and in 1998 became an MLA in the regional government, representing West Belfast. She was Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
By profession, de Brún was a teacher and taught in the Irish-medium education sector in west Belfast. She was also a French and German teacher and is noted for her devotion to the Irish language.^{[citation needed]} She has lived in the Andersonstown area of Belfast since the early 1980s. She is a fluent Irish speaker and an expert in human rights and equality issues. De Brún is also a member of the Sinn Féin negotiating team and traveled internationally on numerous occasions to promote the Irish peace process.

wn.com/Bairbre_de_Brún

Barbara Matera
Barbara Matera (born 9 December 1981) is an Italian television announcer, actress and MEP for the centre-right The People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Matera was born on 9 December 1981 in Lucera in the Province of Foggia, in the Apulia, southern Italy. She studied Educational Sciences from the University of Rome La Sapienza, without graduating.
In 2000, she was a contestant in the Miss Italia beauty contest. Later, in September 2003, she became an announcer for Rai Uno, the primary television station of RAI, Italy's state-owned national public service broadcaster. She remained with RAI until 2007.
In 2003, she appeared in the film Ma che colpa abbiamo noi, directed by and starring Carlo Verdone. In 2007, she starred in the role of a journalist in the Rai Uno miniseries La terza verità, directed by Stefano Reali. Thereafter, she held the role of Francesca Rossini on the seventh season of Carabinieri, broadcast on Canale 5, and guest starred in an episode of Don Matteo. In 2009, she appeared in the Canale 5 television film Due mamme di troppo, directed by Antonello Grimaldi.

wn.com/Barbara_Matera

Barry Madlener
Barry Madlener (born January 6, 1969) is a Dutch politician of the Party for Freedom (PVV). He is the Parliamentary leader of the Party for Freedom in the European Parliament since July 14, 2009. He was a Member of the House of Representatives from November 30, 2006 until July 14, 2009.
Madlener grew up in the village of Oostvoorne. After graduating from high school he became a real estate agent and spent a number of years selling commercial real estate. On March 14, 2002 he was inaugurated as a member of the Municipality Council of Rotterdam for Leefbaar Rotterdam. Together with Kay van der Linde he was also involved in establishing the Livable Netherlands political party.
At the Municipality Council elections in 2002, Madlener was listed eleventh on the list of Leefbaar Rotterdam, the local party whose leader Pim Fortuyn was assassinated later that year. Madlener was considered a confidant of Pim Fortuyn.
The party won 17 seats in these historical elections on March 6, 2002. As Council Member Madlener held the city's infrastructure portfolio. In that function he was an outspoken supporter of the construction of a campus at the Erasmus Universiteit.

wn.com/Barry_Madlener

Bart De Wever
Bart Albert Liliane De Wever (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɑrt də ˈʋeːvər]; born in Mortsel, 21 December 1970) is a Flemish politician and since 2004 has been the president of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a Flemish party that strives for an independent Flanders in a united Europe. He has also been a member of the Flemish parliament since 2004. He played a prominent role in the 2007 Belgian government formation and led his party to victory in the 2010 Belgian federal elections, after which the N-VA became the largest party in both Flanders and the whole of Belgium.
De Wever attended the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), graduating with a licentiate (which is the equivalent of the master's degree) in history. During his student years he was a member of the Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond (LVSV, Liberal Flemish Students' Union), the Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV, Catholic Flemish Students' Union) of Antwerp and Leuven. He is also the former editor in chief of Tegenstroom (magazine of KVHV-Antwerp) and Ons Leven (magazine of KVHV-Leuven). Professionally, he was engaged as a scientific assistant working on the 'Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging' (New Encyclopedia of the Flemish Movement), in which he wrote articles about Taal Aktiekomitee, Vlaams Blok and Vlaamse Militanten Orde (Flemish Militants Order), among other topics.

wn.com/Bart_De_Wever

Bart Staes
Bart Hubert Wilfried Marcel Staes (born on 7 August 1958 in Izegem) is a Belgian politician and a Member of the European Parliament for Flanders. He is a member of Groen!, part of the European Greens. He sits in a transnational delegation together with MEPs for the GreenLeft. He started his career as a Bachelor Dutch-English-economics and became a politician later on. He lives in Antwerp. He started his political career in the Volksunie, which later became Spirit. 2002, Bart Staes made, because of the cartel sp.a-Spirit, the move to the ten-called Agalev (later Groen!). As from 1999, he's ininteruptedly a member of parliament of Europe of firstly Volksunie, later Spirit and now Groen!. He is especially interested in environment and peace movements.
His political career started with membership of the Volksunie, with the collapse of that party in 2002 he joined Groen!.
Staes was first elected into the European Parliament in 1999 and was reelected, as only member from his party, in 2004 and 2009. He currently sits on the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

wn.com/Bart_Staes

Bas Eickhout
Bas Eickhout (October 8, 1976 in Groesbeek) is a Dutch politician for the GreenLeft. He has been elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 election.
Eickhout attended high school at the Cobbenhagen College in Tilburg. Between 1994 and 2000 he studied chemistry and environmental science at the Radboud University. During his studies he was an intern at the science store Nijmegen and in the United States. He also chaired the Nijmegen Association of Chemistry Students Sigma and he was a member of the Nijmegen University Council.
Since 2000 he worked as a researcher at the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. He worked on several projects which had to do with transnational environmental problems such as climate change. He also co-authored the IPCC report on climate change. He also was the organizations spokesperson on the sustainability of biofuels.
Since the 1990s Eickhout has been active in the GreenLeft, he co-authored the 2006 election manifesto and he was a candidate in the 2004 European Parliament election (#6, the party got only two seats). Between 2008 and 2009 he was a member of the committee-Van Ojik which wrote the new party platform. Moreover he is a member of the GreenLeft delegation to the European Green Party.

wn.com/Bas_Eickhout

Bendt Bendtsen
Bendt Bendtsen (born 25 March 1954) is a Danish Member of the European Parliament. He was the leader of the Conservative People's Party from 1999 to 2008. He was the Minister of Trade and Industry from 2001 to 2008 under Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Bendtsen was born in Odense. Before being elected to the Folketing, he worked in the police in Odense; he became a member of the Odense City Council in 1989, and he was Vice-Chairman of the Odense Criminal Police Association from 1989 to 1992. He was a temporary member of the Folketing for the Conservative Party, representing Funen County constituency, from 5 April to 24 April 1994, and he was subsequently elected as a Conservative member of the Folketing from Funen County constituency in the parliamentary election held on 21 September 1994. He has remained a member of the Folketing since 1994; in the November 2007 parliamentary election he was elected from the Funen greater constituency.
He was the Conservative Party's social policy spokesman from 1994 to 1995, its labour market spokesman from 1995 to 1998, and its legal policy spokesman from 1998 to 1999. He became the political leader of the Conservative Party on 5 August 1999 and became the party's Chairman in November 2000. Following the November 2001 parliamentary election, he became Minister for Economic and Business Affairs and Minister for Nordic Cooperation on 27 November 2001 in the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen I. He left the post of Minister for Nordic Cooperation on 18 June 2002, but remained Minister for Economic and Business Affairs. He retained the latter post in the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen II (2005) and III (2007). On 9 September 2008, he tendered his resignation as leader of the party, which then elected Lene Espersen as leader, also resigning from his post as minister.

wn.com/Bendt_Bendtsen

Bernadette Vergnaud
Bernadette Vergnaud (born 16 September 1950 in Montluçon, Allier) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the west of France. She is a member of the Socialist Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
She is also a substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, the delegation for relations with Mercosur, the delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries, and the delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.

wn.com/Bernadette_Vergnaud

Bernd Posselt
Bernd Posselt (born June 4, 1956) is a German politician (CSU) and a son of expellees.
Posselt was born in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1994. In 1998 he became president of the Paneuropa-Union Deutschland, the German branch of the International Paneuropean Union.
Posselt is the leading German advocate of the rights of those Germans whose ancestors lived in the Sudetenland district of Bohemia as well as Moravia and who were expelled by the Potsdam conference and the governments in Central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War. His main goal - and the principal aim of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft that he has led since 2000 - is to revoke the so-called Beneš decrees, as well as other acts of the post-war expulsions that were meant to punish the German population in the Sudetenland as a whole for its prevailing support of Nazism.
Posselt is respected in the Sudeten German community and in his home state of Bavaria. The conservative Bavarian government has often supported the Sudeten German community, and was among those demanding that the Czech Republic should repeal the Beneš decrees before being allowed into European Union. No politician in the Czech Republic is willing to negotiate with Posselt.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Bernd_Posselt

Bertie Ahern
Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is a former Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008.
Ahern served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1977 to 2011 and he represented the constituency of Dublin Central. Before he became Taoiseach, he served in the governments of Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds as Minister for Labour (1987–91) and Minister for Finance (1991–94). He also served briefly as Tánaiste after the break-up of Albert Reynolds' coalition government.
In 1994, Ahern was elected sixth leader of Fianna Fáil. Under Ahern's leadership Fianna Fáil led three coalition governments. After Éamon de Valera, Bertie Ahern's term as Taoiseach is the longest. Ahern resigned as Taoiseach on 6 May 2008 and was succeeded by the then Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.
Ahern was born in Drumcondra, Dublin. This is an area within the Dublin Central constituency where he has lived all his life. Ahern is the youngest of five children of Con Ahern and Julia Ahern (née Hourihane), both natives of County Cork. Con Ahern and Julia Hourihane were married in October 1937 and settled at Church Avenue, Drumcondra, where they resided for the rest of their lives. The other four children are Maurice, Kathleen, Noel and Eileen. In Dublin, Ahern's father worked as a farm manager at All Hallows College, Drumcondra. Ahern's brother Noel is also involved in politics and represented Dublin North–West in Dáil Éireann.

wn.com/Bertie_Ahern

Bettino Craxi
Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi (pronounced [betˈtiːno ˈkraksi]) (24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, head of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993, the first socialist President of the Council of Ministers of Italy from 1983 to 1987.
Craxi led the 2nd longest-lived government of Italy during the republican era (after the 2nd Silvio Berlusconi cabinet), and had strong influence in Italian politics throughout the eighties; for some time, he was a close ally of two key figures of Christian Democracy, Giulio Andreotti and Arnaldo Forlani, in a loose cross-party alliance often dubbed CAF (from the first letter of the surname Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani). Craxi had a firm grasp on a party previously troubled by factionalism, and tried to distance it from the communists and to bring it closer to Christian Democrats and other parties; his objective was to create an Italian version of European reformist socialist parties, like the German SPD or the French Socialist Party. The Italian Socialist Party reached its post-war apex when it increased its share of votes in the general election of 1987. However, the Italian Socialist Party never outgrew the much larger Italian Communist Party, whose highly charismatic leader, Enrico Berlinguer, was a fierce adversary of Craxi's policies throughout the years.

wn.com/Bettino_Craxi

Bill Newton Dunn
William "Bill" Newton Dunn (born 3 October 1941 in Greywell, Hampshire) is a British politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands for the Liberal Democrats.
He attended the independent Marlborough College in Wiltshire from 1955-9, then gained a Diploma from the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) in 1960. He completed an MA in Natural Sciences (Physics and Chemistry) in 1963 at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He gained a tri-lingual MBA from the INSEAD Business School at Fontainebleau, which no doubt fuelled his interest in European matters where he studied from 1965-6. From 1963-79, he worked in industry.
He was a Conservative Party MEP from 1979 to 1994 for Lincolnshire. After a spell out of the Parliament, he was re-elected a Conservative MEP for the East Midlands in 1999. He defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2000 because he felt that the Conservatives were increasingly negative towards the prospect of Britain playing a leading role in Europe.
Newton Dunn was elected as a Lib Dem MEP for the first time in the European elections, 2004. He claims to have the highest attendance record of all the UK MEPs.

wn.com/Bill_Newton_Dunn

Bogusław Liberadzki
Bogusław Liberadzki (pronounced [bɔˈɡuswaf libɛˈrat͡ski]; born 1948 in Sochaczew) is a Polish economist and politician, member of the European Parliament (elected on 13 June 2004).
Bogusław Liberadzki is a professor of economic sciences. He holds the Chair of Transportation at the Warsaw School of Economics in Warsaw (Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie - SGH) and is also a professor in the Maritime Academy in Szczecin (Akademia Morska w Szczecinie). He has a wife, Grażyna and two sons (identical twins) - Kamil (MA) and Marcin (PhD), both working at the Department of Banking of the SGH.
He was an undersecretary (viceminister) in the Ministry of Transportation and Maritime Economy 1989-1993 and the minister in years 1993-1997. Since 1997 he has been an MP (member of Sejm, lower house of Polish parliament) representing Democratic Left Alliance. Since 2003 he was permanent observer in European Parliament and on 1 May, 2003 he was appointed a MEP. He is a member of two commissions: regional politics, transport and tourism, and also the commission of industrial development and budget.

wn.com/Bogusław_Liberadzki

Boris Zala
Boris Zala is a Slovak social democratic politician, a member of Slovak parliament and the current Chairman of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also Assistant Professor at Constantine the Philosopher University (UKF) in Nitra and Chair of the Political Science and European Studies Department at UKF’s Faculty of Philosophy.
Zala graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava in 1979. After graduation he proceeded with his study of philosophy and received his PhDr degree (1981) and CSc degree (1995) from the same university. In 1981 he worked as journalist at Slovak Radio but was forced to quit the job due to political persecution and seek employment in various manual worker professions before he eventually managed to get a research job at the Social Development and Labour Research Institute in Bratislava in 1984. In 1990 he became head of the Secretariat of the Speaker of Slovak parliament and Lecturer in Philosophy at Comenius University, Bratislava. Since 2000 he has been Chair of the Political Science and European Studies Department at UKF’s Faculty of Philosophy in the western Slovakian city of Nitra. He is author of six philosophy, political science and history monographs and has written dozens of research studies and papers dealing with social science issues. As a media analyst and political commentator he wrote hundreds of political analyses for the Slovak press and participated in or co-authored a number of media projects in Slovak Television (STV) and Slovak Radio (SRo). In 1988-89, Zala took active part in organising protest activities against the Communist regime and was one of the co-founders of Public Against Violence (VPN) – a broad civic movement established by democratic activists with the view of putting the country back on democratic track within the framework of the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

wn.com/Boris_Zala

Brian Crowley
Brian Crowley (born 4 March 1964) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency. He was co-president of the Union for Europe of the Nations group in the European Parliament in which Fianna Fáil sat until it joined the ELDR and, by extension, ALDE. He is a wheelchair user following an accident at sixteen years of age.
Crowley was born in Dublin in 1964. He received a diploma in law in 1993 from University College Cork, and the following year he was nominated by the Taoiseach Albert Reynolds to the 20th Seanad Éireann. At the 1994 European Parliament election he was elected to the European Parliament for the Munster constituency. He has retained his seat at the three subsequent elections. He was a member of Ireland's Council of State from 1997 to 2004.
He is a member of the European Parliament's Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament, which comprises 103 MEPs from 22 Member States. Crowley is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the delegation for relations with the United States. Crowley also serves as a substitute member of the Committee on Legal Affairs.

wn.com/Brian_Crowley

Brian Simpson
Brian Simpson (born February 6, 1953 in Leigh) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party for North West England.
He was a member of the European Parliament from 1989 until 1999 representing Cheshire East and from 1999 until 2004 representing the North West Region, when European Elections switched from First Past the Post to the List System. He lost his seat at the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections. He returned to the European Parliament in September 2006 and was re-elected again in 2009.
He is currently the President of the European Parliaments Transport and Tourism Committee after serving as the Socialist Group Spokesperson on that Committee for many years.He is also a substitute member and Labour spokeperson on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. He is also a full member of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand as well as a substitute on the Delegation for relations with the Andean Community.
In the Committee on Transport and Tourism he has worked as the Socialist Group shadow draftperson on the European Commission proposals on the full accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services, safety on the Community's railways, and is accepted as being one of the senior members of that Committee dealing with Civil Aviation matters. In 2010 he was voted Transport MEP of the year by Parliament Magazine.

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Britta Thomsen
Britta Thomsen (born 23 January 1954 in Aalborg) is a Danish politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Social Democrats, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and is vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
She is also a member of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, a substitute for the Committee on Development, and vice-chair of the delegation for relations with South Africa. She recently backed up the Manifesto of the Spinelli Group.

wn.com/Britta_Thomsen

Bruno Gollnisch
Bruno Gollnisch (born 28 January 1950 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front (FN) far-right party, and a member of the European Parliament. He was chairman of the European Parliamentary group 'Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty' in 2007, which was dissolved in November 2007 following the defection of the Greater Romania Party. He is therefore a Non-Inscrit. Gollnisch has also been the executive vice-president of the FN since 2007. He is a councillor of the Rhône-Alpes région of France. Because of his public comments, and his position in the National Front he is a controversial figure in France.
Bruno Gollnisch studied law, political science and far-eastern languages with the view to becoming a diplomat. He met Jean-Marie Le Pen while studying at Nanterre university. He also became a reserve officer in the French Navy.
In 1971-1973 he was granted degrees in Japanese and Malaysian-Indonesian by the INALCO. In 1973, he was awarded a degree in political sciences at Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He did a masters (DEA) in public law in 1973. In 1974, he began doctoral studies in Law at Kyoto University (Japan). In 1978, he obtained a doctorate in law in Paris. Since 1980, he has been an attorney at the bar of Paris.

wn.com/Bruno_Gollnisch

Camille Huysmans
Jean Joseph Camille Huysmans (26 May 1871 in Bilzen - 23 February 1968 in Antwerp, born as Camiel Hansen) was a Belgian politician.
Huymans studied German philology at the University of Liège. He was a teacher from 1893 until 1897. In between these years he studied for his doctorate in German philology.
Huysmans joined the Belgische Werkliedenpartij (BWP), the predecessor of the Belgische Socialistische Partij (BSP) at a young age. He became a journalist for many socialist periodicals until 1904 and was thereafter active in the labor unions.
Between 1905 and 1922 Huysmans was secretary of the Second International. In that function he had many contacts with Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the first Chinese revolution, in 1911. His main task was creating an active peace function. At the Socialist Conference in Stockholm in 1917 he pleaded against continuing the war.
He was a fighter for the Flemish movement and fought for using Dutch at the University of Ghent. As Minister of Arts and Education he could pave the way for the Dutch language. In 1911 he proposed a bill, drafted by Lodewijk De Raet, together with the Roman Catholic Frans Van Cauwelaert and the liberal Louis Franck for the usage of Flemish at the University of Ghent. However, due to World War I, the University of Ghent would become a Flemish university in 1930.

wn.com/Camille_Huysmans

Carl Haglund
Carl Christoffer ”Calle” Haglund (born on 29 March 1979 in Espoo) is a Finnish politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Swedish People's Party.
See also: European Parliament election, 2009 (Finland)

wn.com/Carl_Haglund

Carl Schlyter
Carl Schlyter (born 7 January 1968 in Danderyd, Stockholm County) is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Green Party, which is part of the European Greens, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. He is a member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Fisheries, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

wn.com/Carl_Schlyter

Carlo Casini
Carlo Casini (b. 4 March 1935, Florence) is an Italian politician. He has been a member of the European Parliament since May 8, 2006, when he took up a seat vacated after the 2006 Italian general election. He represents the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats within the EPP-ED parliamentary group. He was previously an MEP from 1984 to 1999.

wn.com/Carlo_Casini

Carlos Coelho
Carlos Coelho (born May 20, 1960 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party–People's Party coalition; part of the European People's Party–European Democrats group.

wn.com/Carlos_Coelho

Caroline Lucas
Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British Green Party politician, the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales (a post she took up in 2008 and will step down from in September 2012), and the first and only Green Member of Parliament (MP) in the UK. She was elected for Brighton Pavilion at the 2010 general election, and was a Member of the European Parliament for South East England from 1999 to 2010. As a result of the restrictions regarding dual mandates, she had to give up her seat in European Parliament to take up her seat in the House of Commons. Keith Taylor succeeded her in this position.
She is noted for campaigning and writing on green economics, localisation, alternatives to globalisation, trade justice, animal welfare and food. In her time as a politician and activist, she has worked with numerous NGOs and think-tanks, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), Oxfam and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Lucas was born in Malvern in Worcestershire, to middle class and Conservative-voting parents. Her father ran a small central heating company.

wn.com/Caroline_Lucas

Catherine Grèze
Catherine Grèze (born 1960) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the South-West France constituency.
She is a member of Europe Écologie–The Greens in the Midi-Pyrénées region since 1985 and participate in the Global Greens organization.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the second candidate on the Europe Écologie list in the South-West region, behind José Bové, and was elected to the European Parliament due to the list's surprisingly high 15.82% of the vote in the constituency. She signed the Spinelli Group Manifesto in favour of a Federal Europe.

wn.com/Catherine_Grèze

Catherine Soullie
Catherine Soullie (born 18 July 1954 in Cite d'Aunis) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Massif Central-Centre constituency.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the fourth candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the Massif Central-Centre region - which made her election quasi-impossible in the 5-seat constituency. However, Brice Hortefeux, then-Minister of Labour, third candidate on the list, was elected due to the UMP's surprisingly good result. However, he preferred to continue in the government and Soullie, as fourth candidate on the list, replaced him.

wn.com/Catherine_Soullie

Catherine Stihler
Catherine Stihler (born 30 July 1973) is a British Labour Party politician. She has been a Member of the European Parliament for Scotland since 1999, being re-elected in 2004 and 2009. She is currently the only female MEP representing Scotland.
Born as Catherine Dalling Taylor, Stihler was educated at Coltness High School, later going on to the University of St Andrews where she gained an MA with joint honours in International Relations and Geography and a postgraduate MLitt in International Security Studies.
While at St Andrews she was elected President of the Students' Association, serving from 1994 to 1995. She also served on the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party from 1993 to 1995 and was the Young Labour delegate to the National Executive Committee from 1995 to 1997. While a postgraduate student she stood in the Angus constituency at the 1997 general election.
In March 2006 she had her first child, Alexander, with her husband David (whom she met while at university). Catherine and David's second child, Andrew, was born in 2011.

wn.com/Catherine_Stihler

Catherine Trautmann
Catherine Trautmann (born on 15 January 1951 in Strasbourg) is a former Minister of Culture of France and now Member of the European Parliament for the East of France.
She was elected as mayor of Strasbourg in 1989, re-elected in 1995, then defeated in 2001.
She is a member of the Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists and sits on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
She is a substitute for the Committee on Culture and Education and also a member of the Delegation for relations with Canada.

wn.com/Catherine_Trautmann

Charles Goerens
Charles Goerens (born 6 February 1952 in Ettelbruck) is a politician from Luxembourg.
He studied agricultural science before he was first elected to the northern district constituency as a member of the Democratic Party in 1979. From 1989 until 1994 he was its chairman.
Goerens was a member of the European Parliament from 1982 to 1984, from 1994 to 1999, and again from 2009 to present.
He served as Minister for Cooperation, Humanitarian Action, and Defence in the government of Jean-Claude Juncker from 7 August 1999 until 31 July 2004. He also briefly served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 20 July 2004 until 31 July 2004. He lost these posts when Juncker had to form a new coalition government after the 2004 parliamentary elections.

wn.com/Charles_Goerens

Charles Haughey
Charles James "Charlie" Haughey (16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office (from December 1979 to June 1981, March 1982 to December 1982, and March 1987 to February 1992). He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil (from 1979 until 1992). Haughey was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála (TD) in 1957 and was re-elected in every election until 1992, he represented the Dublin North-East constituency from 1957 until 1973. The constituency lines were redrawn under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1974 in an attempt to secure re-election for the sitting Fine Gael-Labour Party government in the 1977 election and Haughey represented Dublin-Artane in 1977, this constituency was abolished in 1981 and most of Haughey's electoral area was moved into the reformed Dublin North-Central constituency which he served from 1981 until his retirement in 1992. Haughey also served as Minister for Health and Social Welfare (1977–1979), Minister for Finance (1966–1970), Minister for Agriculture (1964–1966) and Minister for Justice (1961–1964). He also served as a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Justice during the early years of his parliamentary career.

wn.com/Charles_Haughey

Charles Rogier
Charles Latour Rogier (17 August 1800–27 May 1885) was a Belgian liberal statesman and a leader in the Belgian Revolution of 1830. He became Prime Minister of Belgium on two separate occasions: from 1847 to 1852, and again from 1857 to 1868.
Rogier descended from a family settled in the department of the Nord in France. He was born at Saint-Quentin. His father, an officer in the French army, perished in the Russian campaign of 1812. The family then moved to the Belgian city of Liege, where the eldest son, Firmin, held a professorship. Rogier studied law at the University of Liège (ULg) and was admitted to the bar. However, he devoted himself with greater zeal to journalistic campaigns against Dutch rule in Belgium. In 1824, in collaboration with his lifelong friends Paul Devaux and Joseph Lebeau, he founded the journal Mathieu Laensberg (afterwards Le Politique). With its ardent patriotism and its attacks on the Dutch administration, the journal soon achieved widespread influence.
On the outbreak of the insurrection at Brussels in August 1830, Rogier went there with a militia of about 300 citizens of Liège. In Brussels he gained recognition as one of the most active among the patriot leaders. He became a member of the provisional government established in October of the same year, and after the election of Leopold as King in June 1831, he was made Governor of Antwerp. During his first stint as Interior Minister, from 1832 to 1834, he brought into existence the Belgian railway system. From 1840 to 1841 he was Minister of Public Works and Education, and from 1861 to 1868 he served as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

wn.com/Charles_Rogier

Charles Tannock
Dr Timothy Charles Ayrton Tannock ( born in Aldershot, Hampshire) is a British politician, psychiatrist, and Member of the European Parliament for London for the Conservative Party. He was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999. He was Vice-President of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the Parliament 2004–07 and Vice-President of the EU-Ukraine PCC delegation 2004-09. He is currently Vice-President of the EP Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, UK Conservative Foreign Affairs Spokesman, ECR Co-ordinator (Spokesman) on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also the current President of the Friends of Taiwan Group and adviser to the UK Overseas Territory Association in the European Parliament, and was Vice-Chairman of European Friends of Israel 2006–11. He was appointed a Commissioner for Human Rights of the British Conservative Party in 2011. Tannock was educated at Bradfield College, before going up to Balliol College, Oxford. Before being elected to Parliament, he was a consultant psychiatrist at University College Hospital. He was assistant Research Secretary of the Bow Group from 1989 to 1990, publishing Bow Group papers and made several contributions to the scientific literature particularly in the field of chronic fatigue syndrome and anxiety disorders as a medical researcher. Dr Tannock is married with three children.

wn.com/Charles_Tannock

Christa Klaß
Christa Klaß (also spelled Christa Klass) (born 7 November 1951) is a German politician. In 1975, she became a qualified master in Winemaking and is since a self-employed wine-grower.
As Member of the European Parliament for Rhineland-Palatinate since 1994, the member of the conservative German Christian Democratic Union is part of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats.

wn.com/Christa_Klaß

Christel Schaldemose
Christel Schaldemose (born 1967) is a Danish politician and a member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT).
She lives in Copenhagen with her husband and 3 children (born 1996 to 2003). She has a masters in history from the University of Southern Denmark.
She has worked professionally with adult education and popular enlightenment on national and regional level. Her previous job was secretary general of the Danish Adult Education Council.
Schaldemoseworks with consumer, cultural and educational policy.
On 4 May 2008, she launched the citizen's initiative Females in front together with MEPs from other EU countries. The campaign demands that at least one woman is appointed to one of the four top positions in the EU to be filled in 2009.

wn.com/Christel_Schaldemose

Christian Ehler
Jan Christian Ehler (born 17 August 1963) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Brandenburg. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
Managing Director, Biotech GmbH - biotechnology centre Hennigsdorf (since 2000) Managing director, Projektgesellschaft Bahnerprobungs- und Technologiezentrum (special testing and technology company) Berlin/Brandenburg GmbH (GBT) (1998–2000) Member of staff, project head and subsequently Managing Director of the Aigner group of companies (1992–1997) Assistant to the managing director, ddp/ADN (1990–1991)
1992/1993 PhD of political science in the field of the "US commercial policy" at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich 1986-1991 Studies in the field of journalism, political science and macroeconomics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) Traineeship at the German Journalist School Munich 1989/1990 Studies in the field of macroeconomics at the American University Washington D.C., research associate for the Committee on Financial Affairs of the US - Congress 1984 Abitur (Diploma) at the public school Marquartstein Bavaria

wn.com/Christian_Ehler

Christian Engström
Lars Christian Engström (born 9 February 1960) is a Swedish computer programmer, activist and politician. He is deputy chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party. Engström was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2009 election.
Christian Engström was born in Högalid, Stockholm. He graduated from Stockholm University in 1983 with a degree in mathematics and computer science. While studying, Engström worked as a tutor at the university, teaching object-oriented programming in Simula. From 1978 he also worked part-time as a programmer at a small company which specialized in phonetic similarity searches for trademark names. After finishing his studies he started working full-time at the company. He became a partner in the firm in 1987 and in 1991 he became vice president. In 1997 the company was sold to the leading European trademark search house CompuMark. Engström stayed on in a similar capacity as before until 2001, when he left the company to set up his own consultancy firm Glindra AB.

wn.com/Christian_Engström

Christine de Veyrac
Christine de Veyrac (born 6 November 1959 in Toulouse) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism.
She is a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Israel.
She used to be the parliamentary attaché of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

wn.com/Christine_de_Veyrac

Christofer Fjellner
Gustav Christofer Ingemar Fjellner (born 13 December 1976 in Västerås) is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Moderate Party, part of the European People's Party - European Democrats group.
He sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade and its Committee on Budgetary Control. He is also a substitute for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, a member of the delegation for relations with Belarus, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Iran.
He gained national prominence as chairman of the Moderate Youth League from 2002 to 2004.

wn.com/Christofer_Fjellner

Ciriaco De Mita
Ciriaco Luigi de Mita (Italian pronunciation: [tʃi'riːako luˈiːʤi de ˈmiːta]; born 2 February 1928) is an Italian politician. He served as the 47th Prime Minister of Italy from 1988 to 1989 and is currently Member of the European Parliament.
De Mita was born in Nusco, in the Avellinese hinterland.
As a young man he joined the Christian Democracy and entered politics. He rose through the ranks of the party, becoming a member of its council in 1956, a member of Parliament in 1963 and a member of the Italian cabinet in 1973. During the next decade he served as Minister of Industry and then as Minister of Foreign Trade.
De Mita became chairman of the party in 1982 at a time when its power was declining. He was reelected in 1986 with 60% support from the party. The Christian Democrats did well in the elections of 1987. De Mita waited a year to become Prime Minister, and then served as Prime Minister for a year, maintaining the party chairmanship. At the beginning of that service, on 16 April 1988, in Forlì, Red Brigades killed Senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of de Mita.

wn.com/Ciriaco_De_Mita

Claude Moraes
Claude Moraes is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party. Claude Moraes is the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in Europe (the European Parliamentary Labour Party, or EPLP) one of eight MEPs representing London.
Moraes grew up in Scotland, having moved to the United Kingdom with his parents at the age of six from India. He studied Scots law and English Law, Administrative Law and International Law at the University of Dundee, London University (Birkbeck College) and the London School of Economics.^{[citation needed]}
Prior to holding elected office, he attained a national profile as the director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants - a UK based independent legal NGO specialising in refugee and migration issues. Moraes was also a Commissioner for Racial Equality and became a regular media commentator and campaigner on migration issues.
He also helped organise legal challenges in the High Court, Court of Appeal, and in Europe. He was also House of Commons adviser to John Reid MP and Paul Boateng MP, and was a national officer at the TUC and a representative to the European TUC. He has written widely on migration and human rights issues and is a co-author of the Politics of Migration (Blackwells).^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Claude_Moraes

Claude Turmes
Claude Turmes (born 26 November 1960 in Diekirch) is a Luxembourgish politician and Member of the European Parliament for Luxembourg's Green Party, part of the European Greens.
Turmes served as rapporteur on the 2008 draft EU Renewables Directive.

wn.com/Claude_Turmes

Clemente Mastella
Mario Clemente Mastella (born 5 February 1947) is an Italian politician. He is currently leader of Popular-UDEUR, a minor centrist Italian party. He was Minister of Labour in the Berlusconi government from 10 May 1994 to 17 January 1995, and Minister of Justice in the Prodi government from 17 May 2006 to 17 January 2008. In addition Mastella is also mayor of his native town, Ceppaloni.
Mastella was born in Ceppaloni, province of Benevento.
A former long-time member of the Christian Democracy party and Member of Parliament since 1976, after the break-up of his party in 1994 Mastella founded a new party, called Centro Cristiano Democratico, together with Pierferdinando Casini. After the victory of Silvio Berlusconi in the 1994 elections, he was successively appointed as Minister of Labour.
In 1998, after the fall of Romano Prodi's first government, Mastella decided to follow Francesco Cossiga, lifetime senator and former Italian Republic President. He left his party to found the Cristiano Democratici per la Repubblica, then Unione Democratici per la Repubblica. This new political party, which supported the new centre-left government led by Massimo D'Alema, lasted only one year however; in 1999, Mastella took over the leadership of UDEUR (then Popular-UDEUR).

wn.com/Clemente_Mastella

Corien Wortmann-Kool
Corien Wortmann-Kool (born 27 June 1959 in Oud-Alblas, South Holland) is a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism and its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.
She is also a substitute for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with Japan, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with the Gulf States, including Yemen.

Media related to Corien Wortmann-Kool at Wikimedia Commons

wn.com/Corien_Wortmann-Kool

Corina Creţu
Corina Creţu (born June 24, 1967) is a Romanian politician and journalist, former Spokersperson for the President of Romania during Ion Iliescu's time in office. Elected to the Senate for the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 2004, she became a Member of the European Parliament (sitting among the Party of European Socialists group) on January 1, 2007, following the accession of Romania to the European Union. She is a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
Born in Bucharest, Creţu graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies' Faculty of Cybernetics (1989), and worked as an economist for factories in Blaj and Bucharest until 1990. After the latter date, she was employed as a commentator on current events by the newspapers Azi, Curierul Naţional, and Cronica Română. She worked for President Iliescu's Spokesperson Office during two separate mandates (in 1992-1996 and in 2000-2004); between 2000 and 2004, Creţu was Presidential Advisor (with the rank of Minister), Presidential Spokesperson and Head of the Public Communication Department. In 2002, she was also selected by President Iliescu for the Board of the Romanian Television Company, and confirmed by a vote in Parliament.

wn.com/Corina_Creţu

Corinne Lepage
Corinne Dominique Marguerite Lepage, also known as Corinne Lepage (born 11 May 1951) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the North-West constituency.
A former minister of the Environment, she is the founder and President since 1996 of the Citizenship, Action, Participation for the XXIst Century Party (CAP 21). She was also co-founder and Vice-President of the centrist Mouvement démocrate until March 2010, when she announced that she was leaving the movement.
She is also the founding member of the CRII-VIE, the Association for the Study of the Impact of Genetic Techniques upon the Living.
Lepage was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the department of Hauts-de-Seine. She attended Sciences-Po in Paris, where she obtained her law diploma; she started practising law in 1975. At the same time, she was appointed Maître de conférences (Note: the equivalent of a university lecturer), and later a Professor at Sciences-Po and Paris II from 1982 to 1986, and then at the Université de Paris at Val-deMarne from 1984 to 1990. She has taught at the Université de Paris at St.-Quentin-en-Yvelines since 2005. She is married and the mother of two children.

wn.com/Corinne_Lepage

Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor (Romanian pronunciation: [korˈnelju vaˈdim ˈtudor]; born November 28, 1949 in Bucharest) is leader of the Greater Romania Party ('Partidul România Mare'), writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a Romanian Senator from 1992 to 2008.
A controversial, essentially populist, political figure, he is known for his strongly nationalist and xenophobic views, the theatrics of which often accompany his rhetoric, and his reliance on the denunications of political opponents (so far, a tactic which several civil lawsuits have ruled slanderous). He is most commonly referred to as "Vadim", many times understood as a family name (although it is clearly not shared with his relatively well-known brother, former Army officer and fellow Party member Marcu Tudor).
A disciple of the writer Eugen Barbu (who was an unofficial trusted advisor to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu), Tudor was energetic in his praise (in both prose and poetry) of the longtime communist dictator prior to Romania's 1989 revolution.

wn.com/Corneliu_Vadim_Tudor

Costas Simitis
Konstantinos Simitis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Σημίτης) (born 23 June 1936), usually referred to as Costas Simitis or Kostas Simitis, was Prime Minister of Greece and leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) from 1996 to 2004.
Costas Simitis' family has roots in Ilida (municipality).^{[citation needed]} Ηe was born in Piraeus to Georgios Simitis, a Professor at the School of Economic and Commercial Sciences, and to his wife Fani (née Christopoulou). He studied Law at the University of Marburg in Germany and economics at the London School of Economics. He is married to Daphne Arkadiou (b. 1938)and has two daughters, Fiona and Marilena. His brother Spiros Simitis is a prominent jurist specializing on data privacy in Germany. He currently resides in the Kolonaki district of Athens.
In 1965 he returned to Greece and was one of the founders of the "Alexandros Papanastasiou" political research group . In 1967, after the military coup of 21 April, this group was transformed into Democratic Defense, an organization opposed to the military regime. Simitis escaped abroad after planting bombs in the streets of Athens (in later years he acknowledged his activities on Greek MEGA TV channel) in order to avoid being jailed and became a member of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK), led by Andreas Papandreou. He also took up a position as university lecturer in Germany. He returned to Athens in 1974 and was one of the co-founders of PAK's successor, the PASOK. In 1977 he took up a lecturer's post at the Panteion University.

wn.com/Costas_Simitis

Cristian Buşoi
Cristian Silviu Buşoi (born March 1, 1978) is a Romanian physician and politician. A member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Timiş County from 2004 to 2007, and has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2007.
In 2006 he married Georgiana, then a notary's intern.
He was born in Drobeta-Turnu Severin and, following secondary studies completed in 1997 at the city's Traian Theoretical College, in 2003 he graduated from the Medicine Faculty of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. The following December, he became a resident. In 2004, he also began work on two doctorates: one in Endocrinology at his alma mater, and one in Public Health and Health Management at the Victor Babeş University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timişoara. Since 2007, he has been a lecturer at the latter institution, in the same field. In 2005, he received a degree from the Carol I National Defence University, and in 2007 he completed studies at the Law Faculty of Titu Maiorescu University.

wn.com/Cristian_Buşoi

Csaba Tabajdi
Csaba Sándor Tabajdi (born June 26, 1952 in Kiskunfélegyháza) is a Hungarian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Hungarian Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. He is member of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee on Petitions, as well as the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China and a substitute member of the Committee on Environment and Public Health and the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.
He went to primary school in the Southern Hungarian village of Szank, and did his secondary school in Kiskunfélegyháza. In 1974, he got his degree in international relations at the Karl Marx University of Budapest. In 1974-75 and later in 1981-83 he was an administrator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. During these years, he was cultural attaché of the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow for 7 years.
In 1983-89 he worked for the foreign affairs department of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party as a deputy head of the department from 1986 onwards. In 1989-90 he led the Secretariat of the College of National and Ethnic Minorities for the Council of Ministers.

wn.com/Csaba_Tabajdi

Csanád Szegedi
Csanád Szegedi (born on 22 September 1982 in Miskolc) is a Hungarian nationalist politician and elected Member of the European Parliament with the Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary.

wn.com/Csanád_Szegedi

Daciana Sârbu
Daciana Octavia Sârbu (born January 15, 1977) is a Romanian politician, lawyer, and Member of the European Parliament. Affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (PSD), part of the Party of European Socialists, she became a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Argeş County following the 2004 elections, and became an MEP on January 1, 2007, with the accession of Romania to the European Union. She is the daughter of Ilie Sârbu, a PSD member who served as Minister of Agriculture in the Adrian Năstase cabinet and holds the same position in the Emil Boc cabinet.
Born in Arad, Sârbu graduated from Law School at the West University of Timişoara, where she was awarded a Master's Degree in Commercial law (2003). She also graduated from the National College of Defense in 2002, and later opened a law practice.
In 1996, Sârbu joined the PSD (known as PDSR at the time), and in 2001 became an Adviser for the Controlling Body of the Romanian Premiership in the Năstase cabinet. She withdrew from this office in 2003, and became a State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Research, later serving as Head of the National Authority for the Youth. In her party, she became one of the leaders of the youth and women's wings, taking part in the International Union of Socialist Youth structures, and attending its Congress of 2004.

wn.com/Daciana_Sârbu

Dagmar Roth-Behrendt
Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (born February 21, 1953 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German Member of the European Parliament, and a lawyer. She was elected on the SPD ticket and sits with the Party of European Socialists group.
From July 20, 2004 until January 16, 2007 she was one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.

wn.com/Dagmar_Roth-Behrendt

Damien Abad
Damien Abad (born 5 April 1980 in Nîmes, Gard) is a Member of the European Parliament, representing South East France. Aged 29, he is the youngest MEP from France.
President of the Young Centrists, Abad suffers from Arthrogryposis, and until his election worked for the New Centre group in the National Assembly on fiscal and budget issues.
In 2007, he was candidate in Yvelines' 5th constituency, where he won 3.17% of the vote, and in 2008 he was elected to the Municipal Council of Vauvert.

wn.com/Damien_Abad

Dan Jørgensen
Dan Jørgensen (born June 12, 1975) is a Danish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democrats, part of the Party of European Socialists. Dan is head of the Danish delegation of Social Democrats in the European Parliament.
Dan grew up in Morud on the Danish island of Funen, attended high school at Nordfyns Gymnasium, and university at the University of Aarhus, from which he holds a Master's degree in Political Science. He also studied Political Science at the University of Washington. Dan is a former chairman of LGBT Danmark and is a spokesperson for the gay community in Denmark.
Dan was elected in 2004 with 10.350 personal votes and re-elected in 2009 with 233.266 personal votes.
Dan has been the vice-chair of the committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety since 2004, and is a substitute on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. He is a member of the Delegation for relations with Iran and a substitute on the Delegation for relations with the United States.

wn.com/Dan_Jørgensen

Daniel Caspary
Daniel Caspary (born 4 April 1976 in Karlsruhe) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Baden-Württemberg. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
Caspary is married and is father of two children.

wn.com/Daniel_Caspary

Daniel Cohn-Bendit
Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (born 4 April 1945) is a French-born German politician, active in both countries. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and he was also known during that time as Dany le Rouge (French for "Danny the Red", because of both his politics and the color of his hair). He is currently co-president of the group European Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, becoming "Dany le Vert" (French for "Danny the Green", because of his new fight for environmentalism), and co-chair of the Spinelli Group, a European parliament intergroup aiming at relaunching the federalist project in Europe.
In 2010, he was involved in founding JCall, an advocacy group based in Europe to lobby the European parliament on foreign policy issues concerning the Middle East.
Cohn-Bendit was born in Montauban, France, to German-Jewish parents who had fled Nazism in 1933. He spent his childhood in Montauban. He moved to Germany in 1958, where his father had been a lawyer since the end of the war. He attended the Odenwaldschule in Heppenheim near Frankfurt, a secondary school for children of the upper middle class. Being officially stateless at birth, when he reached the age of 14 he chose German citizenship, in order to avoid conscription.

wn.com/Daniel_Cohn-Bendit

Daniel Hannan
Daniel John Hannan (born 1 September 1971) is a British journalist, author and politician who is a Member of the European Parliament, representing South East England for the Conservative Party. He is also the Secretary-General of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR). An advocate of localism and a Eurosceptic, Hannan earned worldwide fame for a speech in the European Parliament criticising Gordon Brown.
After stints as a speech-writer for Michael Howard and William Hague, Hannan was elected to the European Parliament at the 1999 election. He led the campaign to withdraw the Conservative Party from the EPP–ED, and was expelled from the group in 2008. Hannan joined the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) with his Conservative colleagues when it was formed in 2009 and became Secretary-General of its sister Europarty, the AECR. He currently serves on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. He is also President of the Young Britons' Foundation.

wn.com/Daniel_Hannan

Daniël van der Stoep
Daniël Teunis van der Stoep (born 12 September 1980, Delft) is a Dutch politician. He was elected to the European Parliament for the Party for Freedom at the 2009 election. He resigned as an MEP on 17 August 2011, having caused a car crash when driving under the influence, and was replaced by Auke Zijlstra. He was returned to the European Parliament on 14 December 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon expanded the Parliament by eighteen MEPs. It was initially disputed Patricia van der Kammen should be elected. However, the PVV did not allow him to rejoin their delegation, and now sits as an independent.

wn.com/Daniël_van_der_Stoep

Danuta Hubner
Danuta Hübner (Polish pronunciation: [daˈnuta ˈxʲybnɛr] or [ˈxʲibnɛr], born 8 April 1948 in Nisko, Poland) is a Polish economist, academic, and policy maker. She served as European Commissioner for Regional Policy from 22 November 2004 until 4 July 2009, when she resigned to become a Member of European Parliament for the Civic Platform.

wn.com/Danuta_Hubner

Danuta Jazłowiecka
Danuta Jazłowiecka (born May 19, 1957 in Opole) is a Polish politician. She was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 14248 votes in 21 Opole district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list. On June 2009 she was elected to European Parliament from Platforma Obywatelska list. She joined Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) in European Parliament

wn.com/Danuta_Jazłowiecka

David Casa
David Casa (born 16 November 1968 in Valletta) is a Maltese politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Nationalist Party, which is part of the European People's Party.
David Casa, currently a Member of the European Parliament, is also a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Committee on Fisheries, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America and a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.
David Casa has also been appointed as reporter for the Fisheries Fund.
In addition to this, David Casa is a shadow member of the joint Parliamentary Committee for Turkey. He participates in several intergroups established by the European Parliament, these consist of - Commonwealth - Sustainable Development - Small Islands - Pensions.
David Casa was vital for the setting up of the informal Mediterranean intergroup. The role of the Mediterranean intergroup is to give a Mediterranean dimension to policies deriving from the European Parliament.

wn.com/David_Casa

Dennis de Jong
Dennis de Jong (born 22 May 1955, Delft) is a Dutch politician.
De Jong studied law in Rotterdam. He worked for Netherlands government. Since 2009 De Jong is a member of European Parliament. De Jong is openly homosexual and lives together with Kees Vrijdag in Rotterdam.

wn.com/Dennis_de_Jong

Derek Clark
Derek Roland Clark (born 10 October 1933 in Bristol) is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region. He is a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party, first elected in 2004, and subsequently re-elected in 2009.
He is a retired science teacher.

wn.com/Derek_Clark

Derek Vaughan
Derek Vaughan (* May 2, 1961 in Neath) was elected as Labour Party Member of the European Parliament for Wales in the 2009 European Parliament election.
Vaughan was born in Aberfan and studied politics and history at Swansea University. He has served as a full time trades union official, and is a member of the TGWU section of Unite. He was also leader of the Welsh Local Government Association from 2005 to 2008 and deputy leader from 2008 to 2009.
He was elected to Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council in 1995. He became leader of the Labour group, and leader of the council, in 2004.

wn.com/Derek_Vaughan

Diana Wallis
Diana Paulette Wallis (born 28 June 1954 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire) was a British Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber. Wallis was first elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and in 2009. She resigned her seat in January 2012.
Wallis read History at the University of London, graduating as a BA. She further studied at the University of Kent, where she obtained the degree of Master of Arts (MA). Before being elected to the European Parliament she practised as a solicitor in London and Hull and was a Councillor on Humberside County Council and East Riding Unitary Council.
Wallis was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament 2000–2004 and then following the resignation of Chris Davies MEP she was re-elected Leader in 2006 a post she held till January 2007. She then became the first British female of any political persuasion in twenty years to be elected to the post of Vice President of the European Parliament, as well as being the first British Liberal Democrat to do so. As a member of Parliament's Bureau, her particular responsibility is for transparency and access to documents, the Arctic and high north, Question Time (jointly with another Vice-President) and the Academy of European Law.

wn.com/Diana_Wallis

Diane Dodds
Diane Dodds (born 16 August 1958) is a Democratic Unionist Party politician from Northern Ireland, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Northern Ireland constituency.
Dodds was born into a farming family in Rathfriland, County Down where she attended Banbridge Academy before moving on to study at Queen's University Belfast. While studying, she met her future husband and future DUP politician for North Belfast Nigel Dodds.
Dodds qualified as a teacher and taught history and English in Laurelhill High School, Lisburn. In 2003, she was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent Belfast West. She was the first Unionist elected to a regional assembly from West Belfast in more than 20 years (the last being Thomas Passmore to the 1982-6 Assembly). Her strongest support base during the election campaign was in the Shankill Road area of the constituency.
Following her election to the Assembly, Dodds contested the Court District Electoral Area in the 2005 Local Government Elections. On that occasion she polled in excess of three electoral quotas and her surplus votes enabled the election of two running mates. In that election, she polled more votes than any other local government candidate in Northern Ireland. Despite increasing her vote from the 2003 Assembly election, she narrowly lost her seat to Sinn Féin in 2007. {

wn.com/Diane_Dodds

Didier Reynders
Didier J.L. Reynders (born 6 August 1958) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Mouvement Réformateur (MR). He was Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Institutional Reforms in the Van Rompuy I Government, which took office on 30 December 2008.
He was born in Liège as the youngest in a family of three children. He studied law at the University of Liège. He served as Chairman of the NMBS / SNCB from 1986 to 1991. He is currently Minister of Finance since 1999 and Deputy Prime Minister since 2004. He was the chairman of the Mouvement Réformateur from 2004 to 2011.
Reynders led the MR to a victory in the 2007 election, with the MR becoming the largest Francophone party of Belgium. The Belgian King appointed Reynders as informateur, i.e. to start off the informal coalition talks for a new federal government.
Stalemate followed the 2010 general election. The King appointed a succession of people to negotiate a coalition from June 2010 onwards, but none succeeded in the task of forming a new government during the following seven months. Reynders was appointed informateur by the King on 2 February 2011. He reported on 16 February 2011, and his brief was extended through 1 March 2011.

wn.com/Didier_Reynders

Dieter-Lebrecht Koch
Dieter-Lebrecht Koch (b. 7 January 1953, Weissenfels) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Thuringia. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, which belongs to the European People's Party.

wn.com/Dieter-Lebrecht_Koch

Dirk Verhofstadt
Dirk Verhofstadt (b. Dendermonde 1955) is a Belgian social liberal (Rawlsian) theorist and brother of former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt. He has a keen interest in political philosophy, and his philosophical outlook is influenced by Karl Popper, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. He graduated in law and press- and communication sciences at the University of Ghent. He is professor Media and ethics at the University of Ghent.
With his book Het menselijk liberalisme (Human Liberalism) he inspires politicians in Belgian liberal parties as well as in the Dutch parties Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie and Democraten 66. He defends liberalism against attacks by anti-globalists, by stating that liberalism implies/should imply solidarity and that green politics is not contradictory to liberalism. He wrote the books Pleidooi voor het individualisme (A Plea for Individualism) and De derde feministische golf (The Third Feminist Wave), much of it focusing on Islamic feminism and its impact in Europe. This book contains exclusive interviews with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Naima El Bezaz, Nahed Selim, Naema Tahir and Yasmine Allas.

wn.com/Dirk_Verhofstadt

Dominique Vlasto
Dominique Vlasto (born 14 August 1946 in Marseille) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-east of France. She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
She is a substitute for the Committee on Transport and Tourism, and a member of the delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.

wn.com/Dominique_Vlasto

Doris Pack
Doris Pack (born 18 March 1942, Schiffweiler) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament (since 1989). She served as a member of the Bundestag 1974–1983 and 1985–1989. She is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party. Pack is the chair of the EU Committee on Culture and Education (since 2009).
She is chair of the Franco-German Foundation for Cultural Cooperation, President of the European Children's Book Fair Association, member of the ZDF Television Council, President of the Saar Adult Education Association, Vice-President of the European Movement on the Saar. She also is President of Women in the EPP and Executive Member of the European People's Party. She was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and of the Assembly of the Western European Union (1981-1983 and 1985-1989). She is Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of A Soul for Europe.
She graduated from teaching college in 1965 and worked as a teacher in primary schools until 1974. From 1983 to 1985, she was employed by the Saarland Ministry of Education.

wn.com/Doris_Pack

Dries van Agt
Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdris fɑn ˈɑxt]; born February 2, 1931) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from December 19, 1977, until November 4, 1982.
He previously served as Minister of Justice from July 6, 1971 until September 8, 1977 in the Cabinets Biesheuvel I, II and Den Uyl. And Deputy Prime Minister from May 11, 1973 until September 8, 1977 in the Cabinet Den Uyl. He resigned as Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister to become the first Christian Democratic Appeal Party leader and the first Parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal in the House of Representatives which he served from May 26, 1977 until December 19, 1977 and a Member of the House of Representatives from June 8, 1977 until December 19, 1977. Van Agt became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, leading the Cabinets Van Agt I, II and III. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for his Third cabinet.

wn.com/Dries_van_Agt

Edit Herczog
Edit Herczog (born in Budapest May 5, 1961) is a member of the Hungarian Socialist Party and the European Parliament.
Edit Herczog has been a member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, and of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) since 1989. She was elected as a MP in 1998 and also in 2002 in Fejér county. She became member of the national presidency of the MSZP in 2007. She worked her way up the bureaucracy of the MSZP, through the Procedural Committee, in the Committee of the European Integration Affairs between 1998–2002 and in the Committee of Foreign Affairs and of Environmental Protection since 2002.
Herczog was a member of the Hungarian delegation of the European Commission since 1999. Being leader of the female committee of the socialist group in Strasbourg she was also a member of the group leadership. She took part in the work of the Hungarian-English and Hungarian-American branch of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, as vice-president.
Edit has been a member of the European Parliament since May 2004. Her committee work included the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, Delegation for relations with Canada and the EU-EEA. She was a substitute for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and for the Committee on Budgetary Control. She was also member of the Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group and the Lisbon Strategy Working Group. She is a Presidency member of the following European organizations: European Energy Forum, European Internet Foundation, Forum for the Future of Nuclear Energy, Cangaroo Group, and the European Parliament-Business Forum.

wn.com/Edit_Herczog

Edite Estrela
Edite de Fátima Santos Marreiros Estrela , GCIH (born Belver; 28 October 1949) is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party; part of the Party of European Socialists.
She is a former Mayor of Sintra from 1994 and 2002 and teacher of literature.

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Edmond Leburton
Edmond Jules Isidore Leburton (18 April 1915 in Waremme - 18 June 1997 in Waremme) was a Belgian politician and former Prime Minister. Leburton served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Belgium from January 1973 to April 1974. He was the last native French speaker to hold that office, disregarding the bilingual Paul Vanden Boeynants from Brussels, until Elio di Rupo took office in December 2011. He was a member of the Socialist Party. Leburton was also the last member of that party to hold the office of Prime Minister until Elio di Rupo. He first entered Parliament representing Huy, Belgium. He died in 1997.

wn.com/Edmond_Leburton

Eduard Kukan
Eduard Kukan (born 26 December 1939) served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia from 1998 to 2006. He was a candidate in the presidential election held on 3 April 2004, and although pre-election polls had suggested he would come in first, he actually came in third behind former prime minister Vladimír Mečiar and Ivan Gašparovič, thus preventing him from contesting the run-off. He was elected member of European parliament in 2009 election.
Kukan graduated from The Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1964, where he has also gained an excellent command of the Swahili language. After graduation he received a Doctorate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the Charles University in Prague.
Since then his employments have included:
Eduard Kukan is married and has two adult children. In addition to his native tongue and Swahili, he speaks English, Russian, and Spanish. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary law degree by the Upsala College in New Jersey, U.S..
Kukan is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation.

wn.com/Eduard_Kukan

Edvard Kožušník
Edvard Kožušník (born 30 January 1971) is a Czech politician. He serves as Member of the European Parliament and is the former Chief of Staff to the President of the Senate Přemysl Sobotka. He was a Civic Democratic Party candidate for European Parliament election in 2009 and received the seventh largest number of preference votes in the party.
Kožušník is a graduate of a high school and is currently studying at a university.
He is fluent in Spanish, English, German, Russian and Bulgarian. His wife is Spanish and they've two children. His hobby is beach tennis.
Kožušník was one of the key people in charge of launching one of the first Czech governmental think-tank eStat.cz. Nowadays, he's begun a campaign for abolishing concessionary fees in the Czech Republic.

wn.com/Edvard_Kožušník

Edward Scicluna
Edward Scicluna (b. October 12, 1946 in Naxxar, Malta) is an economist and a Member of the European Parliament elected on behalf of the Maltese Labour Party and sitting with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
Scicluna holds a Diploma in social studies from the University of Oxford (1972) and degrees in economics from the University of Malta (BA, 1975) and the University of Toronto (MA, 1976 and PhD, 1982). Between 1981 and 1990 he was professor and head of the Department of Economics at the University of Malta where he still holds a lectureship post.
He has held a number of posts in the public and private sector. He served as Chairman of the Malta Council of Economic and Social Development (MCESD) (1999–2003) and of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) (1997–99), an Electoral Commissioner (1987–93), a Director of the Central Bank of Malta (1996–2003) and a member of Malta's National Euro Change-over Committee (NECC) (2005–2008). He was often selected by the Malta Broadcasting Authority to chair broadcast political debates. In the private sector he was Chairman of the HSBC Malta Bond Fund (since 2002) and of CWG plc and director of MIB Ltd.

wn.com/Edward_Scicluna

Elena Băsescu
Elena Băsescu, sometimes referred to as EBA, (born 24 April 1980 in Constanța) is a Romanian politician, secretary general of the youth wing of Romania's Democratic Liberal Party, and a Member of the European Parliament. She is the youngest daughter of Traian Băsescu, the current President of Romania. She was formerly a model, and entered politics in 2007. She has a degree in economics.

wn.com/Elena_Băsescu

Elio Di Rupo
Elio Di Rupo (French pronunciation: [eljo di ʁypo]; b. 18 July 1951) is a Belgian socialist politician of Italian heritage. He is the Prime Minister of Belgium, and leader of the Socialist Party (PS). He became Prime Minister on 6 December 2011 and heads the Di Rupo I Government. Elio Di Rupo is the first francophone to hold the office since Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1979, as well as the country's first socialist Prime Minister since Edmond Leburton left office in 1974. He is also the first Belgian Prime Minister of non-Walloon or Flemish descent as well as the only openly gay leader of a European Union country.
Di Rupo is the son of two Italian immigrants. His father was born in San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore in the region of Abruzzo. Elio is the only child who was born in Belgium; his brothers and sisters were all born in Italy. When he was one year old, his father died in a car crash and his illiterate Roman Catholic mother was unable to raise all seven children. Because of financial reasons, three children were raised in the orphanage nearby.

wn.com/Elio_Di_Rupo

Elisa Ferreira
Elisa Ferreira, GCC (born October 17, 1955 in Porto) is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party; part of the Party of European Socialists.

wn.com/Elisa_Ferreira

Elisabeth Jeggle
Elisabeth Jeggle (born 21 July 1947) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Baden-Württemberg. She is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Elisabeth_Jeggle

Elisabeth Schroedter
Elisabeth Schroedter (b. 11 March 1959, Dresden) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Greens.

wn.com/Elisabeth_Schroedter

Elmar Brok
Elmar Brok (born 14 May 1946, Verl, Westphalia) is a German Member of the European Parliament and the current Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was elected on the CDU ticket and sits with the European People's Party group. An MEP since 1980, he has held many leadership positions in German and European politics. As a member of the Convention on the Constitution for Europe and in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Mr Brok contributed crucially to the Constitution of the European Union.
Brok studied law and politics in Germany and at the Centre for European Governmental Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Formerly, he worked as a radio journalist and newspaper correspondent.
He has held numerous leadership positions for the Christian Democratic Party in Germany, including Deputy Federal Chairman of the Junge Union (CDU youth section) (1973–1981), Chairman of the CDU Federal Committee on Foreign and Security Policy (1989–1999), CDU District Chairman of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (since 1996), Secretary of the CDU Land Executive of North Rhine-Westphalia (since 1996), Chairman of the CDU Federal Committee on European policy (since 1999), Assistant Chairman of the International Democrat Union (since 1991), Deputy Chairman of the European Union of Christian Democratic Workers (since 1991), and Chairman of the European Union of Christian Democratic Workers.

wn.com/Elmar_Brok

Emilie Turunen
Emilie Turunen (born on 13 May 1984 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is, as of 2009, the youngest member of the European Parliament. She has represented the Danish constituency since the 2009 European election and is a member of the European Green Party (Danish member party is Socialistisk Folkeparti).
Turunen graduated from Roskilde University in Social Science and Working Life Studies and lives with her boyfriend in northwest Copenhagen. Before being elected she was in charge of the Youth of the Socialist People's Party and worked with the Danish Social Forum.
After being elected to the European Parliament, Turunen has become vice-chairperson of the Green-Free Alliance group, a member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, a member of the delegation to south east Asia. She is also a substitute on the Employment and Social Affair Committee, the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis and the delegation to Iran. She is particularly active against the trafficking of women. Turunen is also the youngest MEP of the 7th European Parliament.

wn.com/Emilie_Turunen

Emine Bozkurt
Emine Bozkurt (born 9 August 1967 in Zaandam, North Holland) is a Dutch politician of Turkish descent and Member of the European Parliament since 2004. She is a member of the Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.
She is also a substitute for the Committee on Culture and Education and a member of the delegation to the European Union–Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.

wn.com/Emine_Bozkurt

Emma McClarkin
Emma McClarkin (born 9 October 1978 in Stroud, Gloucestershire) is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region for the Conservative Party.
Emma was brought up in Stroud and attended her local grammar school, Stroud Girls High School. She graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in Law and went on to work as a Legal Clerk in a law firm.
Having been a member of the Conservative Party from an early age, after working in the Law she decided it was time to become more involved, and worked for the Party in the East Midlands Region both as Press Officer to the Conservative Party's East Midlands MEPs and as Political Advisor to Roger Helmer MEP in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Immediately prior to being elected, Emma worked for the Rugby Football Union as their Government Relations Executive.
Emma McClarkin was first elected at the European election, 2009 as a Conservative Party MEP making her, at the age of 30, the youngest British MEP.

wn.com/Emma_McClarkin

Enikő Győri
Enikő Győri (born on 17 July 1968 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician and elected Member of the European Parliament with the Hungarian Civic Party, part of the European People's Party.
She left the European Parliament as per 31 August 2010 to take up a position as State Secretary for European Affairs in her native Hungary.
She earned her degree at the University of Economics, Budapest, Faculty of International Relations in 1992, PhD in 2000. In 1997 she participated at the course offered by École National d’Administration (ENA).
She undertook traineeships in the United States, Belgium, France, Mexico and Spain. Traineeship at the French National Assembly (1998), at the Council of Europe (1998), and at the European Commission (1995).

Languages spoken: English, Italian, Spanish (excellent), French (intermediate).
Minister of State for European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010-2011).
Member of the European Parliament (2009-2010), member of the Economic and Monetary Committee.
Head of EU Staff of Fidesz Political Group in the Hungarian National Assembly (2003-2009).
Ambassador of the Hungary to Italy (1999-2003).
Adviser on EU affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly (1992-1999).
Lecturer at ELTE University in Budapest (2004-2009) and Eszterházy Teachers’ College in Eger (1995-1998).

wn.com/Enikő_Győri

Ernst Strasser
Ernst Strasser is a former Austrian People's Party politician and Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria (2000 - 2004), and was a Member of the European Parliament (2009-2011). He resigned because of the 2011 Cash for Laws Scandal.
Strasser was Federal Minister of the Interior of Austria between 2000 and 2004.
Strasser has been the president of the Austro-Russian Friendship Society (Österreichisch-Russische Freundschaftsgesellschaft) since 2003.
Between 2005 and 2008 Strasser was Managing Partner at VCP Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Vienna Capital Partners. He took care of "energy projects in the new EU member countries in Eastern Europe" and reportedly enjoyed a salary of 500,000 euros per year.
Like Strasser, his cabinet secretary Christoph Ulmer is also a senior member of the Austro-Russian Friendship Society and went to become Executive Director of CE-Oil Gastrading AG, an energy company owned by Vienna Capital Partners.
He led his party in the 2009 European Parliament election. He was a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2011.

wn.com/Ernst_Strasser

Estelle Grelier
Estelle Grelier (born 22 June 1973 in La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the North-West constituency. She is a member of the Socialist Party.

wn.com/Estelle_Grelier

Esther de Lange
Esther de Lange (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛs.tər də ˈlɑŋə]) (19 February 1975 in Spaubeek) is a Dutch politician for the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

wn.com/Esther_de_Lange

Eva-Britt Svensson
Eva-Britt Svensson (born 5 December 1946 in Värnamo, Småland) is a Swedish politician and former Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Left Party.
Svensson has been vice-chair of the EUL–NGL group, and chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. She was also a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, a substitute for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with Israel, and a substitute for the delegation to the EU–Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.
Svensson is known for opposing Europe-wide restrictions on freedom of speech and to prevent perceived gender stereotyping.
She left the Parliament in September 2011.

wn.com/Eva-Britt_Svensson

Evelin Lichtenberger
Dr Eva Lichtenberger (born 1 July 1954 in Zams) is an Austrian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Austrian Green Party, part of the European Greens.
Lichtenberger attended the Academy of Education in Innsbruck from 1972 to 1974. At the University of Innsbruck, she studied psychology and art history from 1975 to 1982 and political science and psychology from 1982 to 1987, eventually graduating with a PhD.
After finishing her university studies, she became spokesperson of the citizens’ action committee "Air of Hall". Since the mid-1980s, she has been a consulting member of the environmental committee of the city of Hall. In 1989, she became member of the Tyrolian Landtag and was fraction leader until 1994. From 1994 to 1999 she was the first member of the Austrian Green Party to become a minister in the Landesrat (state council), with the portfolio for environmental affairs.
From 1999 to 2004 she was Member of the National Council of Austria (Nationalrat). Since 2004 she is Member of the European Parliament.

wn.com/Evelin_Lichtenberger

Evelyne Gebhardt
Evelyne Gebhardt (born 19 January 1954 in Paris) is a German politician. Since 1994 she has been a Member of the European Parliament representing the SPD. Her main interests are bio-ethics, consumer protection and citizens' rights.
Ms Gebhardt studied at the University Paris Diderot, the University of Tübingen and the University of Stuttgart, studying linguistics, political science and political economy. She subsequently worked as a freelance translator, and moved to Germany in 1975. Since 1992 she has been Chair of the Working Group of Social-Democratic Women. In 1999, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (with ribbon).
Evelyne Gebhardt is a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and of the Delegation for Relations with the People's Republic of China. She is also a substitute member for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula.
She is best known for her role in shaping the controversial Services Directive in 2005 and 2006. The directive had aimed at opening up the European Single Market to competition amongst service providers but was, after much political pressure from mostly western and southern EU countries, subsequently watered down by the European Parliament. Evelyne Gebhardt was parliamentary rapporteur for the directive and played an important role in facilitating an agreement with the European People's Party which allowed Parliament to pass the directive with a huge majority and thereby forcing EU governments to follow their line.

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Evgeni Kirilov
Evgeni Zahariev Kirilov (Bulgarian: Евгени Захариев Кирилов) (born 26 January 1945 in Lubichevo, Targovishte Oblast) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Coalition for Bulgaria, part of the Party of European Socialists, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union.
On May 20, 2010, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, adopted the resolution on "The need for an EU Strategy for the South Caucasus" on the basis of the report by Evgeni Kirilov. The resolution states in particular, that "the occupied Azerbaijani regions around Nagorno-Karabakh must be cleared as soon as possible".

wn.com/Evgeni_Kirilov

Evžen Tošenovský
Evžen Tošenovský (born 26 February 1956) is a Czech politician. He was elected Member of the European Parliament in the 2009 European Parliament election receiving the largest number of preference votes.
Tošenovský graduated from the Technical University of Ostrava in 1981. In 1993, he was elected mayor of Ostrava and remained in the office until 2000. From 2000 to 2008, Tošenovský served as governor of Moravian-Silesian Region.
He's married and has two children. Tošenovský is also a recipient of numerous awards and decorations. In 2002, he was promoted to the rank of knight of the Légion d'honneur.

Media related to Evžen Tošenovský at Wikimedia Commons

wn.com/Evžen_Tošenovský

Felipe González
Felipe González Márquez (born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.
Felipe was born in Seville, son of a farmer who had a small dairy. He has a sister named Lola González y Márquez, married to Francisco Germán Palomino y Romera, by whom she has two sons, Felipe and Germán Palomino y González. He studied Law at Seville University and started his career as attorney specialising in labour. While at the University he met members of the socialist trade union Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) that was clandestine at the time. He also contacted members of the PSOE and started taking part in the party's clandestine activity. During that time he adopted the nom de guerre Isidoro and moved to Madrid. He was elected Secretary General of the Party at the Suresnes Congress, in France.

wn.com/Felipe_González

Filip Dewinter
Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter (born 11 September 1962) is a Flemish politician in Belgium. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party. This party is the ideological and juridical successor of the Vlaams Blok, which, lacking legal personality, was indirectly condemned and fined for racism in 2004 in a trial against three moral persons that constituted the Blok's financial hardware. Together with Hugo Coveliers of the VLOTT party, Dewinter formed a list cartel for the city elections of Antwerp on 8 October 2006.
His father was studying medicine at the Leuven University during the Second World War, when he had to hide, as the threat of being deported by the Germans increased. He was nevertheless arrested and already after a few months of imprisonment in Bruges, had been deported to Germany to work in a munitions factory. He returned, after the war, sick and emaciated and unable to take up his studies again.
Dewinter’s grandfather on mother's side, was a resistance fighter who had been very active in the resistance group, the Witte Brigade (White Brigade), in Blankenberge.

wn.com/Filip_Dewinter

Filiz Husmenova
Filiz Hakaeva Hyusmenova (Bulgarian: Филиз Хакъева Хюсменова Turkish: Filiz Hüsmenoğlu; born 10 June 1966 in Silistra) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union. Hüsmenova is of Turkish ethnic origin.

wn.com/Filiz_Husmenova

Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga (26 July 1928 – 17 August 2010) was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari.
Cossiga was born in Sassari in the north of Sardinia. He started his political career during World War II. His name is now usually pronounced Italian pronunciation: [kosˈsiːɡa], but it was originally pronounced Italian pronunciation: [ˈkɔssiɡa], with the stress on the first syllable, meaning "Corsica". He was the cousin of Enrico Berlinguer.
He was a minister several times for the Democrazia Cristiana party (DC), notably during his stay at Viminale (Ministry for internal affairs) where he re-structured the Italian police, civil protection and secret services. In 1977, when Cossiga was minister of internal affairs, police squads organized by Cossiga shot against a demonstration in Rome, killing student Giorgiana Masi. Cossiga for many years stated that she was killed by her companions.

wn.com/Francesco_Cossiga

Frank Vanhecke
Frank Arthur Hyppolite Vanhecke (born 30 May 1959 in Brugge) started his career in Belgian politics as a student by joining the Jong Studentenverbond and later the Nationalistische Studentenvereniging. He gave up his membership of the Volksunie in 1977 after it acceded to a much-debated package of federal reforms. Vanhecke subsequently joined the Vlaams Nationale Partij, the predecessor of the Vlaams Blok.
Quickly climbing the party ranks, he became responsible for the party's press and media communication in 1986 and worked from 1989 as a personal assistant to Karel Dillen in the European Parliament, until he was elected to a Parliamentary seat himself in 1994. After a short term in the Belgian Senate, Vanhecke returned to European politics after the elections in 2004.
Vanhecke sits on its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and is a substitute for the Committee on Development and a member of the Delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee. His voting record in the European Parliament shows his clear pro-life stance.

wn.com/Frank_Vanhecke

Franziska Brantner
Franziska Katharina Brantner (born 24 August 1979, Lörrach) is a German member of the European Parliament (MEP). She is in The Greens–European Free Alliance group and is a member of the Foreign Affairs committee and the delegation for relations with Israel.
Brantner grew up in Neuenburg/Rhein. After graduating from the bilingual "Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium" in Freiburg im Breisgau and gathering her first international experiences working at the offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Tel Aviv and Washington D.C. she studied political science with focus on International Affairs and European Policy at the elite university Sciences Po in Paris and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in New York City, where she graduated in 2004.
Currently, she is finishing her dissertation, entitled "The reformability of the United Nations", at the University of Mannheim where she used to be a research associate at the department for Political Science II of Prof. Dr. Thomas König with a lectureship for International Policy. From 2006 to 2007 she worked as a research associate at the European Studies Centre of St Antony's College, Oxford.

wn.com/Franziska_Brantner

François Alfonsi
François Alfonsi (born 1953 in Ajaccio, Corse) is a French politician, Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the South-East France constituency and Mayor of Osani.
Alfonsi has been a Corsican nationalist since the 1970s, and was elected in 1987 to the Corsican Assembly. He has been Mayor of Osani since 2002. He is currently a member of the Party of the Corsican Nation (PNC).
In the 2009 European elections, he was the second candidate on the Europe Écologie list in the South-East region, and was elected to the European Parliament. He is the second Corsican nationalist after Max Simoni (Green, 1989–1994) to be elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/François_Alfonsi

François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (French: [fʁɑ̃swa mɔʁis mitɛˈʁɑ̃] (

listen); 26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the first figure from the left elected President under the Fifth Republic.
Reflecting family influences, Mitterrand started political life on the Catholic nationalist right. He served under the Vichy Regime in its earlier years. Subsequently, however, he joined the Resistance, moved to the left, and held ministerial office repeatedly under the Fourth Republic. He opposed de Gaulle's establishment of the Fifth Republic. Although at times a politically isolated figure, Mitterrand outmanoeuvred rivals to become the left's standard bearer in every presidential election from 1965 to 1988, except 1969. Elected President in the May 1981 presidential election, he was re-elected in 1988 and held office until 1995.

wn.com/François_Mitterrand

Françoise Castex
Françoise Castex (born on 7 February 1956 in Agadir) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the South West of France with the Socialist Party, part of the Socialist Group and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade.
She is a substitute for the Committee on Development and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. She is also a member of the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council.
See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (France)

wn.com/Françoise_Castex

Françoise Grossetête
Françoise Grossetête (born 17 May 1946 in Lyon) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the South-East of France. She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement; part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Françoise_Grossetête

Fredrik Reinfeldt
John Fredrik Reinfeldt (pronounced [ˈfreːdrɪk ˈrajnˌfɛlt] (

listen); born 4 August 1965) is the Prime Minister of Sweden, leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party and former President of the European Council.
A native of Stockholm County, Reinfeldt joined the Moderate Youth League in 1983, and by 1992 had risen to the rank of chairman, a position he held until 1995. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1991, representing his home constituency. Following the 1994 defeat of the Moderate-led coalition government, Reinfeldt adopted a critical stance against the party leadership under Carl Bildt, which resulted in isolation within the party. However, following a change of leadership in 1999 and a bad result in the 2002 election, Reinfeldt gradually gained influence within the Moderate Party.
Reinfeldt was elected party leader on 25 October 2003, succeeding Bo Lundgren. Under his leadership, the Moderate Party has transformed its policies and oriented towards the centre, branding itself "the New Moderates" (Swedish: Nya moderaterna). Following the general elections held on 17 September 2006, Reinfeldt was elected Prime Minister by the new parliament on 5 October and presented his cabinet the following day. Together with the three other political parties in the centre-right Alliance for Sweden, Reinfeldt presides over a coalition government with the support of a narrow majority in the parliament. At the age of 41, he was the third youngest person to become Prime Minister of Sweden. After the 2010 election Reinfeldt's government was reduced to a minority government but also becoming the first centre-right government since before World War II to be re-elected, making Reinfeldt the first Moderate politician elected to two consecutive terms as Prime Minister. He is also the longest-serving Moderate Prime Minister in Swedish history.

wn.com/Fredrik_Reinfeldt

Félix de Muelenaere
Felix Amandus, Count de Muelenaere (5 April 1793 in Pittem – 5 August 1862 in Pittem) was a Belgian Roman Catholic politician.
Born in Pittem, he was a lawyer in Bruges and was from 1824 until 1829 member of the Second Chamber of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands for the province of West Flanders. After the independence of Belgium, he became provincial governor in West Flanders (1830–1831), member of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives for the arrondissement of Bruges (1831–1848), and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Belgian government.
After the inauguration of Leopold I as king in 1831, he became the third Prime Minister until 1832. Afterwards, he became again provincial governor for West-Flanders (1832–1834, 1836–1849) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1834–1836, 1841). From 1850 until his death in 1862 he was member of the Chamber for the arrondissement of Tielt.

wn.com/Félix_de_Muelenaere

Gabriele Zimmer
Gabriele Zimmer (called Gabi; born 7 May 1955 in Berlin, GDR) is a German communist politician.
She has been a member of the East German communist party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and its successors, continuously since 1981. The party was renamed SED-PDS in 1989, PDS in 1990, Die Linkspartei.PDS in 2005 and Die Linke in 2007. She was chairwoman of then-PDS from 2000 to 2003. From 1990 to 1998, she was chairwoman of the PDS at the regional level in Thuringia. Since October 1990 she has been a member of the regional Parliament in Thuringia.
Other political functions:

wn.com/Gabriele_Zimmer

Gaston Franco
Gaston Franco (born 4 February 1944 in Roquebillière, Alpes-Maritimes) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the South-East France constituency.
Franco represented Alpes Maritimes' 5th constituency in the National Assembly as a member of the Rally for the Republic between 1993 and 1997. In addition, he is Mayor of Saint-Martin-Vésubie since 1989 and represented the Canton of Saint-Martin-Vésubie in the General Council until he resigned in 2008 to join the cabinet of the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the fourth candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the South-East region, and was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Gaston_Franco

Gaston Thorn
Gaston Egmond Thorn (3 September 1928 – 26 August 2007) was a Luxembourg politician who served in a number of high-profile positions, both domestically and internationally. Amongst the posts that he held were the 20th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (1974–79), President of the United Nations General Assembly (1975), and the seventh President of the European Commission (1981–85).
Thorn was born in Luxembourg City. While still at school he engaged in resistance activities during the German occupation, and spent several months in prison. After the war he studied law in Montpellier, Lausanne and Paris, and practised law in Luxembourg before entering politics in 1959, representing the liberal Democratic Party. He was Chairman of the Democratic Party from 1961.
Thorn was Foreign Minister and Foreign Trade Minister of Luxembourg from 1969 – 1980, Prime Minister from 1974 – 1979 and Minister of Economics from 1977 to 1980. He was also a member of the European Parliament from 1959 – 1969, and President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1975 – 1976.

wn.com/Gaston_Thorn

Gay Mitchell
Gabriel "Gay" Mitchell (born 30 December 1951) is an Irish politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency since 2004. He is a member of Fine Gael, part of the European People's Party, and a former Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South–Central constituency from 1981–2007. He was defeated by Enda Kenny in the 2002 Fine Gael leadership election. Mitchell was the Fine Gael candidate at the 2011 Irish presidential election.
Gabriel "Gay" Mitchell was born in Inchicore, Dublin in 1951. Gay Mitchell’s mother, Eileen, was left a widow with nine children whom she supported by working as an office cleaner. He was educated at St. Michael's Congregation of Christian Brothers, Emmet Road Vocational School, Dublin Institute of Technology, College of Commerce, Queen's University Belfast. His brother, Jim Mitchell, was a long-serving Fine Gael TD and former government minister.
He first became involved in politics in 1979 as a member of Dublin City Council. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD in the 1981 general election for the Dublin South–Central constituency. Since then he has served as a Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for European Affairs. He was the Irish Representative on the Reflection Group which prepared the Amsterdam Treaty.

wn.com/Gay_Mitchell

Geoffrey Van Orden
Geoffrey Charles Van Orden MBE (born 10 April 1945) is a British politician and former soldier. He is currently Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region for the Conservative Party. He was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999.
Van Orden was born in Waterlooville, Hampshire in 1945. He attended the Mons Officer Cadet School and was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1964. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1966, Captain in 1970, Major in 1977, Lieutenant-Colonel in 1983, Colonel in 1988, and Brigadier in 1991. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) aged just 27.
He served worldwide as part of the British Army from 1964 to 1985. In 1985 he became an instructor at the German Armed Forces Staff College in Hamburg (1985–88) and was later the Chief of Staff of the British Army in the British sector of Berlin (1988–90). In 1990 he worked as part of the Assessment Staff for the Joint Intelligence Committee in London. From 1991 to 1994 he served as the Executive Secretary of International Military Staff at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, his final military appointment.

wn.com/Geoffrey_Van_Orden

Georges Theunis
Georges Emile Léonard Theunis (28 February 1873, Montegnée - 4 January 1966, Brussels) was the 24th Prime Minister of Belgium from 16 December 1921 to 13 May 1925 and again from 20 November 1934 to 25 March 1935. He was governor of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) from 1941 until 1944.
He received a military training and was also trained as an engineer. Georges Theunis started his career in the Empain group, where he was an administrator and later the president of the board of ACEC. During World War I, he headed the Belgian Wartime Provisions Commission in London. After the war he was involved in the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 and served as the Belgian delegate to the Reparations Commission. From 1926 until 1927 he chaired the International Economic Conference in Geneva.
In 1926 he joined the newly formed council of regency of the National Bank, together with Emile Francqui, and remained a member until the war, except for two breaks during his ministerial duties. As regents of the NBB, both Theunis and Francqui represented the power which the large private banks had gained since 1926. During World War II he served as a special ambassador to the United States of America. In 1941, he was appointed governor of the National Bank of Belgium by the Pierlot government in exile at London instead of Albert Goffin who had been appointed by Secretary General Plisnier. On his return to Belgium after the war, he resigned as governor of the NBB.

wn.com/Georges_Theunis

Georgios Papastamkos
Georgios Papastamkos (Greek: Γεώργιος Παπαστάμκος) (born 5 March 1955, Platanorrevma, West Macedonia) is a Greek politician and Member of the European Parliament for New Democracy; part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Georgios_Papastamkos

Gerard Batten
Gerard Joseph Batten (born 27 March 1954, London) is a Member of the European Parliament for London for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). He was first elected in 2004.
He sits as a member of the Independence and Democracy Group. He was a founder member of UKIP in September 1993. He was the first Party Secretary from 1994 to 1997. He has fought local elections, a by-election, a European election, and two general elections as a UKIP candidate. As well as his seat in the European Parliament he is a member of UKIP's National Executive Committee.^{[citation needed]}
Batten was appointed a member of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence in July 2004, and shortly afterwards was also appointed UKIP's official spokesman on Security and Defence. In this role, he has attacked the Labour government's plans to introduce Identity Cards.
Before becoming an MEP he was a salesman for British Telecom for 28 years. At the 2007 UK Independence Party conference, he was selected as the party's candidate to contest the London mayoral election, 2008. He stood in the 2009 UKIP leadership election, coming second.

wn.com/Gerard_Batten

Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy
Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (born June 28, 1967 in The Hague) is a Dutch politician.
Gerbrandy is a member of liberal party Democrats 66. Since 2009 Gerbrandy is a member of European Parliament.

wn.com/Gerben-Jan_Gerbrandy

Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (commonly rendered Schroeder)([ˈɡɛɐ̯haɐ̯t fʁɪts kʊʁt ˈʃʁøːdɐ] (

listen); born 7 April 1944) is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor he served as Premier of Lower Saxony (1990–1998). Following the 2005 federal election, which his party lost, after three weeks of negotiations he stood down as Chancellor in favour of Angela Merkel of the rival Christian Democratic Union. He is currently the chairman of the board of Nord Stream AG, after having been hired as a global manager by investment bank Rothschild.
Schröder was born in Mossenberg, today an outlying centre of Blomberg, in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia. His father, Fritz Schröder, a lance corporal in the Wehrmacht, was killed in action in World War II in Romania on 4 October 1944, a few months after Gerhard's birth. His mother Erika worked as an agricultural laborer so that she could support herself and her two sons.

wn.com/Gerhard_Schröder

Gianluca Susta
Gianluca Susta (b. 10 April 1956, Biella) is an Italian politician. He is a member of the European Parliament since May 8, 2006, when he took up a seat vacated after the 2006 Italian general election. He represents the Margherita within the ALDE parliamentary group. He took a pro-European stance by signing the Spinelli Group Manifesto.

wn.com/Gianluca_Susta

Gianni Vattimo
Gianteresio Vattimo, also known as Gianni Vattimo (born January 4, 1936) is an internationally recognized Italian author, philosopher, and politician. Many of his works have been translated into English.
Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the University of Turin, and graduated in 1959. After studying with Karl Löwith and Hans-Georg Gadamer in Heidelberg he returned to Turin where he became assistant professor in 1964, and later full professor of Aesthetics in 1969. While remaining at Turin, becoming Professor of Theoretical Philosophy in 1982, he has been a visiting professor at a number of American Universities.
After being active in the Partito Radicale, the short-lived Alleanza per Torino, and the Democrats of the Left, Vattimo joined the Party of Italian Communists. Between 1999 and 2004 he was a member of the European Parliament.
He is openly gay and an avowed Catholic "who welcomes God's death."
Vattimo added his name to a petition released on February 28, 2009 calling on the European Union to unconditionally remove Hamas from its list of terrorist organizations and grant it full recognition as a legitimate voice of the Palestinian people.

wn.com/Gianni_Vattimo

Gigi Becali
George Becali (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈd͡ʒe̯ord͡ʒe beˈkali], commonly known in Romania as Gigi Becali; born 25 June 1958) is a controversial Romanian politician and businessman, mostly known for his involvement in the Steaua Bucureşti football club.
He has been a Member of the European Parliament since June 2009.
He was born in an Aromanian family in Zagna, Vădeni, Brăila County, as his family had been deported to the Bărăgan by the Communist authorities because of their associations with the pre-WWII fascist Iron Guard.
During childhood and adolescence, Becali was a supporter of Dinamo Bucharest. His cousins Victor Becali and Ioan Becali are football agents involved in Romanian football mainly for Dinamo Bucharest. In 1994, he married Luminiţa, 11 years his junior; the couple have three daughters: Teodora (b. 1995), Alexandra (b. 1996) and Cristina (b. 2001).
After the 2005 floods, he used $4 million of his personal money to fund the reconstruction of about 200 houses in the Vulturu village (Vulturu commune, Vrancea county) that was destroyed by the overflow of the Siret river. However, he is still the legal owner of the 200 houses. Subsequently the villagers wanted to rename it Vulturu Becali (Becali Vulture) in his honor.

wn.com/Gigi_Becali

Giles Chichester
Giles Chichester (born 29 July 1946) is a British Conservative Party politician, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England and Gibraltar. He was elected as a temporary Vice President of the European Parliament on 6 July 2011 to replace Silvana Koch-Mehrin who had resigned over plagiarism allegations.
Chichester was born in London. Since 1969 worked in family business Francis Chichester Ltd (publishers of maps, guides and educational wallcharts), founded by his father Sir Francis Chichester KBE.
He was MEP for Devon and East Plymouth from 1994 to 1999 and has represented South West England in the European Parliament since 1999. On 23 July 2004 he was elected chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
He is a former Chairman of the Carlton Club Political Committee and is chairman of his family business publishing maps.
Chichester describes himself as a “climate change sceptic”.
On 5 June 2008, Chichester stepped down as Leader of the Conservative MEPs, after it was alleged that since 1996 he had wrongly sent European parliamentary funds for secretarial and office services through his family business of which he was a paid director. He insists the contract was accepted by the EU Parliament 1999 and in 2004, he transferred money for his political staff through the company as an easier means of administration. The European Parliament suggested that a change in the Financial Regulation in 2003 meant this arrangement constituted a potential conflict of interest.

wn.com/Giles_Chichester

Gilles Pargneaux
Gilles Pargneaux (b. 24 March 1957 in Harcigny) is a French politician, Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the North-West constituency and leader of the PS federation in Lille. He is close to the leader of the PS, the Mayor of Lille Martine Aubry.
In 2009, the PS selected him to lead the PS list in the North-West constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. His list won 18.09% and two seats, so he was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Gilles_Pargneaux

Giorgos Papanikolaou
Georgios Pavlou Papanikolaou is a member of the European Parliament, in the group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). He was elected for the period 2009-2014, in the European Elections that took place on the 16th of July in 2009 all over the European Union.
Georgios Papanikolaou, born in Athens (15 August, 1977), apart from a successful lawyer in Athens, Greece, was the president of the youth branch of the political party "New Democracy" in Greece from 2004 to 2009.

wn.com/Giorgos_Papanikolaou

Giorgos Toussas
Giorgos Toussas (Greek: Γιώργος Τούσσας) (born 8 September 1954) is a Greek politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Greece; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. He was born in Koilada.

wn.com/Giorgos_Toussas

Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti (Italian pronunciation: [ˈʤuːljo andreˈɔtti]; born January 14, 1919) is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior (1954 and 1978), Defense Minister (1959–1966 and 1974) and Foreign Minister (1983–1989) and he has been a senator for life since 1991. He is also a journalist and author.
He is sometimes called Divo Giulio (from Latin Divus Iulius, "divine Julius", an epithet of Julius Caesar). The movie Il Divo tells about Andreotti's links with the Mafia and won the Prix du Jury at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Andreotti was born in Rome into a family from Segni. He studied law in Rome, during which time he was member of the Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana (FUCI, or Italian Catholic University Federation), which was then the only Catholic university association allowed by the Fascist government. Its members included many of the future leaders of the Italian Democrazia Cristiana (or DC, the Christian Democracy party). In July 1939, while Aldo Moro was president of FUCI, Andreotti became director of its magazine Azione Fucina. In 1942, when Moro was enrolled in the Italian Army, Andreotti succeeded him as president of FUCI, a position he held until 1944.

wn.com/Giulio_Andreotti

Glenis Willmott
Glenis Willmott (born 4 March 1951) is a British politician, currently leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) and Labour member of the European Parliament for East Midlands.
Willmott was born in the mining village of Horden, County Durham, but moved to Mansfield with her family at the age of 10. She was educated in Mansfield and at Trent Polytechnic where she obtained an HNC in medical science. She worked as a medical scientist for the National Health Service at King's Mill and Mansfield Hospitals from 1969 to 1990. She was chair of Mansfield Constituency Labour Party and a member of Nottinghamshire County Council from 1989 to 1993, and worked as an assistant to Alan Meale (Member of Parliament for Mansfield) from 1987 to 1990.
In 1990 she became political officer for the GMB trade union Midland and East Coast region. She served as chair of the East Midlands Regional Labour Party and was second on the Labour Party list for the European Parliament in the 2004 elections to the European Parliament in East Midlands.

wn.com/Glenis_Willmott

Godfrey Bloom
Godfrey Bloom (born 22 November 1949 in London) is a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). He was first elected in 2004, and re-elected in 2009.
Before becoming an MEP, Bloom worked as a financial economist.
Godfrey Bloom is the president of the European Alliance for Freedom, a eurosceptic pan-European political party.
In 2004, Bloom's election to the Yorkshire and the Humber seat was the UKIP's first seat in the region in the European elections.
A few weeks after his appointment to the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on 20 July 2004, Bloom told an interview in Strasbourg that, "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age. That isn't politically correct, is it, but it's a fact of life. The more women's rights you have, it's actually a bar to their employment." Around the same time, he was reported^{[by whom?]} as commenting, "I just don't think [women] clean behind the fridge enough" and that "I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home."

wn.com/Godfrey_Bloom

Graham Watson
Sir Graham Robert Watson (born 23 March 1956) is a European politician from the United Kingdom. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament for South West England since 1994 and was the leader of the Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party 2002–2004 and the first leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe 2004–2009. Since 2011, he is the President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.
Graham Watson was born in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute (Scotland, United Kingdom). His father was an officer in the Royal Navy and his mother a teacher. Watson was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School, where he played violin in the school orchestra. He later returned to Scotland to attend Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where he graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in modern languages. This allowed him to work as an interpreter between 1979 and 1980, he now speaks four European languages. After 1980 he worked as an administrator at Paisley College until 1983.

wn.com/Graham_Watson

Gunnar Hökmark
Anders Gunnar Hökmark (born 19 September 1952 in Ystad) is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Moderate Party; part of the European People's Party.
Hökmark is Vice Chairman of the EPP Group, the largest group in the European Parliament with 265 members. He is the leader of the Swedish delegation to the EPP and active in the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee of Industry, Energy and Research. He is a member of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis as well as the Special Committee on the Policy Challenges and Budgetary Resources for a Sustainable European Union after 2013.
Hökmark is the Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee and active in the Delegation to the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly. He is Chairman of the European Friends of Israel and the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association. Hökmark is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group and affiliated with the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism. He co-sponsored the European Parliament resolution of 2 April 2009 on European conscience and totalitarianism.

wn.com/Gunnar_Hökmark

Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣiː vərˈɦɔfstɑt] (

listen); born Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt, 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician, who served as the 47th Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. Since 2009, he has served as a Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Born in 1953 in Dendermonde, he became president of the Flemish Liberal Student's Union (1972–1974) while studying law at the University of Ghent. He quickly became the secretary of Willy De Clercq, who was at that time the president of the Flemish liberal party (Party for Freedom and Progress, PVV). In 1982, at age 29, he became president of the party. In 1985 he was elected into the Chamber of Deputies, and became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget under Prime Minister Wilfried Martens. Because of his economic views and his young age, he became known as "Baby Thatcher". Another nickname from that era is "da joenk", a Brabantian dialect expression meaning "that kid" (in a pejorative sense, referring to his rather iconoclastic and immature style).

wn.com/Guy_Verhofstadt

Göran Färm
Göran Färm is a PES Member of the European Parliament for Sweden. He was born on 17 October 1949 in Stockholm. His national party is the Swedish Social Democratic Party and sits on the Committee on Budgets. He is also part of the delegation for South East Europe.
[1]

wn.com/Göran_Färm

Göran Persson
Hans Göran Persson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈʝœːran ˈpæːʂɔn]) (born 20 January 1949) was the Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. He was Minister for Finance from 1994 to 1996.
Conceding defeat in the September 2006 general election, he announced that he would resign as party leader, and Mona Sahlin was elected to succeed him as party leader in March 2007. Since August 2007 he has worked as a part time corporate lobbyist for the JKL Group.^{[citation needed]}
Persson was born in Vingåker in Södermanland, Sweden, in a working-class home. He has in recent years revealed that he wanted to become a priest as a young man; however, he applied to the college in Örebro where he took courses in social science (mainly sociology). He completed 80 college credits (120 ECTS credits) in the subject before he left the college in 1971 without graduating. According to himself he had at the time almost completed an education in social and political sciences.^{[citation needed]} As the college later received credentials as a full university, the renamed Örebro University gave him an honorary PhD in medicine in February 2005, an award that provoked some controversy.

wn.com/Göran_Persson

Hans van Baalen
Johannes Cornelis "Hans" van Baalen (born June 17, 1960) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Netherlands since July 14, 2009. He was a Member of the House of Representatives from September 28, 1999 until May 23, 2002 and from January 30, 2003 until July 14, 2009. He has been the President of the Liberal International since 2009.
Van Baalen was born in Rotterdam and went to high school in Krimpen aan den IJssel. He then studied law at Leiden University, where he was a member of the Minerva fraternity and the 'Pro Patria' student guard.
Van Baalen has been a member of the VVD since 1986. He was international secretary for the VVD party bureau from 1993 to 1998 and was an MP from 1999 until 2002. He was again made an MP in 2003. Before his political career he worked as a journalist and also with the public relations department of Deloitte Consulting. In the Dutch House of Representatives, Van Baalen was a member of the Foreign Affairs commission, European Affairs commission and the Defense commission. Since the elections of 2009, he is a member of European Parliament and faction leader of the Dutch VVD Delegation, and is generally seen as one of the party's "heavy-weights."

wn.com/Hans_van_Baalen

Hans-Gert Pöttering
Hans-Gert Pöttering (born 15 September 1945) is a German conservative politician (CDU, European People's Party), and was the President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009. On 4 December 2009 he was elected Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
He has served as a Member of the European Parliament continuously since the first elections in 1979 and thus is its longest-serving member, and was Chairman of the European People's Party-European Democrats 1999–2007.
He is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.
Pöttering never got to know his father who was killed in action during the last days of the Second World War. After Abitur and military service, he studied law, political science and history in University of Bonn, the University of Geneva, the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at Columbia University in New York. He took his first state exam in jurisprudence in 1973, earned a PhD in political science and history in 1974 and took his second state exam in jurisprudence in 1976.

wn.com/Hans-Gert_Pöttering

Hans-Peter Liese
Peter Liese (born on 20 May 1965 in Olsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia with the conservative Christian-Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.
He is a substitute for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, a member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America and a substitute for the Delegation to the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee.
See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Germany)

wn.com/Hans-Peter_Liese

Hans-Peter Martin
Hans-Peter Martin (born August 11, 1957) is an Austrian journalist and politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1999.
Born in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Martin worked for the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel. As a freelance writer, he has written and co-authored several popular books, among them The Global Trap: Globalization and the Assault on Prosperity and Democracy (Die Globalisierungsfalle, 1996) and Bitter Pills (Bittere Pillen) about the pros and cons of pharmaceuticals.
In the 1999 European Parliament elections Martin was selected as leader of the Social Democratic Party of Austria's group. However, differences with the party's leadership led to his complete break with the SPÖ.
Early in 2004, he accused MEPs of all parties of falsely claiming reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses. He produced evidence of MEP's signing the register in the morning to receive their daily allowance, and then immediately leaving the building. Broadcast on German TV, the accusations caused an uproar. The then European Parliament spokesman Hans Gert Pöttering dismissed Martin's accusations as unnecessarily aggressive and the President of the Parliament Pat Cox said that he would have preferred to deal with the case internally.

wn.com/Hans-Peter_Martin

Hans-Peter Mayer
Hans-Peter Mayer (born on 5 May 1944 in Riedlingen) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Lower Saxony with the conservative Christian-Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and is a member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee.
See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Germany)

wn.com/Hans-Peter_Mayer

Harlem Désir
Harlem Désir (born 25 November 1959 in Paris) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Île-de-France since 1999. He is a member of the Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.
Harlem Désir is member of the Capital Tax, Fiscal Systems and Globalisation Intergroup of the European Parliament, to whom was presented Denis Robert and Ernest Backes's book, Revelation$, in March 2001 [1].
He was the first president of the French anti-racist organisation SOS Racisme between 1984 and 1992.
On 30 June 2011, he was appointed Delegate First secretary of the Socialist Party (France) during the candidature of Martine Aubry for the Socialist Party primary, who started her campaign for presidential election of 2012 on 28 June 2011.

wn.com/Harlem_Désir

Heide Rühle

Heide Rühle (help·info) (born 5 November 1948 in Heilbronn) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Greens.

wn.com/Heide_Rühle

Helga Trüpel
Helga Trüpel (b. 21 July 1958, Moers) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Greens.

wn.com/Helga_Trüpel

Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈkoːl]; born 3 April 1930) is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany between 1982 and 1990 and of the reunited Germany between 1990 and 1998) and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. His 16-year tenure was the longest of any German chancellor since Otto von Bismarck and oversaw the end of the Cold War and the German reunification. Kohl is widely regarded as one of the main architects of the German reunification and, together with French President François Mitterrand, the Maastricht Treaty, which contributed to the creation of the European Union.
Kohl and Mitterrand were the joint recipients of the Karlspreis in 1988. In 1998, Kohl was named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government for his extraordinary work for European integration and cooperation, an honour previously only bestowed on Jean Monnet. In 1996, he won the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation.

wn.com/Helmut_Kohl

Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛlmʊt ˈʃmɪt]; born 23 December 1918) is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister. He is the oldest surviving German Chancellor and the last surviving person to have been solely Chancellor of West Germany (Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of both West Germany and reunified Germany). He is also the oldest living Federal German Minister, after the death of his Interior Minister Werner Maihofer.
Helmut Schmidt was born in Hamburg, as son of two teachers. He studied at Hamburg Lichtwark School, graduating in 1937. He was conscripted into military service and began serving with an anti-aircraft battery at Vegesack near Bremen during World War II. After brief service on the Eastern Front he returned to Germany in 1942 to work as a trainer and advisor at the Reichsluftfahrtministerium. Also in 1942, on 27 June, he married his childhood sweetheart Hannelore "Loki" Glaser (3 March 1919 – 21 October 2010), with whom he fathered two children: Helmut Walter (26 June 1944–February 1945, died of meningitis), and Susanne (b. 1947), who works in London for Bloomberg Television. Toward the end of the war, from December 1944 onwards, he served as an Oberleutnant in the artillery on the Western Front. He was captured by the British in April 1945 on Lüneburg Heath and was a prisoner of war until August. During his service in World War II Schmidt was awarded the Iron Cross.

wn.com/Helmut_Schmidt

Henri Weber
Henri Weber (born 23 June 1944) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. He is a member of the Socialist Party (PS), which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education.
Weber was born in Leninabad, Soviet Union. He was an activist in the May 1968 uprising and was a leading member of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Youth (JCR) and Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) before joining the PS.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, a member of the delegation to the EU–Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Japan.

wn.com/Henri_Weber

Herbert Reul
Herbert Reul (b. 31 August 1952 Langenfeld, Rhineland) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
Leverkusen who's who

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Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Achille Van Rompuy (pronounced [ˈɦɛɾmɑn vɑn ˈɾɔmpœy] (

listen); born 31 October 1947) is the first long-term and full-time President of the European Council (until the Treaty of Lisbon, the position had rotated among the prime ministers of the member states for six months each, since then they choose a President of their meetings for a 2½ year period, renewable once). This is an unelected position. A Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party, Van Rompuy served as the 49th prime minister of Belgium from 30 December 2008 until his predecessor (Yves Leterme) succeeded him on 25 November 2009. He has the Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold.
On 19 November 2009 Van Rompuy was elected by the members of the European Council as the first full time President of the European Council under the Treaty of Lisbon. He was appointed to chair the institution for the period starting from 1 December 2009 until 31 May 2012, though he only took up his position officially on 1 January 2010. On 1 March 2012 Herman Van Rompuy was re-elected by the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states. His second term will last two and a half years, from 1 June 2012 to 30 November 2014.

wn.com/Herman_Van_Rompuy

Hermann Winkler
Hermann Winkler (born 22 April 1963 in Grimma) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was elected on the CDU ticket and sits with the European People's Party group. From 2004 to 2007 he was Cabinet Minister and Head of the State Chancellery of Saxony.
After his Abitur, Hermann Winkler entered the Technical University of Magdeburg to study mechanical engineering and graduated as Dipl.-Ing.. From 1988 to 1990 he worked as Engineer in the VEB Chemieanlagenbau Leipzig-Grimma.
He was President of the Saxony Regional Sport Association (1998–2004).
He is married and has two daughters.
In 1988, Hermann Winkler joined the Christian Democratic Union (East Germany).
He was chair of the Grimma Christian Democratic Union Municipal Association from 1990 to 1999, member of the CDU District Council of the Muldentalkreis from 1990 to 2007 (2005 to 2007 as chair) and is District Chair of the Leipzig CDU since 2007.
In addition he was regional chair of the Youth Section of the CDU in Saxony (1992–1995) and Secretary-General of the Saxony CDU from 1998 to 2004.

wn.com/Hermann_Winkler

Horst Schnellhardt
Horst Schnellhardt (born 12 May 1946) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Saxony-Anhalt. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
He is the author and the namesake of the "Schnellhardt compromise" aimed at the defusing of the "vodka war".

wn.com/Horst_Schnellhardt

Hubert Pierlot
Hubert Marie Eugène, Count Pierlot (23 December 1883 – 13 December 1963) was a Belgian Walloon politician and jurist, the 32nd Prime Minister of Belgium between 1939 and 1945 (a mandate coinciding with World War II and Nazi Germany's occupation of the country).
Pierlot was born in Cugnon (Bertrix). He was a representative of the Catholic Party (which took various names during his lifetime) in the Chamber of Deputies in 1925 (for Neufchâteau), then to the Senate for Luxembourg Province (between 1926 and 1936) and Arlon (from 1936 to 1946). He also served as Minister of Internal Affairs (1934–1935), Minister of Agriculture (1934–1935; 1936–1939), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1939). He first led a coalition of Catholics and Socialists, and then one of Catholics and Liberals.
When the Phony War broke, Pierlot became the leader of a national government (or rather a tripartite one), which stayed in power until the German invasion in 1940. During the invasion he and his government came into serious conflict with the Belgian King Leopold III. A few hours after Belgium capitulated on 27 May, he and Paul-Henri Spaak met with the leaders of France - Paul Reynaud, Maxime Weygand, and Philippe Pétain. The meeting was conflictual, as both Belgian leaders attempted to explain their country's position in front of French hostility.

wn.com/Hubert_Pierlot

Hélène Flautre
Hélène Flautre (born July 29, 1958 in Bapaume) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North West of France. She is a member of the Europe Écologie–The Greens, part of the European Greens. She was first elected in 1999.

wn.com/Hélène_Flautre

Ian Hudghton
Ian Stewart Hudghton (born 19 September 1951) is a Scottish politician, and has been a Scottish National Party Member of the European Parliament for Scotland since 1998, when he won his seat in a rare European Parliamentary by-election, after the death of sitting SNP MEP Allan Macartney.
Since the 2004 European elections, he has led the currently seven-strong European Free Alliance Group in the Parliament, which retains its own identity within the joint Green-European Free Alliance Group.
He is a member of the Fisheries, Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and Transport and Tourism committees.
Before becoming an MEP he had been a successful election agent for John Swinney and Allan Macartney, a District and Regional Councillor and the first elected leader of the unitary Angus Council after its foundation in 1995/6.
In September 2005 Hudghton was elected as President of the SNP, following the retirement of Winnie Ewing.

wn.com/Ian_Hudghton

Ilda Figueiredo
Maria Ilda da Costa Figueiredo (born 30 October 1948 in Troviscal) is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Portuguese Communist Party; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group.
She was born on 30 October 1948 in Troviscal, Oliveira do Bairro.
She is a substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee.

wn.com/Ilda_Figueiredo

Iliana Ivanova
Iliana Naidenova Ivanova (Bulgarian: Илиана Найденова Иванова, born on September 14, 1975 in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian politician and economist, currently serving as Member of the European Parliament. She graduated from foreign language high school "Romain Rolland" in her hometown where she studied French and English. In 1998 she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in International Economic Relations from the Economic University in Varna. In 2004 Iliana Ivanova defended her master’s thesis in International Finance at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona.
She gained diverse experience from working at American financial and banking institutions. Before that, Iliana Ivanova worked as a coordinator International Financial institutions in the "Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture and Food".
Iliana Ivanova was a municipal councillor from GERB’s voting list in the Municipality of Sofia (2007-2011 mandates). She was elected MEP at the European Parliament elections on 7 June 2009.

wn.com/Iliana_Ivanova

Indrek Tarand
Indrek Tarand MEP (born February 3, 1964, Tallinn) is an Estonian politician, reserve officer, civil servant, journalist and historian.
Tarand has served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Estonia and as the Secretary General of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tarand is the eldest son of Andres Tarand. His mother Mari Tarand is a well-known linguist and the elder sister of Juhan Viiding.
He studied history at the University of Tartu. As a student during the Soviet occupation, he was expelled in his first year for lighting candles with his fellow Estonian patriots on the grave of Julius Kuperjanov, an Estonian military commander. Tarand was forced to the Soviet military service and after that he finished the university in 1991.
In 2005, Tarand caused a scandal at a soccer game by wearing a shirt that bore the names of some former Communist Party members, including Estonian president Arnold Rüütel and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip with the words Kommarid ahju! ("Commies to the oven!") This was one of the reasons that caused defense minister Jaak Jõerüüt to resign.

wn.com/Indrek_Tarand

Inese Vaidere
Inese Vaidere (born September 3, 1952 in Jelgava) is a Latvian politician, serving as a Member of the European Parliament (since 2004).
She was formerly Vice-Mayor of Riga and member of the Saeima. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 for the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK list; part of the Union for a Europe of Nations group. In 2009, she was elected from the Civic Union (Latvia) list; part of the EPP group.
She is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

wn.com/Inese_Vaidere

Ingeborg Gräßle
Ingeborg Grässle (b. 2 March 1961, Heidenheim) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Baden-Württemberg. She is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Ingeborg_Gräßle

Inés Ayala Sender
Inés Ayala Sender (Born 28 March 1957 in Zaragoza) is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. She was re-elected in the 2009 European elections.

wn.com/Inés_Ayala_Sender

Ioan Mircea Paşcu
"Ioan Pascu" redirects here. For the actor, see Ioan Gyuri Pascu
Ioan Mircea Pașcu (born 17 February 1949 in Satu Mare) is a Romanian politician, a Member of the European Parliament and a former Minister of Defense in the Adrian Năstase cabinet. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Romania to the European Union. Joan Mircea Pașcu is particular mentioned in the report of the investigator of the Council of Europe to illegal activities of the U.S. secret service CIA in Europe, Dick Marty, as one of the persons, who authorized or at least knew about and have to stand accountable for torture prisons on the military base Mihail Kogălniceanu from 2003 to 2005.

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Ioannis Kasoulidis
Ioannis Kasoulides is a Cypriot politician and member of European Parliament. He is member of European People's Party and Democratic Rally (Major political party of the Republic of Cyprus.) He was elected as member of Cyprus Parliament on 1991 and also served as minister of the government of Cyprus for the period 1993-2003.
Ioannis Kasoulides is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.
He was born on 10th of August, 1948 in Nicosia. He is married with Mme Droushiotou Emy and has one daughter named Joanna.
Kasoulides studied medicine at the University of Lyon in France and specialised in geriatrics in London. He founded and served as the first chairman of the Federation of Cypriot Students Unions in France.
Ioannis Kasoulides served the centre-right wing party, Democratic Rally, from various posts, including the post of the President of the Youth Organization of the Party.
In 1991, he was elected as an MP in the House of Representatives of Cyprus and in March 1993 he was appointed by the President Glafkos Clerides as the Government's Spokesman where he served until April 1997, when he was appointed Foreign Minister until the end of term of Clerides administration in 2003. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ioannis Kasoulides led the diplomatic attempt that marked the beginning, the process and the completion of the process of integration of Cyprus in the E.U.

wn.com/Ioannis_Kasoulidis

Ioannis Tsoukalas
Ioannis Tsoukalas (Greek: Ιωάννης Τσουκαλάς) is a Greek politician and Member of the European Parliament for New Democracy; part of the European People's Party.
Born and educated in Thessaloniki, where he also started his professional carrier, he graduated in Physics in 1973 and obtained his PhD in 1975 from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He carried out postdoctoral research in the UK (University of Liverpool), France (Grenoble Institute of Technology), Germany (TU Braunschweig) and USA (MIT, Boston University), focusing on the field of solid state physics and technological materials.
In 1984-1995 he held the position of professor at the Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, serving as its chairman in 1984-89. From this position he was responsible for the installation of the first LAN at the university campus, covering 26 buildings, in 1991-93. He was also the first chairman of the university's Department of Computer Science in 1995-99, and continued teaching there until 2008. He also served as president of the Ethics Committee of the Aristotle University in 1995, president of the university's International Relations Committee (1997-1998) and as vice-president of the Research Committee (1999-2004). In addition, in 1998-2004 he held the post of Secretary for Informatics and New Technologies for the conservative New Democracy party, and was General Secretary for Research and Technology at the Ministry of Development in the New Democracy cabinet from 2004 to 2008. From September 2008 he is Professor Emeritus at the Aristotle University.

wn.com/Ioannis_Tsoukalas

Iosif Matula
Iosif Matula (born August 23, 1958) is a Romanian engineer and politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), he has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2009.
He was born in Tămaşda, Bihor County, and following secondary studies at the Theoretical High School in Chişineu-Criş from 1973 to 1977, from that year until 1980 he was a worker, receiver and distributor at the Dacia service station in Arad. From 1980 to 1985, he studied at the Chemical Technology Faculty of Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, receiving the diploma of a chemical engineer. From 1985 to 1991 he worked as such at the Salonta division of an Oradea wood preparation company, in the laboratory and production sections. From 1991 to 2008, he was a teacher at the Chişineu-Criş Theoretical High School. Meanwhile, Matula continued his education, in particular studying Chemistry and Physics at Babeş-Bolyai from 1997 to 2001 and earning a license to teach those subjects; and earning a master's degree in Economics, with the specialty of management and finance in public administration, from the Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad in 2007.

wn.com/Iosif_Matula

Iratxe García Pérez
Iratxe García Pérez (born 7 October 1974 in Barakaldo, Biscay) is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. She entered politics at the Spanish General Election of 2000 when she was elected to the Spanish Congress representing Valladolid Province.

wn.com/Iratxe_García_Pérez

Isabelle Durant
Isabelle A.J. Durant (born 4 September 1954) is a Belgian politician, member of the Ecolo party. On 15 September 2010 Durant supported the new initiative Spinelli Group in the European Parliament, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are: Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Andrew Duff, Elmar Brok.

wn.com/Isabelle_Durant

Ismail Ertug
Ismail Ertug,is a German politician, born on 5th of December 1975 in Amberg.
After graduation Mr Ertug studied Industrial Business Management and worked in the national insurance system afterwards. Between 2002 and 2005 he studied health insurance company operation management in Hersbruck.
Ismail Ertug worked later in the customer consulting service of the AOK (State Health Insurance) in Amberg until 2007. He then performed his study in the strategic sales consultancy service in the headquarters of the AOK in Nürnberg, Bayern from 2007 to 2009.
Mr Ertug is a Member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) since 1999. In the 2009 elections he was elected as Member of the European Parliament, where he represents his constituency (East Bavaria). He is a Member of the Committee for Transport and Tourism and a Substitute in the Committee for Agriculture. Furthermore he is a Member of the Delegation in relations with Israel and the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.

wn.com/Ismail_Ertug

Iva Zanicchi
Iva Zanicchi (born in Ligonchio, Reggio Emilia on January 18, 1940) is an Italian pop singer.
Iva Zanicchi's career began in 1962 at the Castrocaro Festival of New Voices, where she earned third place. She won the Sanremo song festival in 1967 with Non pensare a me, in 1969 with Zingara and again in 1974 with Ciao cara, come stai?. In 1969, she represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid with Due Grosse Lacrime Bianche, where she finished 13th. A concert at the Paris Olympia and a tour (United States, Canada, South America and the Soviet Union) followed. Iva later also toured Australia and Japan.
From 1987 to 2000 Iva hosted the very popular game show Ok, il prezzo è giusto!, the Italian version of The Price is Right as the only female host in the history of the game show worldwide.
In 2004 she was one of Forza Italia's candidates at the European Parliament elections, polling nearly 35,000 but not enough to be elected. However, as the highest-polling among the candidates failing to be elected, Iva took up her seat in Strasburg in May 2008, representing Forza Italia, when EuroMP Mario Mantovani left to become a PdL senator. She was confirmed in her post at the European elections of June 2009.

wn.com/Iva_Zanicchi

Ivari Padar
Ivari Padar (born 12 March 1965 in Navi, Võru Parish, Võru County) is an Estonian politician, former Minister of Finance and former chairman of the Estonian Social Democratic Party. He was Deputy Mayor of Võru from 1993 to 1994, Executive Chairman of the Võru Farmers Union from 1994 to 1995, and Assistant to the Chancellor at the Finance Ministry from 1995 to 1997. He was Minister of Agriculture from 1999 to 2002, Chairman of Võru City Council from 2002 to 2005, and a member of the Riigikogu from 2003 to 2007. In April 2007 he became Minister of Finance. He led the Social Democratic Party from 2003 to 2009. In 2009 he was elected Member of the European Parliament.
He is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.
Judoka Martin Padar is Ivari Padar's cousin.

wn.com/Ivari_Padar

Ivars Godmanis
Ivars Godmanis (born 27 November 1951) is a Latvian politician and currently 1 of the 8 Latvian MEPs in the European parliament. He was the first Prime Minister of Latvia after the country became independent from the Soviet Union, and he became a Prime Minister for the second time in December 2007.
Godmanis served as Prime Minister from 1990 to 1993, focusing primarily on Latvia's difficult economic transition from a communist to a capitalist economy. In 1995 Godmanis was awarded with the Order of the Three Stars. He later served as the Finance Minister from 1998 to 1999. He was originally associated with the Latvian Popular Front, but after the Front ceased to exist he moved to the Latvian Way party. In November 2006, following elections in which the Latvian Way in coalition with Latvia's First Party returned to Parliament, Godmanis became the Minister of the Interior.
On 14 December 2007, Godmanis was nominated as Prime Minister by President Valdis Zatlers. He was approved by the parliament on 20 December, with 54 votes in favor and 43 in opposition.

wn.com/Ivars_Godmanis

Ivaylo Kalfin
Ivaylo Georgiev Kalfin (Bulgarian: Ивайло Георгиев Калфин, born 30 May 1964) is a Bulgarian politician. A three-term deputy, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and Deputy Prime Minister from 2005 to 2009. He is currently a member of European Parliament.
Born in Sofia, Kalfin received his higher education at the University of National and World Economy (1983–1988) and the Loughborough University (1998–1999). His foreign language skills include English, French, Russian and Spanish. He is married and has a daughter.
Kalfin founded the Social Democrats National Movement and served as the deputy president of the Common Parliamentary Committee Bulgaria-European Union between 1995 and 1998. A deputy in the 37th (1994-1997), 38th (2000-2001) and 40th (since 2005) National Assembly of Bulgaria, Kalfin has been part of the Bulgarian National Bank's Consultative Council since 2004. He observed the elections in Kosovo in 2001 and 2004 as part of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe missions in the region and has also worked as a senior university lecturer and manager in several consulting companies.

wn.com/Ivaylo_Kalfin

Ivo Vajgl
Ivo Vajgl (born 3 March 1943) is a Slovenian politician and diplomat.
Born in Maribor, he studied at the University of Ljubljana. He was appointed foreign minister by Prime Minister Anton Rop on 6 July 2004, replacing Dimitrij Rupel, who left the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party to join the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party. Vajgl's tenure ended on 3 December 2004 with Rupel's reappointment to the position in the new administration of Janez Janša, formed after the 2004 elections to the National Assembly, which had been held on 3 October.
As foreign minister, Vajgl joined Rop in signing the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in Rome on 29 October 2004. Between 2004 and 2007, Vajgl worked as the advisor for foreign policy in the cabinet of the President of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek. Since the mid 1990s, Vajgl was member of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. In 2005, he ran as a candidate for president of the party, but was defeated by Jelko Kacin. In 2007, Vajgl left the Liberal Democracy and joined the newly formed party Zares.

wn.com/Ivo_Vajgl

Jacek Kurski
Jacek Kurski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjat͡sɛk ˈkurskʲi], born 22 February 1966 in Gdańsk) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 26446 votes in 25 Gdańsk district, candidating from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list.
On 8 September 2010, Kurski was the only MEP to vote against a condemnation by the European Parliament of the execution of Iranian national Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani by stoning. Kurski stated that he voted against by error, and he corrected his vote almost immediately.
http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1698272,0,1,kurski-tlumaczy-sie-z-podpisu-i-mija-sie-z-prawda,wiadomosc.html

wn.com/Jacek_Kurski

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski
Jacek Emil Saryusz-Wolski (born September 19, 1948 in Łódź) is a Polish diplomat, politician and a MEP: member of the European Parliament (elected on 13 June 2004). He served as Vice President of the European Parliament (2004–2007).
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski was a professor at the University of Łódź and an expert on European Communities since the 1970s.
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski was nominated the first Polish plenipotentiary for European integration and foreign aids (pełnomocnik ds. integracji europejskiej i pomocy zagranicznej) when this office was created in 1991 by the prime minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki. Jacek Saryusz-Wolski held this position till 1996, despite the frequent government changes. He returned to the government in 2000, when the prime minister Jerzy Buzek has nominated him a secretary in the European Integration Committee (Komitet Integracji Europejskiej). Jacek Saryusz-Wolski played an extremely important role in the negotiations in Nice in 2000.
He was elected an MEP, on 13 June 2004, as a candidate of Civic Platform, in the constituency #6 (Łódź Voivodship) receiving 66,589 votes (that is 16,92%, the best result in the region). On 20 July 2004 he was elected a Vice President of the European Parliament, and was at the position till 16 January 2007.

wn.com/Jacek_Saryusz-Wolski

Jack Lynch
John Mary "Jack" Lynch (15 August 1917 – 20 October 1999) was the Taoiseach of Ireland, serving two terms in office; from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979.
Lynch was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork in 1948, and was re-elected at each general election until his retirement in 1981. He previously served as Minister for Finance (1965–1966), Minister for Industry and Commerce (1959–1965), Minister for Education (1957–1959), Minister for the Gaeltacht (1957) and as a Parliamentary Secretary. He was the third leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 until 1979, succeeding the hugely influential Seán Lemass. Lynch was the last Fianna Fáil leader to secure (in 1977) an overall majority in the Dáil. Historian and journalist T. Ryle Dwyer has called him "the most popular Irish politician since Daniel O'Connell."
Prior to his political career Lynch had a successful sporting career as a dual player of Gaelic games. He played hurling with his local club Glen Rovers and with the Cork senior inter-county team from 1936 until 1950. Lynch also played Gaelic football with his local club St. Nicholas' and with the Cork senior inter-county team from 1936 until 1946. He is widely regarded^{[by whom?]} as one of the greatest dual players of all-time.

wn.com/Jack_Lynch

Jacky Hénin
Jacky Hénin (born 12 November 1960 in Douai) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the north-west of France. He is a member of the French Communist Party, which is part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade.
He is also member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Belarus.

wn.com/Jacky_Hénin

Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac (

/ʒɑːk ʃɨˈræk/; French pronunciation: [ʒɑk ʃiʁak]; born 29 November 1932) is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 (making him the only person to hold the position of Prime Minister twice under the Fifth Republic), and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, a term at Harvard University and the École nationale d'administration (ENA), Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He subsequently occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and finally President of the French Republic.
Chirac's internal policies included lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism, and business privatisation. He also argued for more socially responsible economic policies, and was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). After less statist policy when he was Prime Minister (1986–1988), he changed his method. Then, his economic policies, based on dirigisme, state-directed ideals, stood in opposition to the laissez-faire policies of the United Kingdom, which Chirac famously described as "Anglo-Saxon ultraliberalism". Chirac is the second-longest serving President of France (two full terms, the first of seven years and the second of five years), after François Mitterrand. As President, he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur.

wn.com/Jacques_Chirac

Jacques Santer
Jacques Santer (born 18 May 1937 in Wasserbillig) is a Luxembourg politician.
He was finance minister of Luxembourg from 1979 until 1989, and the 22nd Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1984 to 1995, as a member of the Christian Social People's Party, which has been the leading party in the Luxembourg government since 1979. As Prime Minister of Luxembourg he also led the negotiations on the Single European Act, which effectively set aside the 20-year old Luxembourg Compromise.
Santer became the ninth President of the European Commission in 1995 as a compromise choice between the United Kingdom and a Franco-German alliance, after the Franco-German nominee Jean-Luc Dehaene was vetoed by British prime minister John Major. Santer selection was barely ratified by a European Parliament upset with the process for which Commission presidents are selected.
In the same year, 1995, Santer became the first recipient of the Vision for Europe Award.
Allegations of corruption concerning individual EU-commissioners led to an investigation into administrative failings (incompetence and malpractice) by an independent group of experts. Despite clearing most commissioners, the report stated that they had not found a single person showing the slightest sense of responsibility. Because the implicated commissioners refused to resign and because the President of the European Commission did not have the power to dismiss individual commissioners, Santer and his entire commission resigned on 15 March 1999, the very day of the report's publication (see Santer Commission: Resignation).

wn.com/Jacques_Santer

James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC (27 March 1912 – 26 March 2005), was a British Labour politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Commonly known as Jim Callaghan (and nicknamed "Sunny Jim", "Gentleman Jim", "Lucky Jim" or "Big Jim"), Callaghan is the only person to have served in all four of the Great Offices of State: Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.
Callaghan was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967 during a turbulent period in the British economy in which he had to wrestle with a balance of payments deficit and speculative attacks on the pound sterling. In November 1967, the Government was forced to devalue the pound sterling despite having already denied this would be done, both publicly and to the House of Commons. Callaghan offered to resign, but was persuaded to swap his ministerial post with Roy Jenkins, becoming Home Secretary from 1967 to 1970. In that capacity, Callaghan took the decision to use the Army to support the police in Northern Ireland, after a request from the Northern Ireland Government.

wn.com/James_Callaghan

James Elles
James Edmund Moncrieff Elles (born 3 September 1949, London) is a British politician, and Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament for the South East England.
The son of Diana Newcombe Elles, Baroness Elles and her husband, Neil Patrick Moncrieff Elles, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc in agriculture. He served as the MEP for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire from 1984 to 1989 and the MEP for Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire East from 1994 to 1999. He has represented the South East in the European Parliament since 1999. Elles has special responsibility for the Conservative Party for the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
Elles graduated from Edinburgh University with a BSc (hons) in agriculture. He became a European MP after an eight-year career as a civil servant with the European Commission, initially as a Tokyo Round negotiator and latterly as Assistant to the Deputy Director General of Agriculture.
Now in his sixth term, Elles is the longest-serving member of the European Parliament’s budgets committee, having been a member for the past 25 years. He was rapporteur (the person appointed to steer a measure through Parliament) for both the 1996 and 2007 budgets.

wn.com/James_Elles

Jan Peter Balkenende
Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɑn ˈpetər ˈbɑlkənˌɛndə] (

listen)) (born May 7, 1956) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from July 22, 2002 until October 14, 2010.
He previously served as a Member of the House of Representatives from May 19, 1998 until July 22, 2002. After then CDA Party leader and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stepped down after a internal power struggle, between him and then CDA Party Chair Marnix van Rij. Balkenende succeed him in both positions, and became the CDA Lijsttrekker for the Dutch general election of 2002. The CDA became the surprising winner of the election, gaining 14 seats (from 29 to 43) and becoming the largest party in the House of Representatives. This success was in part owed to Balkenende and to his neutral attitude in the debate with LPF leader Pim Fortuyn, for not having participated in the supposed ‘demonization’ by the political Left. Fortuyn was assassinated during the national election campaign on May 6, 2002.

wn.com/Jan_Peter_Balkenende

Jan Philipp Albrecht
Jan Philipp Albrecht (born December 20, 1982 in Braunschweig) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament from the Alliance '90/The Greens. He is specialized in the field of civil rights, data protection and democracy.
Albrecht studied law in Bremen, Brussels and Berlin and worked for the Walter-Hallstein Institut in Berlin. He graduated in ICT-law at the Universities of Hanover and Oslo.
Albrecht was Spokesman of the Green Youth in Germany from 2006 to 2008. In 2009 he was elected for the Greens to the European Parliament. He is the youngest MEP from Germany.
He is member of the LIBE committee and substitute member of the JURI committee in the European Parliament and works especially on home affairs, data protection and police & justice cooperation. Furthermore he is member of the Delegation of the EP to Israel
Albrecht has been active in the decision-making process of the so called SWIFT-agreement in the European Parliament, which meant to give US authorities access to European bank data transferred via SWIFT for their terrorist finance tracking program (TFTP). He is generally opposed to the lowering of judicial standards in the protection of fundamental rights for the purpose of security means or law enforcement. Albrecht criticises, therefore, the plans for internet blocking.

wn.com/Jan_Philipp_Albrecht

Janez Janša
Ivan Janša (born 17 September 1958), baptized and best known as Janez Janša, is a Slovenian politician who has been Prime Minister of Slovenia since February 2012. He served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2008, and has led the Slovenian Democratic Party since 1993. Janša was Minister of Defense from 1990 to 1994, holding that post during the Slovenian War of Independence (June–July 1991).
Born to a Roman Catholic working-class family of Grosuplje, he was called Janez (a version of the same name, known as John in English) since childhood. His father was a member of the Slovenian Home Guard from Dobrova near Ljubljana who had escaped Communist retaliation due to his young age. Janez graduated from the University of Ljubljana with a degree in Defence Studies in 1982, and became a trainee in the Defence Secretariate of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. In his younger years, he was a member of the League of Communists and one of the leaders of its youth wing. He became president of the Committee for Basic People's Defence and Social Self-Protection of the Alliance of Socialist Youth of Slovenia (ZSMS).

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Janusz Lewandowski
Janusz Antoni Lewandowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjanuʂ lɛvanˈdɔfskʲi], born 13 June 1951 in Lublin) is a Polish politician and economist belonging to the Gdansk liberals group, and a member of the Europea n Parliament (elected on 13 June 2004), Chairman of the Committee on Budgets. On 27 November 2009 he obtained the post of Budget and Financial Programming Commissioner of the European Commission (pending approval by the European Parliament in January 2010) and is affiliated to the European People's Party (EPP).
Janusz Lewandowski graduated in economics from University of Gdańsk, received a doctorate and was a lecturer there until 1984. Later he worked for Polish Oceanic Lines (Polskie Linie Oceaniczne). He was also a lecturer at Harvard University and the founder of the Research Institute for Market Economy in Gdansk (Instytut Badań nad Gospodarką Rynkową w Gdańsku).
He is an author of a book on famous liberals and he also writes short articles for several newspapers and magazines, including Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Parkiet, Polityka, Wprost and Newsweek.

wn.com/Janusz_Lewandowski

Janusz Zemke
Janusz Zemke (pronounced [ˈjanuʂ ˈzɛmkɛ]; born February 24, 1949 in Kowalewo Pomorskie) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 33672 votes in 4 Bydgoszcz district, candidating from Democratic Left Alliance list.
He was also a member of PRL Sejm 1989-1991, Sejm 1991-1993, Sejm 1993-1997, Sejm 1997-2001, and Sejm 2001-2005.

wn.com/Janusz_Zemke

Jaromír Kohlíček
Jaromír Kohlíček (born February 23, 1953 in Teplice) is a Czech inventor, economist, politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left party group in the European Parliament. After studies at University of Chemical Technologies he candidated unsuccessful to Senate. He was also member of Lower Chamber of Czech Republic Parliament (from 1998 to 2004, when he was elected to European Parliament).

wn.com/Jaromír_Kohlíček

Jarosław Kalinowski
Jarosław Kalinowski (Polish pronunciation: [jaˈrɔswaf kalʲiˈnɔfskʲi], born April 12, 1962), is a Polish politician, from the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL).
Kalinowski was born in Wyszków. He was first elected to the Sejm in 1993, and was reelected in the subsequent elections of 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2007. At the 2005 legislative elections of September 25, he gained 15,855 votes in the 18th electoral (Siedlce) district. He was reelected to the Sejm once again at the legislative elections of October 21, 2007.
Kalinowski was deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture from April to October, 1997, in the cabinet of Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz. He was returned to both these positions again from October 2001 to March, 2003, in the cabinet of Leszek Miller. Kalinowski succeeded Waldemar Pawlak as the leader of the PSL party in November, 1997 and he held this position to March 2004. He contested the Polish presidential election as the PSL candidate in 2000 (5.95% of votes), and again in the following presidential elections of 2005 (1.8% of votes). Following the 2005 Polish legislative elections, he was elected to the position of Vice-Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (deputy Speaker of the lower house) in November. He was reelected to this position following the legislative elections of 2007.

wn.com/Jarosław_Kalinowski

Jarosław Wałęsa
Jarosław Wałęsa ([jaˈrɔswaf vaˈwɛ̃sa], born September 13, 1976 in Gdańsk) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 14709 votes in 25 Gdańsk district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list. He is the son of Lech Wałęsa.
Wałęsa is a 1995 graduate of Glastonbury High School, Connecticut, where he spent his high school years as a foreign exchange student. He then attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
On September 2, 2011, Jarosław was seriously injured riding his motorcycle after colliding with a SUV in Stropkowo near Sierpc.

wn.com/Jarosław_Wałęsa

Jean Duvieusart
Jean Pierre Duvieusart (10 April 1900 in Les Bons Villers - 10 October 1977 in Charleroi) was a Belgian Catholic politician of the PSC-CVP and minister of economy (1947–1950, 1952–1954). After two months as the 36th Prime Minister of Belgium (1950), he resigned after the abdication of King Leopold III. He was president of the European Parliament (1964–1965) and president of the Rassemblement wallon and the Front Démocratique des Bruxellois Francophones (FDF) (1968–1972).

wn.com/Jean_Duvieusart

Jean Lambert
Jean Denise Lambert (born Jean Denise Archer on 1 June 1950, Orsett, Essex) is an English politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the London Region. A member of the Green Party of England and Wales, she has been an MEP since 1999. One of two Green MEPs from the UK, the other is Keith Taylor, Lambert is a Vice-President of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group of MEPs.
She attended Palmer's Grammar School for Girls in Grays, Essex.
Lambert gained a BA in Modern Languages in 1971 from University College, Cardiff, before taking a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) from St Pauls' College (Francis Close Hall), Cheltenham (now the University of Gloucestershire) and gaining an ADB (Ed.) in 1975. She then worked as a secondary school teacher in Chingford, East London, first from 1972-8, then from 1985-9 and finally between 1993 and 1999. She also holds a Professional Development Certificate (BTEC), which she achieved in 1998.
After joing the Ecology Party in 1977 (later becoming the Green Party of England and Wales), Lambert has held numerous positions, including Co-Chair of the Party Council (1982–1985), Principal Speaker (1992-3 and 1998-9), Chair of the Party Executive (1993-4), Representative to the Federation of European Green Parties (1987-9 and 1998-9) and Political Liaison to the Green Group in the European Parliament (1989–1992). She is currently the party's Employment, Social Affairs and Pensions Spokesperson.

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Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourgish: [ʒ̊ɑːŋ kloːd ˈjʊŋkɐ]; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourg politician, 23rd and current Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 20 January 1995. He is the longest-serving head of government of any European Union state, and the longest-serving democratically elected current head of any government in the world. He has been President of the Euro Group, the political control over the euro currency, since the creation of a semi-permanent position in 2005.
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian Social People's Party in 1984, Juncker was immediately promoted to Jacques Santer's cabinet as Minister for Work. He was Luxembourg's Minister for Finances from 1989 to 2009, and became Prime Minister when Santer became President of the European Commission in 1995. In his capacity of Prime Minister, he also served two six-month terms as President of the European Council, in 1997 and 2005.
Juncker was born in Redange and spent most of his childhood in Belvaux. His father had fought in World War II after being forcibly recruited into the Wehrmacht, and was a steelworker and a member of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions. Juncker studied at Clairefontaine in Belgium before returning to Luxembourg to attain his baccalaureate in the Lycée Michel Rodange. Around that time, in 1974, he joined the Christian Social People's Party. Juncker went on to study law at the University of Strasbourg, attaining a Master of Law degree in 1979. Although he was sworn in to the Luxembourg Bar Council in 1980, he never practised as a lawyer.

wn.com/Jean-Claude_Juncker

Jean-Claude Marcourt
Jean-Claude Marcourt (16 October 1956 in Awans, Province of Liège) has been, since 2009, the Vice-Minister-President, minister of Economy and Foreign Affairs of the Walloon government and Vice-Minister-President and Minister of Higher Education of the Government of the French Community. He is member of the Belgian Francophone Socialist Party (PS).

wn.com/Jean-Claude_Marcourt

Jean-Luc Bennahmias
Jean-Luc Bennahmias (born 2 December 1954 in Paris) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-east of France. He is a member of the Democratic Movement (formerly French Green Party, part of the European Greens), and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Culture and Education, a substitute for the Committee on Petitions, a member of the delegation for relations with South Africa, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Canada.
Bennahmias is currently the candidate of the Democratic Movement for the municipal elections in Marseille, to be held in March 2008.

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Jean-Luc Dehaene
Jean-Luc Dehaene (Dutch pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ːˈlʏk dəˈɦaːnə] (

listen); born Jean Luc Joseph Marie Dehaene, 7 August 1940) is a Belgian politician.
He was born in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing German troops. He got into politics through the Algemeen Christelijk Werknemersverbond (General Christian Workers' Union) (ACW), a trade union which was closely linked to the Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian People's Party) (CVP). In 1981, he became Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, until 1988, when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform.
In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, he managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state. In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.

wn.com/Jean-Luc_Dehaene

Jean-Marie Cavada
Jean-Marie Cavada (born 24 February 1940 in Épinal, Vosges) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Ile de France. Since 3 December 2011 he is president of the European Movement France.
He was a member of the former Union for French Democracy, which was part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and as a deputy for the south-west of France, he chairs the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, a substitute for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and a member of the delegation to the EU–Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee, from 2004 to 2009.
After the creation of the MoDem as a replacement of the Union for French Democracy, he created his own party Civic Alliance for Democracy in Europe. For the 2009 European Parliament election, he was the third member of the list of the presidential majority (UMP/NC/LGM), under the New Centre label. He is one of the vice-chairman of the group of the European People's Party.

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Jean-Marie Dedecker
Jean-Marie Louis Dedecker (born Nieuwpoort, 13 June 1952) is a Belgian Flemish politician.
In 1999 and 2003, Dedecker was directly elected to the Belgian Senate. In 2004 Dedecker ran for a seat in the Flemish Parliament, after taking his seat in the Flemish Parliament, Dedecker was elected by his colleagues as a community senator as well. He was a member of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD), before being expelled, and eventually sided with the N-VA party for a brief time in November–December 2006. In January 2007, Dedecker presented his own political party— Lijst Dedecker—that participated in the 2007 general election. Against all expectations, Lijst Dedecker got 5 elected in Parliament, and 1 in Senate.
Dedecker became well-known first for his long career as a judo coach, with his judokas winning a for Belgium unprecedented number of medals (among them four times Olympian gold), and then for his politics. In 2004, as a pure outsider, he won 38% of the votes for the VLD party leadership against the party establishment. He was expelled from the VLD though in October 2006.

wn.com/Jean-Marie_Dedecker

Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi ləpɛn]; born 20 June 1928) is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National (National Front) party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than the main left candidate, Lionel Jospin. Le Pen lost in the second round to Jacques Chirac. Le Pen again ran in the 2007 French presidential election and finished fourth. His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78 years and 9 months, makes him the oldest candidate for presidential office in French history.
Le Pen focuses on immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture, law and order and France's high rate of unemployment. He advocates immigration restrictions, the death penalty, raising incentives for homemakers, and euroscepticism. He strongly opposes same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion.
Le Pen was born in La Trinité-sur-Mer, a small seaside village in Brittany, the son of a fisherman but then orphaned as an adolescent (pupille de la nation, brought up by the state), when his father's boat was blown up by a mine in 1942. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and studied at the Jesuit high school François Xavier in Vannes, then at the lycée of Lorient.

wn.com/Jean-Marie_Le_Pen

Jean-Paul Besset
Jean-Paul Besset (born 1946 in Chamalières, Puy-de-Dôme) is a French politician and environmentalist.
An original member of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), he stayed in the LCR for eleven years, from its launch in 1974 until 1985.
As a founder of the Europe Écologie coalition in 2008, he was selected to lead the Europe Écologie list in the Massif Central constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections.

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Jean-Paul Gauzès
Jean-Paul Gauzès (born 1 October 1947 in Toulouse) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Jean-Paul_Gauzès

Jean-Pierre Audy
Jean-Pierre Audy (born June 12, 1952 in Tulle, Corrèze) is a French politician and a Member of the European Parliament for France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which is part of the European People's Party. He is a member of the Committee on International Trade and the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (including Libya). He is a substitute on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In February 2010, he has been elected head of the French delegation of the EPP group in the European parliament.
He holds a degree in chartered accountancy, a post-graduate diploma in taxation, finance, and business law, which he earned in Clermont-Ferrand. He studied at the Clermont-Ferrand Business School and obtained a master's degree in economics. He received a post-graduate diploma from the Institute of Business Management in Clermont-Ferrand and is a graduate of the International Student Center of the University of California, Los Angeles. He founded a firm of auditors in 1995 and a chartered accountancy practice in 1979.

wn.com/Jean-Pierre_Audy

Jelko Kacin
Jelko Kacin (born 26 November 1955 in Celje, Lower Styria, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Slovenian politician and Member of the European Parliament. During the Slovenian Independence War he was the Secretary of Information of Slovenia. He founded the Slovenian Press Agency on 3 June 1991 and the war (also called the Ten-Day War) started on 27 June 1991. He is the former president of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia and member of the bureau of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Transport and Tourism, vice-chair of the delegation to the EU–Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, a substitute for the delegation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia–EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, and for the delegations for relations with Iran, the Korean Peninsula, and the countries of south-east Europe.

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Jens Rohde
Jens Rohde (born 18 April 1970) is a Danish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Venstre party. He was previously a member of the Danish parliament for Venstre.

wn.com/Jens_Rohde

Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Karol Buzek [ˈjɛʐɨ ˈbuzɛk] (

listen) (born 3 July 1940) is a Polish engineer, academic lecturer and politician who was the ninth post-Cold War Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 13 June 2004, and he was elected as President of the European Parliament on 14 July 2009, succeeding Hans-Gert Pöttering. He is married to Ludgarda Buzek and is the father of Polish actress Agata Buzek.
Jerzy Karol Buzek was born to a Lutheran family on 3 July 1940 in what is now Smilovice in the Czech Republic. He was born into the prominent Buzek family, which participated in Polish politics in the Second Polish Republic during the interbellum. The family was part of the Polish community in Zaolzie. Buzek's father was an engineer. After the Second World War, his family moved to Chorzów. He is a Protestant.
In 1963 Jerzy Buzek graduated from the Mechanics-and-Energy Division of the Silesian University of Technology, specialising in chemical engineering. He became a scientist in the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1997 he has been a professor of technical science. He is also an honorary doctor of the universities in Seoul and Dortmund.

wn.com/Jerzy_Buzek

Jillian Evans
Jillian Evans (born 8 May 1959) is Plaid Cymru Member of the European Parliament for Wales and First Vice President of The Greens–European Free Alliance group - the fourth largest in the European Parliament. She is also President of Plaid Cymru and chair of CND Cymru.
In June 1999, she and fellow candidate Eurig Wyn were elected as the first MEPs in Plaid Cymru's history. She was re-elected to the European Parliament in 2009. She is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Delegation for relations with Iraq. She deputises on the Agriculture Committee. She is also Plaid Cymru spokesperson for European and International issues.
Evans was born in Ystrad Rhondda, Glamorgan. She was educated at Bodringallt Infants' and Junior schools, Ystrad, where her head-teacher was John Haydn Davies, conductor of Treorci Male Voice Choir. Evans later attended Tonypandy Grammar School, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where she gained a BA, and the Polytechnic of Wales, Trefforest (now Glamorgan University) where she earned an M.Phil. She speaks both Welsh and English, having learned the former as a second language in Tonypandy GS being taught by Penri Jones, now a Gwynedd county councillor.

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Jiří Maštálka
Jiří Maštálka

Czech pronunciation (help·info) (born on 3 January 1956 in Sušice) is a Czech politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left party group in the European Parliament.

wn.com/Jiří_Maštálka

Joanna Senyszyn
Joanna Senyszyn(Polish pronunciation: [jɔˈanna sɛˈnɨʂɨn]; born February 1, 1949 in Gdynia) is a Polish left-wing politician, vice-president of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and member of the European Parliament.
In the 1970s, Senyszyn was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), the governing party in the communist People's Republic of Poland. In 1980 she joined Solidarność, of which she continued to be a member until 1995. Later, she joined SLD and was a successful candidate in the 2001 parliamentary election from the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union (SLD-UP) list, becoming a member of the Sejm. She was also a candidate in the European Parliament election in 2004, but did not win a seat. In 2005, she secured herself another Sejm term in the election (getting 11925 votes in district 26 Gdynia) and became a vice-president of her party. Since 2009 she's a member of the European Parliament.
Joanna Senyszyn is often featured in the media, in no small way thanks to her brash manners, expressive image and distinctive, high-pitched voice. Her public appearances, both in the Sejm and on other occasions, are often marked by the use of provocative language and satire. She is credited with coining the term kaczyzm to describe her political opponents of the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość government. She also raised some controversy (and gained media attention) when she paraphrased the words of the late Pope John Paul II during the so called Parada Równości, a demonstration promoting LGBT rights in Poland coupled with a gay pride parade.

wn.com/Joanna_Senyszyn

Joanna Skrzydlewska
Joanna Skrzydlewska (born 17 February 1977 in Łódź) is a Polish politician. She was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 11822 votes in 9 Łódź district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list.
She is a member of the Skrzydlewski family that own the Lodz's largest florist and funeral home chains. Her Father, Witolda Skrzydlewski, was the subject of a documentary called Skin Hunters, where he was one of two funeral home operators accused of paying for information from paramedics so as to profit from patients death. The other funeral home owner has been convicted and an investigation is ongoing regarding her fathers involvement, if any.

wn.com/Joanna_Skrzydlewska

Joe Higgins
Joe Higgins (born 20 May 1949) is an Irish Socialist Party politician. In the 2011 general election he was elected to Dáil Éireann as Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency, having previously served in that capacity from 1997–2007. He was also a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 2009 to 2011, the first Socialist Party MEP.
One of nine children of a small farming family, he was born in 1949 in Lispole, part of the Dingle gaeltacht in County Kerry. He went to school in the Dingle Christian Brothers School, and after finishing he enrolled in the priesthood. As part of his training he was sent to a Catholic seminary school in Minnesota, U.S. in the 1960s.
It was against the backdrop of anti-Vietnam War protests and the civil rights movement that Higgins was politicised.
He is a brother of Liam Higgins who played football with the Kerry GAA senior team in the 1960s and 1970s.
Higgins is bilingual in English and Irish,
Higgins returned to Ireland and attended University College Dublin studying English and French. For several years he was a teacher in several Dublin inner city schools. While at university he joined the Labour Party and became active in the Militant Tendency, an entryist Trotskyist group that operated within the Labour Party. Throughout his time in the Labour Party he was a strong opponent of coalition politics along with TDs Emmet Stagg and Michael D Higgins. He was elected to the Administrative Council of the Labour Party by the membership in the 1980s. In 1989 Higgins was expelled alongside 13 other members of Militant Tendency. The group eventually left the party and formed Militant Labour which became the Socialist Party in 1996.

wn.com/Joe_Higgins

Johannes Swoboda
Hannes Swoboda (born 10 November 1946 in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg) is an Austrian social democratic politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1996. Within the Parliament, he represents the Social Democratic Party of Austria and since 17 January 2012 is also the President of the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
After studying law and economics at the University of Vienna, Swoboda worked in the Vienna Chamber of Labour (1971–86) and was director of the department for urban policies and housing policy. Swoboda also held a number of different functions within the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). From 1983, he was a member of the municipal council and member of the city council of Vienna. In 1988 he became municipal councillor, regional minister, responsible for urban development, planning, transport and external relations. Swoboda is a member of the federal party executive committee of the SPÖ and the Viennese party executive committee. He is also a member of the Parliamentarian Working Group of the Advisory Board of "A Soul for Europe", an initiative that is building an international network with bases in Amsterdam, Berlin, Belgrade, Brussels, Porto and Tbilisi. Hannes Swoboda supported the European cause by signing the Spinelli Group Manifesto. In the European Parliament he is Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Rapporteur for Russia), Substitute Member in the Committee on Energy, Research and Industrial Policies, Member of the Delegation for the Relations to the United States of America, Member of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Cooperation Committees in Central Asia.

wn.com/Johannes_Swoboda

John Attard Montalto
John Attard Montalto (born 7 February 1953) is a Maltese politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2004. He is a member of the Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists. He served in the government of Malta as Minister for Industry and Economic Affairs from 1996 to 1998.
Born in Sliema, Attard Montalto studied history and law at the University of Malta and he was also student representative on the University Senate. He first contested the general elections in 1987 and was elected. He was re-elected in subsequent elections in 1992, 1996, 1998 and 2003. Between 1996 and 1998, when the Labour Party was in government, he served as Minister for Industry and Economic Affairs.
After the defeat of Labour Party at the polls in 2003 and the resignation of the Party Leader Alfred Sant, Attard Montalto announced his intention to run for the post. The race turned out to be between three contestants, including Sant who was persuaded to run and who, eventually, won the election. Attard Montalto finished last.

wn.com/John_Attard_Montalto

John Bruton
John Gerard Bruton (born 18 May 1947) is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland from 1994 to 1997. A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance (1981–1982 and 1986–1987), and Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism (1983–1986). He became leader of Fine Gael in 1990 and served as Taoiseach from 1994 until 1997, leading the Rainbow Coalition government of Fine Gael–Labour Party–Democratic Left.
Bruton was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a TD for Meath in 1969, and served continuously until his retirement from domestic politics in 2004. He served as the Ambassador of the European Union to the United States from 2004–2009, and is a former Vice-President of the European People's Party (EPP).
John Gerard Bruton was born to a wealthy, Catholic farming family in Dunboyne, County Meath and educated at Clongowes Wood College.
Oliver Coogan notes in his Politics and War in Meath 1913–23 that Bruton's granduncle was one of the farmers in south Meath who prevented the traditionally Anglo-Irish ascendency hunt from proceeding in the area during the Irish War of Independence.

wn.com/John_Bruton

John Bufton
John Bufton (born 31 August 1962 in Llanidloes), is a UKIP Member of the European Parliament for Wales.
He was educated at Elan Village Primary School and Llandrindod Wells High School, and joined the family haulage business before embarking on a career managing a residential care home for the elderly with the local authority.
John Bufton's political career began when he was elected onto Rhayader Town Council in 1987. In 1996, he was elected to Powys County Council. In the 1997 General Election, he ran for the Referendum Party in the Montgomeryshire constituency.
In 2000, he ran as UKIP candidate in the Ceredigion by-election, coming fifth with 1.9% of the vote. He also ran for UKIP in the 2005 General Election, 2007 Welsh Assembly Elections and 2008 Powys County Council election.
In 2009, Bufton became UKIP's first MEP for Wales, picking up the fourth available seat from Labour, and pushing the Liberal Democrats into 5th place. Bufton was appointed to serve on the Committee on Regional Development, at the European Parliament.

wn.com/John_Bufton

John Major
Sir John Major, KG, CH, PC, ACIB (born 29 March 1943) is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. He held the posts of Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon from 1979 to 2001.
Despite Thatcher's "notorious" assertion that "she expected to continue in control as a backseat driver," Major's mild and consensual style was seen as complete contrast to Thatcher's forceful and confrontational manner. Early in his term, he presided over British participation in the First Gulf War (March 1991) and negotiated "Game, Set and Match for Britain" at the Maastricht Treaty (December 1991). Despite the British economy then being in recession he led the Conservatives to a fourth consecutive election victory, winning the most votes in British electoral history in the 1992 general election, albeit with a much reduced majority in the House of Commons. He is to date, the last Conservative leader to win an outright majority in a general election.

wn.com/John_Major

Jolanta Hibner
Jolanta Hibner (born January 26, 1951 in Ząbki) is a Polish politician. She was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 3512 votes in 19 Warsaw district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list. She was reelected on 21 October 2007.
On 7 June 2009 Jolanta Hibner was elected Member of European Parliament from Masovian Voivodeship constituency.

wn.com/Jolanta_Hibner

Joop den Uyl
Johannes Marten den Uijl, known as Joop den Uyl (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjoːp dɛn ˈœyl]; August 9, 1919 – December 24, 1987) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from May 11, 1973 until December 19, 1977.
He previously served as a Member of the House of Representatives from November 6, 1956 until June 5, 1963. He became Minister of Economic Affairs from April 14, 1965 until November 22, 1966 in the Cabinet Cals. He became the Labour Party Party leader on September 13, 1966 and served as the Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives from February 15, 1967 until May 11, 1973 and again a Member of the House of Representatives from February 23, 1967 until May 11, 1973. Den Uyl became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, leading the Cabinet Den Uyl.
After his prime-ministership, Den Uyl remained in active politics and returned as the Parliamentary leader in House of Representatives from January 16, 1978 until September 10, 1981 and a Member of the House of Representatives from January 16, 1978 until September 11, 1981. He became Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Minister for Suriname and Netherlands Antilles Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister from September 11, 1981 until May 29, 1982 in the Cabinet Van Agt II. After the fall of this cabinet, Den Uyl again became the Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives from September 7, 1982 until his resignation as Parliamentary leader and as the Labour Party Party leader on July 21, 1986, he was succeeded in both positions by Wim Kok. He served as a Member of the House of Representatives for the last time from September 16, 1982 until his death on December 24, 1987.

wn.com/Joop_den_Uyl

Joschka Fischer
Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born April 12, 1948) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens. He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fischer has been a leading figure in the West German Greens since the 1970s, and according to opinion polls, he was the most popular politician in Germany for most of the government's duration. Following the September 2005 election, in which the Schröder government was defeated, he left office on November 22, 2005.
Fischer was born in Gerabronn in Baden-Württemberg, the third child of a butcher, whose family had lived in Budakeszi, Hungary, for several generations. Fischer's family had to leave Hungary in 1946 after it was occupied by the Soviet Union, and ethnic Germans were persecuted and expelled by the Hungarian authorities. His nickname Joschka is derived from the Hungarian Jóska, diminutive of Joseph (Hungarian József). Fischer dropped out of high school in 1965, and started an apprenticeship as a photographer, which he quit in 1966. Because Fischer never gained a school-leaving certificate, he never attended a university or a college. He neither did compulsory military service nor the alternative civilian service for conscientious objectors, because his poor eyesight caused him to fail his physical examinations.

wn.com/Joschka_Fischer

Joseph Daul
Joseph Daul (born 13 April 1947 in Strasbourg) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the East of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a member-party of the European People's Party (EPP). On 9 January 2007 he was elected Chairman of the EPP Group (at the time EPP-ED Group) in the European Parliament, replacing Hans-Gert Pöttering, who was elected as the new President of the European Parliament. Daul, in his capacity as EPP Group Chairman, is an ex officio Vice President of the European People's Party.
Daul had previously come to prominence of the European Parliament's powerful Committee on Agriculture, a position he was elected to on 23 July 2004, and right before as the Chair of the Committee Chair's Conference. He has been Mayor of Pfettisheim (Bas-Rhin) since 1989, and is an Officer of the Agricultural Order of Merit, Knight of the National Order of Merit and Knight of the Légion d'honneur.
In addition to French he speaks standard German and Alsatian, the German dialect spoken in his native region.

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Joseph Lebeau
Jean Louis Joseph Lebeau (3 January 1794 - 19 March 1865) was a Belgian liberal politician and statesman, the second Prime Minister.
Born in Huy, he received his early education from an uncle who was parish priest in Hannut, and became a clerk. He raised money to study Law at the University of Liège, and was called to the bar association in 1819. While in Liège, he formed a fast friendship with Charles Rogier and Paul Devaux, together with whom he founded at Liege in 1824 the Mathieu Laensbergh, afterwards Le politique, a journal which helped to unite the Catholic Party with the Liberals in their opposition to the cabinet, without manifesting any open disaffection to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Lebeau had not aimed for the separation of the Netherlands and Belgium, but his hand was forced by the August Revolution of 1830. He was sent by his native district to the National Congress, and became minister of foreign affairs in March 1831 during the interim regency of Érasme-Louis Surlet de Chokier. By proposing the election of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as King of the Belgians he secured a benevolent attitude on the part of the United Kingdom, but the restoration to the Netherlands of part of the duchies of Limburg and Luxembourg provoked a heated opposition to the 1839 Treaty of London, and Lebeau was accused of treachery to Belgian interests.

wn.com/Joseph_Lebeau

Joseph Pholien
Joseph Clovis Louis Marie Emmanuel Pholien (28 December 1884- 4 January 1968) was a Belgian Catholic politician and member of the PSC-CVP. He was born in Liège, and volunteered to serve with the Belgian army during World War I, being commissioned as a first lieutenant. He was Minister of Justice under Paul-Henri Spaak from May 1938 to February 1939 and was the 37th Prime Minister of Belgium from 16 August 1950 to 15 January 1952. In 1966, he became a Minister of State.
His term as prime minister is notable for seeing the departure of the Belgian United Nations Command (BUNC) to fight in the Korean War (1950–1953).

wn.com/Joseph_Pholien

José Bové
Joseph (José) Bové (born June 11, 1953 in Talence, Gironde) is a French farmer and syndicalist, member of the alter-globalization movement, and spokesman for Via Campesina. He was one of the twelve official candidates in the 2007 French presidential election. On 7 June 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament as a member of Europe Écologie, a coalition of French environmentalist political parties.
Bové was born in Talence, near Bordeaux, but raised in many different places, both inside and outside France, including the United States. Bové speaks English fluently, having followed his parents to Berkeley, California at the age of three, when they were invited to be researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Bové attended a Jesuit secondary school near Paris (from which he was expelled for being "faithless"). While at university, he associated with anarchists and pacifists. When asked to serve in the army, he fled France.
In 1976 Bové joined a movement protesting the proposed expansion of a military camp on the Larzac plateau, which would have displaced sheep farmers. He joined a band of peasants occupying the threatened territory and illegally building a sheep barn. The protest eventually succeeded and the military plan was cancelled. As a result of that experience he became a sheep farmer, producing Roquefort cheese on the Larzac.

wn.com/José_Bové

José Manuel Barroso
José Manuel Durão Barroso (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ mɐnuˈɛɫ duˈɾɐ̃w bɐˈʁozu]; born 23 March 1956) is the 11th and current President of the European Commission and a Portuguese politician. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 6 April 2002 to 17 July 2004.
Durão Barroso (as he is known in Portugal) graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and has an MSc in Economic and Social Sciences from the University of Geneva (Institut Européen de l'Université de Genève) in Switzerland. His academic career continued as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. He did research for a PhD at Georgetown University and Georgetown's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. but his CV does not list any doctoral degree (except honorary). He is a 1998 graduate of the Georgetown Leadership Seminar. Back in Lisbon, Barroso became Director of the Department for International Relations at Lusíada University (Universidade Lusíada). He received honorary degrees from many Universities listed under honorary degrees.

wn.com/José_Manuel_Barroso

José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse maˈɾia aθˈnar] (

listen); born 25 February 1953) served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation and is also a member of the Club de Madrid.
Aznar, born in Madrid in 1953, was the son of Manuel Aznar Acedo, army official, journalist and radio broadcaster, and grandson of Manuel Aznar Zubigaray, a prominent journalist during the Franco era. Both father and grandfather held governmental positions during the years of Spain under Franco. He studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid, graduating in 1975, becoming a Spanish Tax Authority inspector in 1976.
As a teenager, Aznar was a member of the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas (FES), a Student Union supporting the Falange, Franco's one-party fascist organization. After 1977 it would become Falange Española Independiente (FEI).
After the death of Francisco Franco and the restoration of democracy, Aznar joined Alianza Popular (AP) in January 1979, a few months after his wife. In March he became the Secretary General of the party in La Rioja, occupying the post until 1980. In February 1981 he joined the AP's National executive committee. He became Assistant Secretary General in February 1982.

wn.com/José_María_Aznar

José Sócrates
José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈsɔkɾɐtɨʃ]), is a Portuguese politician who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011.
For the second half of 2007, he acted as the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union. In addition to these posts, José Sócrates was Portugal's Minister for Youth and Sports and one of the organisers of the UEFA Euro 2004 football championship in Portugal, as well as being a former Environment Minister in the governments of António Guterres.
On 23 March 2011, he submitted his resignation to the president after parliament rejected his government's austerity measures in a vote, leading to the Portuguese legislative election of 2011. After losing the election, held on 5 June 2011, he resigned as Secretary-General of the Socialist Party.
José Sócrates was born in Porto on 6 September 1957, and was registered as a newborn in Vilar de Maçada, Alijó municipality, in northeastern Portugal, since the locality was his family ancestral homeland. However, the young José Sócrates lived throughout his childhood and teen years with his father, a divorced building designer, in the city of Covilhã, Cova da Beira subregion, in central inland Portugal, in the Centro region. His parents are Fernando Pinto de Sousa (b. Vilar de Maçada, Alijó, 15 November 1926) and wife and remote relative Maria Adelaide de Carvalho Monteiro (b. Vilar de Maçada, Alijó, 8 October 1931). He has two younger siblings, António Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, born circa 1962, and Ana Maria Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, died in 1988. He is a descendant of the illegitimate daughter of António José Girão Teixeira Lobo Barbosa (Porto, Sé, 9 January 1715 – Alijó, Vilar de Maçada), Fidalgo of the Royal Household and Knight of the Order of Christ, thrice distant relative of Diogo Cão.

wn.com/José_Sócrates

Judith Merkies
Judith Merkies (born 1966) is a Dutch politician for the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid - PvdA).
Judith Merkies graduated with a law degree from the University of Amsterdam and pursued a career as a lawyer before taking on post-graduate studies in European and International Law at the Free University Brussels. Merkies has worked for the institutions of the European Union as well as for various industries. Prior to becoming a Member of the European Parliament Merkies worked as a Project Manager for the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission. From 2005 to 2006 she worked as an executive manager at the European Music Office, an international non-profit association bringing together professional organizations, associations and federations from the music sector within the European Union. From 2000 to 2004 she worked as a representative of professionals and companies in the Dutch film industry.

wn.com/Judith_Merkies

Jules Malou
Jules Edouard Xavier Malou (19 October 1810 - July 1886) was a Belgian statesman, a leader of the clerical party.
He was born at Ypres. He was a civil servant in the department of justice when he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies by his native constituency in 1841, and was for some time governor of the province of Antwerp. He was minister of finance in the coalition ministry of Jean Baptiste, Baron Nothomb in 1844 and formed with B. T. de Theux de Meylandt a Catholic cabinet in 1846 which lost power after the Liberal victory of 1847.
Malou then became a member of the senate, and his party only regained ascendancy in 1870. The extreme clerical ministry of Baron Jules d'Anethan retired in December 1871 after serious rioting in Brussels, and Malou was the real, though not the nominal, head of the more moderate clerical administrations of de Theux and Aspremont-Lynden (1870–1878). He was wise enough to disavow the noisy sympathy of Belgian Ultramontane politicians with the German victims of the Kulturkampf, and, retaining in his own hands the portfolio of finance, he subordinated his clerical policy to a useful administration in commercial matters, including a development of the railway system.

wn.com/Jules_Malou

Julie Girling
Julie Girling MEP is a British Conservative politician, currently serving as a Member of European Parliament for the South West of England.
Girling is a former Leader of Cotswold District Council, and Cabinet Member for the Environment on Gloucestershire County Council, resigning from both in the run-up to the 2009 elections.

wn.com/Julie_Girling

Juozas Imbrasas
Juozas Imbrasas (b. 1941 January 8 in Algirdai, Ukmergė district municipality) is the former mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a member of the political party Order and Justice.
In 2007, Imbrasas as a mayor of the city banned a gay rights rally on the basis of "safety concerns" due to building works. No alternative site for the rally was proposed leading to accusations of discrimination.

wn.com/Juozas_Imbrasas

János Áder
János Áder (Hungarian pronunciation: [jaːnoʃ aːdɛr]; born 9 May 1959) , a Hungarian lawyer and politician, has been President of Hungary since May 10, 2012.
Áder grew up in the small town of Csorna in Győr-Moson-Sopron county. Beginning in 1978, he studied law for five years at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. From 1986 to 1990, he was a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Sociological Research Institute.
Áder, who has a law degree, was a co-founder of Fidesz (Alliance of Young Democrats), at the time a liberal coalition of democrats (although it has shifted to center-right as of 2012). He served as a party legal expert. Áder was a member of the Opposition Round Table which, in 1989, negotiated an end to single-party rule in Hungary.
In the 1990 and 1994 elections he was head of the Fidesz campaign. He was a member of the Hungarian Parliament (Országgyűlés) from 1990 to 2009, and was the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 18 June 1998 to 15 May 2002. He was the leader of the Fidesz caucus opposition from 2002 to 2006. In 2011, he helped draft legislation which changed the role of the Hungarian judiciary, leading the European Commission to bring the matter of Hungarian judicial independence before the European Court of Justice. He also helped draft the legislation which revised Hungarian electoral laws.

wn.com/János_Áder

Jürgen Creutzmann
Jürgen Creutzmann (born 4 October 1945 in Speyer, Germany) is a German politician and member of the liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP). He is a member of the European Parliament since 2009.
Creutzmann was born in Speyer and finished secondary school in Heidelberg in 1966. Subsequently, he studied Business Administration at the University of Mannheim. After working for an audit firm, he began his career at the chemical company BASF in 1973 where he was employed until 2006. Between 1973 and 1988, he was responsible for the consolidated financial statement of the BASF SE Group. As Director Subsidiaries Accounting Services, he was responsible for the accountancy of 50 subsidiaries and holdings of BASF from 1988 until 2006.
Creutzmann is married with two children.
In 1965, Creutzmann became member of the Jungdemokraten, then the FDP’s youth organisation, and was elected member of the executive board of their regional group in Rhineland-Palatinate. He joined the FDP in the subsequent year and was leader of the FDP in Speyer between 1971 and 1973. Creutzmann became member of the executive board of the FDP Rhineland-Palatinate in 1983 and has been its treasurer since then. In 1998, Creutzmann became member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. At first, Creutzmann was speaker of the FDP’s parliamentary group in the Landtag and its vice chairman between 1999 and 2001. From 2006 until 2009, he was speaker for European politics. Between 2001 and 2006, he was vice president of the Landtag and subsequently leader of its committee for European affairs.

wn.com/Jürgen_Creutzmann

Kader Arif
Kader Arif (Arabic: قادر عريف‎; born 3 July 1959 in Algiers) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. A member of the French Socialist Party, which is affiliated to the Party of European Socialists, he sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and a member of the delegations to the EU–Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. Recently, he signed the Manifesto of the Spinelli Group for a federal Europe.
In January 2012 he resigned as the European Parliament’s rapporteur of the ACTA agreement in protest to the ACTA agreement.
On 16 May 2012 he was appointed Junior Minister for Veterans at the French Ministry of Defence by President François Hollande.
He played as hooker for the French rugby union club Castres Olympique.

wn.com/Kader_Arif

Karima Delli
Karima Delli (born 4 March 1979 in Roubaix, Nord) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency.
Born to Algerian parents, she grew up in poor conditions in Tourcoing as the ninth child in the family of 13. She obtained a Master of Advanced Studies in political science at the Lille IEP. During this period, she met Green Senator Marie-Christine Blandin, later becoming Blandin's parliamentary assistant.
Delli is a member of Europe Écologie–The Greens. In the 2009 European elections, she was the fourth candidate on the Europe Écologie list in the East region, and was elected to the European Parliament. She is the second-youngest French MEP after Damien Abad.

wn.com/Karima_Delli

Karl-Heinz Florenz
Karl-Heinz Florenz (born 22 October 1947 in Neukirchen-Vluyn) is a German Member of the European Parliament. He was elected on the CDU ticket and sits with the European People's Party group.
On 23 July 2004 he was elected Chair of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. But he was succeeded by Miroslav Ouzký on 1 February 2007.
He is Rapporteur of Parliament's Temporary Committee on Climate Change.

wn.com/Karl-Heinz_Florenz

Kay Swinburne
Jacqueline Kay Swinburne (born 8 June 1967) is a Welsh politician. She is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Wales.
Born and raised in west Wales, Swinburne was educated at Llandysul Grammar School and went on to earn a degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology from King's College London, followed by a Ph.D. in medical research and an MBA from the University of Surrey, before starting a successful career in international healthcare and finance. Swinburne first came to national attention in 1999 when she resigned from Deutsche Bank after being a victim of sexual discrimination.
Swinburne is a former Conservative Councillor in Hereford, serving as Chair Health Scrutiny, former Town Mayor for Ledbury, former Deputy Chair NHCA. On 28 March 2008 it was announced that she was to head the Welsh Conservatives' list of candidates for the 2009 European Parliament election, effectively guaranteeing her a seat in the European Parliament. Her election in June 2009 was notable for being the first time the Conservatives topped an election in Wales since 1918.

wn.com/Kay_Swinburne

Kinga Göncz
Kinga Göncz (born November 8, 1947 in Budapest, Hungary) is a former foreign minister of Hungary. She is the daughter of Árpád Göncz, former President of Hungary. Fluent in English and German, Göncz is married, the mother of two adult children, and the grandmother of two boys. In 2009 she headed the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) European election list and was subsequently elected as one of 22 Hungarian Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
Göncz finished the Faculty of Medicine at the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest in 1972. In 1978, she specialized in Psychiatry, in the second half of the 1980s, specialized in Psychotherapy. In 2004 obtained the Diploma in Psychotherapy of the European Association for Psychotherapy. She worked as a psychiatrist between 1972 and 1978. Following this, she was a senior assistant at the National Medical Rehabilitation Institute, and took part in the development of the first social policy educational programs.
Since 1989 she worked as an associate professor at the Social Policy and Social Work Department of the Institute for Sociology of ELTE University, Budapest, teaching among others communication skills development, mediation and organization development. From 1994 to 2002 she worked as the Director of Partners Hungary. The organization is a member of an American-founded international network, with the goal of the education of the culture of creative conflict management, techniques of democracy, negotiation techniques and change management. Within this, Göncz worked on the establishment of centers for the prevention and management of social conflicts in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and in the former Yugoslavia.

wn.com/Kinga_Göncz

Klaus-Heiner Lehne
Klaus-Heiner Lehne (born 28 October 1957, Düsseldorf) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party and is among the signatories of the Spinelli Manifesto for a more federal Europe.

wn.com/Klaus-Heiner_Lehne

Kristian Vigenin
Kristian Vigenin (Bulgarian: Кристиан Вигенин; born 12 June 1975 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Coalition for Bulgaria, part of the Party of European Socialists, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union.

wn.com/Kristian_Vigenin

Kristiina Ojuland
Kristiina Ojuland (born 17 December 1966 in Kohtla-Järve, Estonia) was the foreign minister of Estonia from 2002 through 2005. In June 2004 she ran for the post of secretary-general of the Council of Europe, but was defeated, receiving 51 of 299 votes. She is a member of the Estonian Reform Party and since 2009 she serves as 1 of the 6 Estonian MEPs in the European parliament.
She is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.
1993: Vienna School of International Studies, special program
1992: Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, special program.
1992: Graduated from the Estonian School of Diplomacy in Tallinn.
1990: LL.B, Law Faculty, University of Tartu
2009–: Member of European Parliament (ALDE)
2007–: Vice President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), member of the ELDR Bureau
2007–: Vice-chair of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, ALDE-PACE Group
2007–2009: First vice-speaker of Riigikogu

wn.com/Kristiina_Ojuland

Krzysztof Lisek
Krzysztof Lisek (born May 28, 1967 in Gdańsk) is a Polish politician. He was elected to the Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 10,731 votes in 34 – Elbląg for Civic Platform.

wn.com/Krzysztof_Lisek

Kurt Lechner
Kurt Lechner (born 26 October 1942, Kaiserslautern) is a German politician and former Member of the European Parliament for Rhineland-Palatinate.
He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party. He resigned his seat in March 2012 due to age. He was replaced by Birgit Collin-Langen.

wn.com/Kurt_Lechner

Lajos Bokros
Lajos András Bokros (born 26 June 1954) is a Hungarian economist and Member of the European Parliament for Hungary.
Bokros was born in Budapest. He graduated from and holds a Ph.D. from the Budapest University of Economics. He was director of the State Property Agency of Hungary between 1990–1991. He was chairman and chief executive officer at the Budapest Bank between 1991–1995. He is a full professor (Department of Public Policy) and former chief operating officer of the Central European University.
Bokros was the Minister of Finance between 1995–1996 in the government of Gyula Horn. He is best known for the so-called "Bokros package"; a string of austerity measures implemented during his term as Finance Minister.
Supported by the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), Bokros was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 election and sits in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. He is a full member of the Committee on Budgets and a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

wn.com/Lajos_Bokros

Lamberto Dini

Lamberto Dini (help·info) (born March 1, 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the 75th Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996 and Foreign Minister from 1996 to 2001.
After studying Economics in his native city of Florence, Dini took up a post at the International Monetary Fund in 1959, where he worked his way up until he served as Executive Director for Italy, Greece, Portugal and Malta between 1976 and 1979. Then, in October 1979, he moved to the Banca d'Italia, where he served as executive until May 1994. When the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with whom Dini had developed a rivalry, was called upon to serve as Premier, in April, 1993, Dini was widely tipped to succeed him, but was passed over (allegedly on Ciampi's instigation) in favour of Antonio Fazio.
Dini scored a comeback, though, when Silvio Berlusconi formed the Berlusconi I Cabinet in May 1994, in which Dini served as Treasury Minister. Due to a split between Berlusconi and his coalition partner Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord leader, Berlusconi's government collapsed in December 1994, after a mere seven months in power. In January 1995, Dini was appointed Prime Minister by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. Though he was not noted as a left-winger, Dini, was given the confidence vote of the left-wing parties (apart from the Communist Refoundation) and by Lega Nord, whereas his erstwhile partners in the right-wing government chose to abstain whilst citing benevolence. In theory, his cabinet was a technocratic one.

wn.com/Lamberto_Dini

Laurence Stassen
Laurence Stassen (born 8 February 1971, Sittard) is a Dutch politician on behalf of the Party for Freedom (PVV) and a former freelance television presenter of the regional broadcasting TV Limburg. There she presented the program sponsored Limburg leeft (translated: Limburg lives) about residency and life in Limburg.
For the European Parliament elections in 2009 Stassen was ranked as the fourth candidate for the PVV. In itself an electable position - the PVV won four seats - but the lower-ranking party leader Geert Wilders was elected by preference votes. Wilders however, had already declared to remain in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, so Stassen could take office as a Member of the European Parliament on July 14, 2009.
On December 10, 2010 it was announced that the 2011 provincial elections Stassen would run for PVV party leader in the province of Limburg. She was elected and retained her membership of the European Parliament.
Laurence Stassen is married with two children. She is living in Echt. She is committed to children with cancer and she is active in at least two foundations.

wn.com/Laurence_Stassen

Laurette Onkelinx
Laurette A.J. Onkelinx (born 2 October 1958 in Ougrée) is a Belgian politician from the Francophone Socialist Party. She is the Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health in the Belgian federal government, i.e., the Van Rompuy I Government, which took office on 30 December 2008.
Born to Gaston Onkelinx and Germaine Ali Bakir, of Kabyle origin, she graduated in law at the University of Liège after which she worked as a lawyer for 10 years. At the age of 30 she was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.
In October 2007 Laurette Onkelinx stunned public opinion by comparing the Flemish (60% of the Belgian population) with 'mérules' (a type of fungus) that threaten the country.
She is considered to be the most powerful woman in Belgian politics and viewed as a potential successor to the Parti socialiste's chairperson Elio Di Rupo. Her father, Gaston Onkelinx, originally a Dutch-speaking migrant from Flemish Limburg to francophone Wallonia, has long been mayor of Seraing (near Liège) and member of the House of Representatives (1974–1987). Her older brother, Alain Onkelinx, has been a member of the Regional Parliament of Wallonia since September 2005.

wn.com/Laurette_Onkelinx

Lena Ek
Lena Ek (born 16 January 1958 in Mönsterås, Kalmar County) is a Swedish politician, current Minister for the Environment and a former Member of the European Parliament and Member of the Riksdag. She is a member of the Centre Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
She sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. She was also a substitute for the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and a member of the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

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Leo Tindemans
Leonard Clemence “Leo” Tindemans (Dutch: [ˈleˑ(ɪ̯)oˑ ˈtɪndəmɑns] (

listen)) (born 16 April 1922) is a Belgian politician and the 43rd Prime Minister. He was born in Zwijndrecht.
Tindemans was affiliated with the CVP. This party is strong in the northern region of Flanders. Tindemans was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 1961 and re-elected in 1965, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977 and 1978. From 1965 to 1973 Tindemans also served as the mayor of Edegem.
In 1968 Tindemans became minister tasked with the relations between the communities (1968–1972) during which he prepared the first constitutional reform which saw Belgium start transforming into a federal state. In 1972 he became minister for agriculture (1972–1973). In 1973 he became deputy Prime Minister and minister for the budget (1973–1974). Tindemans served as Prime Minister of two Belgian governments, from 25 April 1974 to 20 October 1978. His first cabinet was a minority government formed by the Christian-democrats and liberals. When his first government fell in 1977, Tindemans won the snap general election which followed and formed his second cabinet with the Christian-democrats, socialists and Flemish nationalists. His second government (1977–1978) fell due to the controversy surrounding the Egmont pact.

wn.com/Leo_Tindemans

Leonardo Domenici
Leonardo Domenici (born July 12, 1955) is an Italian politician. He was the Mayor of Florence from June 13, 1999 until June 2009.
He represents the Italian Democratic Party and is a member of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) parliamentary group.
Domenici was born in Florence, from where he graduated in moral philosophy. He began his political career in 1976 in the PCI (Italian Communist Party), later becoming the Secretary of the Florentine branch of the Federation of the Democratic Party of the Left.
Domenici was elected in 1994 for the first time a member of the Italian Parliament for the Chianti-Valdarno constituency and re-elected as a candidate of the Ulivo coalition in 1996.
Then he was the Mayor of Florence from June 13, 1999 until June 2009. Since 2009 he is a Member of the European Parliament.
In February 2008, Domenici and one of the city assessors of Florence announced intentions to launch a suit against the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

wn.com/Leonardo_Domenici

Leonidas Donskis
Leonidas Donskis, Ph.D., (born on August 13, 1962) is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a philosopher, political theorist, historian of ideas, social analyst, and political commentator.
As a public figure in Lithuania, he acted as a defender of human rights and civil liberties. In 2004, Donskis has been awarded by the European Commission the title of the Ambassador for Tolerance and Diversity in Lithuania. A center-right politician, he has always been opposed to all extreme or exclusionary attitudes and forms of violent politics, and, instead, has been leaning to liberalism with its advocacy of individual reason and conscience, ability to coexist with democratic programs of other non-exclusive ideologies, and moderation.
Leonidas Donskis was born in Klaipėda, Lithuania. He graduated from Lithuanian State Conservatoire (now Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater), majoring in philology and theater, and then pursued his graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania. Having received his first doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vilnius, he later earned his second doctorate in social and moral philosophy from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

wn.com/Leonidas_Donskis

Liam Aylward
Liam Aylward (born 27 September 1952) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East constituency. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Carlow–Kilkenny from 1977–2007.
Liam Aylward was born in Mullinavat, County Kilkenny in 1952. He was educated at St Kierans College, Kilkenny. He worked as a laboratory technician before getting involved in politics. He was elected to Kilkenny County Council in 1974, serving on that authority until 1992.
Aylward was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1977 general election for Carlow–Kilkenny in what proved to be a landslide for Fianna Fáil. Since then he has served as Minister of State at the Department of Energy (1988–1989), at the Department of Education (1992–1994) and at the Department of Agriculture & Food (2002–2004). In 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament for Fianna Fáil, which was then part of the Union for a Europe of Nations.
Since the 2009 European Parliament elections, Fianna Fáil is now affiliated with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Aylward is a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the delegation for relations with Mercosur and the delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. Aylward is also a substitute member of the Committee on Culture and Education and the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

wn.com/Liam_Aylward

Liam Cosgrave
Liam Cosgrave (born 13 April 1920) is a former Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach (1973–77) and as Leader of Fine Gael (1965–77). He was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1943 to 1981.
Born in Dublin, Cosgrave was the son of W. T. Cosgrave, the first President of the Executive Council in the newly formed Irish Free State. After qualifying as a barrister he decided to embark on a political career. He was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election and sat in opposition alongside his father. The formation of the first inter-party government in 1948 saw Cosgrave become a Parliamentary Secretary to Taoiseach John A. Costello. He formally became a cabinet member in 1954 when he was appointed Minister for External Affairs. The highlight of his three-year tenure was Ireland's successful entry into the United Nations. In 1965 Cosgrave was the unanimous choice of his colleagues to succeed James Dillon as leader of Fine Gael. He lost the 1969 general election to the incumbent Jack Lynch, but won the 1973 general election and became Taoiseach in a Fine Gael-Labour Party government.

wn.com/Liam_Cosgrave

Liisa Jaakonsaari
Liisa Anneli Jaakonsaari (born September 2, 1945 in Oulu) is a Finnish Social Democratic politician. She was a city councillor in Oulu from 1972 until 1995. She was also a member of the Finnish parliament from 1979 until 2009, when she was elected into the European Parliament.
Jaakonsaari was the Minister of Labour in Paavo Lipponen's first cabinet (1995–1999).
Unlike her party, Jaakonsaari advocates NATO membership.

wn.com/Liisa_Jaakonsaari

Linda McAvan
Linda McAvan (born 2 December 1962) is a British Labour Party politician, who is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party for Yorkshire and the Humber. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1998, and was first elected in a by-election following the resignation of Norman West.
Before being elected she worked for Barnsley Borough Council and was the European Officer for the Coalfields Community Campaign.
Since June 2007 she has served as Vice President of the European Parliament's Socialist Group, is a member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and currently sits on the Temporary Committee on Climate Change.
Labour Party members elected Linda McAvan to be the top-ranked Labour candidate [1] for Yorkshire and the Humber in the 2009 European elections.
McAvan is married to Paul Blomfield, the Labour MP for Sheffield Central.

wn.com/Linda_McAvan

Liz Lynne
Elizabeth Lynne, known as Liz Lynne, (born 22 January 1948) is a British politician, and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands for the Liberal Democrats from the 1999 European election until she retired in 2012. Previously she had been elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale at the 1992 general election but was defeated at the 1997 general election.
Lynne was born in Woking and educated at Dorking County Grammar School. Between 1966 and 1989 she was an actress, appearing in The Mousetrap. She also worked as a speech consultant between 1988 and 1992. Lynne is the founder and former chair of the Indonesian Co-ordination for the British Section of Amnesty International. Whilst an MP she was the Liberal Democrats' spokesperson on Health and Community Care, and then spokesperson on Social Security and Disability. She is also one the patrons for the domestic violence charity Mankind Initiative.
She was rated as the 35th best out of all 785 MEPs and 9th best of the 78 UK MEPs on promoting transparency and reform according to eurosceptic think-tank Open Europe. She is a founding member—and current Vice President of the European Parliament Intergroup MEPs Against Cancer.

wn.com/Liz_Lynne

Liêm Hoang Ngoc
Liêm Hoang-Ngoc (born 11 December 1964 in Saigon, South Vietnam) is a French economist and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the East France constituency.
Hoang-Ngoc is an associate professor at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. He is a member of the French Socialist Party, where he is close to the left of the party organized around Henri Emmanuelli. He is also a member of the alter-globalization collective Attac.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the second candidate on the PS list in the East region.

wn.com/Liêm_Hoang_Ngoc

Lojze Peterle
Alojz "Lojze" Peterle (born 5 July 1948) is a Slovenian politician. He was the leader of the Slovene Christian Democrats from the founding of the party in 1990 until it merged with the Slovenian People's Party in 2000. Between 1990 and 1992, he was the president of the first freely elected Slovenian government, and he was among those who led Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia. He is a Member of the European Parliament.
Lojze Peterle was born to a peasant family in the Lower Carniolan village of Čužnja vas near Trebnje. He attended the Novo mesto Grammar School. In 1967, he enrolled to the University of Ljubljana, where he studied history and geography, and later also economy. During his student years, he started collaborating with the Christian left intellectual circle around the journal Revija 2000.
In the 1980s, he started working at the Institute for Urban planning of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. In the mid 1980s, he was involved in several projects of trans-regional cooperation within the Alpe-Adria regional cooperation network.

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Lothar Bisky
Lothar Bisky (born 17 August 1941) is a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007 he became co-chairman of the The Left (Die Linke) party, formed by a merger of the PDS and the much smaller Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. From 2007 until 2010 he was the President of the Party of the European Left. Also, he is the Publisher of the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland.
Bisky was born in Zollbrück, Pomerania, Germany (now Korzybie, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland), from where he came after 1945 as refugee to Schleswig-Holstein in northern West Germany. In order to get a free university education he emigrated to Communist GDR at the age of 18, and after facing initial doubts due to his heritage was allowed to join the Socialist Unity Party in 1963, but did not rise to leadership positions until shortly after the fall of communism and the resulting purge of hardliners from the party. He was rector of the University of Film and Television (Potsdam-Babelsberg) from 1986 to 1990. In 1991 he became a member of the board of directors of regional television channel ORB (now part of RBB.)

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Louis Bontes
Louis Bontes (born 28 February 1956 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch politician and former police officer. As a member of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid) he has been an MP since 17 June 2010. He focuses on matters of the European Union, civil law, security, police and foreign affairs (Africa, Middle and South America). From 2009 to 2010 he was an MEP.
Bontes worked many years in the Dutch police force, lately as district commander harbor for the Rotterdam-Rijnmond area.

wn.com/Louis_Bontes

Louis Grech
Louis Grech (born 22 March 1947 in Hamrun) is a Maltese politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Malta Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Regional Development, vice-chair of the delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula, a member of the delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, and a substitute for the delegation to the EU–Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee.
In the past he served as Chairman of the Maltese national airline, Air Malta.
In 1970 he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Balliol College, Oxford.

wn.com/Louis_Grech

Luis Yañez-Barnuevo
Luis Yáñez-Barnuevo García (b. 12 April 1943 in Coria del Río) is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. In 1977 he entered national politics when he was elected to the Spanish national parliament as a deputy for Badajoz Province and was re-elected at the 1979 election as a deputy for Seville Province, representing that district until 2004.

wn.com/Luis_Yañez-Barnuevo

László Tőkés
László Tőkés ([laːsloː tøːkeːʃ]; born April 1, 1952) is a politician from Romania of Hungarian ethnicity, currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament (since 2004) and Vice President of the European Parliament (since 2010).
A bishop of the Királyhágómellék Reformed Ecclesiastical District of the Reformed Church in Romania, he is also a former honorary president of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, and a founding member and president of the Hungarian National Council of Transylvania.
An effort to transfer him from his post as an assistant pastor in Timişoara and to evict him from his church flat helped trigger the Romanian Revolution of 1989, which overthrew Nicolae Ceauşescu and spelled the end of the communist era in Romania.
He is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group, and co-sponsored the European Parliament resolution of 2 April 2009 on European conscience and totalitarianism.
A native of Cluj, László Tőkés is the son of István Tőkés, professor of theology and former deputy bishop of the largely Hungarian Reformed Church. He was married to Edit Joó, with whom he has three children: Sons Máté and Márton, and daughter Ilona. Máté Tőkés, who was only three years old during the Revolution of 1989, later collected the memories of the friends, relatives, and other participants of the events, and in 2005 wrote Egymás tükrében ("In Each Other's Mirror"), a book about his parents and the hardships of the family.

wn.com/László_Tőkés

Léon Delacroix
Léon Frédéric Gustave Delacroix (27 December 1867, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode - 15 October 1929, Baden-Baden) was a Belgian statesman. Before entering politics, he was a renowned lawyer, and served as president of the Belgian Court of Cassation from 1917 to 1918. In the context of reconstruction after World War I, he was appointed the 22nd Prime Minister and served from 1918 to 1920. During his term, universal suffrage for men was enacted.

wn.com/Léon_Delacroix

Lívia Járóka

Lívia Járóka (born on 6 October 1974 in Tata) is a Hungarian politician of part Romani ethnicity. She is a Member of the European Parliament, elected as part of the Fidesz list in 2004. Járóka was the second Roma (but the first Roma woman) ever elected to the European Parliament; the first was Juan de Dios Ramirez Heredia from Spain, who served from 1994-1999.
Járóka grew up in Sopron, a town near Hungary's western border with Austria. Her father is ethnically Roma, her mother Hungarian. After getting an MA in sociology from the Central European University Warsaw campus on a scholarship from the Soros-funded Open Society Institute she went on to study anthropology in Britain, focusing on Romani issues and culture. In August 2003, she had a daughter. As of January 2005, she was still enrolled as a senior PhD anthropology student at University College London researching the politics of ethnic identity among Roma in Hungary.
In 2006 January she was named a Young Global Leader among other 150 prominent young figures of the world, in 2006 October among others she won the "MEP of 2006" award in the Justice and Fundamental Rights category by the Parliament Magazine.

wn.com/Lívia_Járóka

Magdi Allam
Magdi Cristiano Allam (Arabic: مجدي علام‎ Maǧdī ʿAllām; born April 22, 1952), is an Egyptian-born Italian journalist and political leader, noted for his criticism of Islamic Extremism, his defence of Judeo-Christian roots of Europe and the West, and his articles on the relations between Western culture and the Islamic world. Allam converted from Islam to Christianity during the Vatican's 2008 Easter vigil service presided over by Pope Benedict XVI. He also serves as a regional councillor in the Italian region of Basilicata after being elected in 2010 and a Member of the European Parliament for Italy since 2007.
Allam was born in Egypt and raised by Muslim parents. His mother Safeya was a believing and practicing Muslim, whereas his father Muhammad was "completely secular and agreed with the [until the early seventies wildely held] opinion of the majority of Egyptians who took the West as a model in regard to individual freedom, social customs and cultural and artistic fashions." At age four, his mother entrusted him to the care of Sister Lavinia of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, and later he was sent to a Catholic boarding school in Egypt - the Institute of Don Bosco - for junior high and high school, where he was further exposed to Western culture and civilization.

wn.com/Magdi_Allam

Mairead McGuinness
Mairead McGuinness (born 13 June 1959) is an Irish politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East constituency. She is a member of Fine Gael, part of the European People's Party.
McGuinness was the first female graduate of University College Dublin's Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural economics in 1980. In 1984, she completed a diploma in accounting and finance and went on to a career in a number of media outlets before entering politics in 2004. She worked as a researcher on The Late Late Show, as a presenter on RTÉ's Ear to the Ground and Celebrity Farm, a journalist with the Irish Farmers Journal and editor of the Irish Independent's farming supplement.
In early 2004, she declared her intention to seek a nomination for the European Parliament election for Fine Gael. This followed speculation linking her to a similar move for the Progressive Democrats. At the selection convention in February 2004, she was selected to run alongside Avril Doyle. This proved controversial^{[citation needed]}, as it was widely expected that Fine Gael could win only one of the three seats in the East constituency. However, a stronger than expected performance from Fine Gael in the election saw both women being elected.

wn.com/Mairead_McGuinness

Malcolm Harbour
Malcolm Harbour (born 19 February 1947) is a British politician. He is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands. He is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and the Chairman of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
Malcolm Harbour was educated at Bedford School (1960–64), Trinity College, Cambridge (1964–67) where he gained a BA in Mechanical Services, and at the University of Aston (1967–70) where he gained a Diploma in Management Studies. He began his career in the motor industry, working as an apprentice at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham (1967–69). From then until 1980 he held various posts in design, development and product planning in the Rover Triumph Division.
In 1980, Harbour became a director of Austin Rover with responsibilities for planning, sales and marketing. He co-founded Harbour Wade Brown, a motor industry consultancy, in 1989 and the International Car Distribution Programme Ltd in 1993, of which he remains a director. He was also briefly project director of the Three Day Car Programme (1998–99).

wn.com/Malcolm_Harbour

Malika Benarab-Attou
Malika Benarab-Attou (born 25 March 1963 in Aïn Benian, Algeria) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the South-East France constituency.
Malika Benarab-Attou was born into a Kabyle family in Algeria in 1963 and her family immigrated to France in 1968, where her father worked in a Renault factory. She was active in anti-racist organizations, yet she refused to join SOS Racisme on the ground that the latter was used for other means on the political level. She mvoed to Chambéry in 2006 in the Savoie region of South-East France.
Malika Benarab-Attou joined The Greens in 2003. In the 2009 European elections, she was the third candidate on the Europe Écologie list (the Greens) in the South-East region, and was elected to the European Parliament.
As a member of the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament, Malika Benarab-Attou is in charge of coordinating her political group's positions and actions in the fields of Culture, Education, Sports, Youth but also Media and Multilinguism.

wn.com/Malika_Benarab-Attou

Marek Gróbarczyk
Marek Józef Gróbarczyk (born March 13, 1968 in Nowy Sącz) is a Polish engineer and manager, who served as a Minister of Maritime Economy in Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński's government.
A graduate of the Maritime Academy in Gdynia and the Technological-Agricultural Academy in Bydgoszcz, he spent a number of years after finishing his studies as an officer in western civilian fleets. After this he went into private business (housing) and public service. He was a member of the boards of state-run oil corporations.
After the resignation of Maritime Economy Minister Rafał Wiechecki on August 13, 2007 (Wiechecki's party, League of Polish Families, broke the coalition with Law and Justice), Prime Minister Kaczyński named Gróbarczyk as the new minister. During his speech, Kaczyński mistakenly spelled the new minister's name as Ogarczak.
Gróbarczyk isa non-partisan. After Law and Justice's electoral defeat he will step down. In 2009 he was elected to the European Parliament for Law and Justice.

wn.com/Marek_Gróbarczyk

Marek Migalski
Dr Marek Henryk Migalski (born 14 January 1969 in Racibórz) is a Polish politician, Member of the European Parliament, political scientist, and columnist. A member of Poland Comes First (PjN), Migalski was elected to the European Parliament at the 2009 election for Law and Justice (PiS). He never joined the party, and his open criticism of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński led to his expulsion from the party's group and the creation of the more moderate PjN in late 2010.
Migalski taught Polish before studying political science at the University of Silesia, graduating in 1999. In that year, he was appointed deputy director of Euroregion Cieszyn Silesia, while earning his doctorate from the University of Silesia, which he was granted in 2001 for his thesis A Bridge Between East and West: Edvard Beneš – An Attempt to Preserve the Independence of Czechoslovakia in 1945-1948. He taught at the University of Silesia in Katowice, as well as the Humanitas Academy in Sosnowiec.
As a political scientist, Migalski was well known for his conservative views, as well as the accuracy of his predictions.In 2009, he ran for the European Parliament for Law and Justice, in the Silesian constituency. He was elected, winning 112,881 votes. However, he did not become a member of the party, and was seen as a moderate within the group.

wn.com/Marek_Migalski

Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.
After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.

wn.com/Margaret_Thatcher

Margrete Auken
Margrete Auken (born 6 January 1945) is a politician, and member of the Danish socialist party Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF), and the sister of Svend Auken. Margrete Auken was educated at the University of Copenhagen, and was a member of the Danish parliament from October 1979 to December 1990 and from September 1994 to June 2004.
She is a sognepræst (parish priest) at the Frederiksberg Church of the Danish National Church.
When she was elected as the sole candidate for SF for the European Parliament in 2004 she sparked an uproar in SF by choosing to join the European Green Party – European Free Alliance instead of the European United Left – Nordic Green League without the approval of SF.
Auken's daughter Ida Auken is also a priest and politician.

wn.com/Margrete_Auken

Marian Harkin
Marian Harkin (born 26 November 1953) is an Irish politician and is currently a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North-West constituency.
Harkin was born in Ballintogher, County Sligo in 1953. She is a graduate of University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology. She worked as a teacher of mathematics in a secondary school in Sligo town for 23 years. She lived in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim with her husband, Seán Harkin, where he ran a grocery business until his death in 1996. After her husband's death, Harkin and her two sons moved to Sligo town where they currently live.
While living in Manorhamilton, Harkin became active in the voluntary and community sector and developed the view that people living in disadvantaged areas such as Connacht had to rely on their own initiative and energy to progress development of their region. Her work at local level led to her appointment to Developing the West Together, which evolved into the Council for the West, of which Harkin became chairperson.

wn.com/Marian_Harkin

Marielle de Sarnez
Marielle de Sarnez (born 27 March 1951 in Paris) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Île-de-France. She is a member of the MoDem, vice-chair of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education.
She is also substitute for the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with South Africa and a substitute for the delegation to the EU–Chile Joint Parliamentary Committee.

wn.com/Marielle_de_Sarnez

Marielle Gallo
Marielle Gallo (born 19 May 1949 in Lons-le-Saunier, Jura) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency.
She is the wife of famous French historian and member of the French Academy, Max Gallo. She ran in a Parisian constituency in the 1993 election under the colours of the Citizens' Movement. In 2007, she joined the Modern Left, allied to President Nicolas Sarkozy. She became the party's spokesperson.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the fourth candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the Île-de-France region, and was elected to the European Parliament, where she sits with the Group of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Marielle_Gallo

Marietje Schaake
Marietje Schaake (Leiden, 28 October 1978) is a Dutch politician for the social liberal party Democrats 66. Since July 2009, she has served as a member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), as well as the Committee of International Trade (INTA) and the Committee on Culture, Media and Education (CULT). She also sits on the Parliament's Delegation for relations with the United States and the Delegation for relations with Iran, and the delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. In March 2011 the European Parliament adopted Schaake's report on the cultural dimensions of the EU's external actions. Schaake is currently the rapporteur for the first EU strategy on digital freedom in foreign policy. Marietje Schaake is a Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the Board of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. She is also vice-chair of the Supervisory Board of Free Press Unlimited, and serves on the Board of Governors of the European Internet Foundation.

wn.com/Marietje_Schaake

Marietta Giannakou
Marietta Giannakou (Greek: Μαριέττα Γιαννάκου, born June 6, 1951) is a Greek politician, member of New Democracy. She is the former Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs of Greece.
She was born in Geraki Lakonias and she became a doctor and neuro-psychologist at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Athens. She has been a member of the Greek Parliament, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Defence, and a member of the Interparty Parliamentary Committee on the examination of the drugs problem. Moreover, she is the chairman of the Greek Friendship Group between the Parliaments of Greece and Poland and member of the Greek Friendship Groups between the Parliaments of Greece and the United States and of Greece and Morocco. National Coordinator and Member of the Horizontal Working Party on Drugs of the Council of the European Union. Chairman of the Balkans/Middle East Regional Group of the Dublin Group of the Council of the European Union. Member of the Political Bureau of the European People’s Party. She was a former Minister of Health, Welfare and Social Security, as well as a former member of the Greek Parliament. She was also a former member of the European Parliament, as well as the former head of the Delegation of the New Democracy Party in the European Parliament. She used to be the chairman of the European Committee “Fourth World”, as well as the former vice-president of the European Christian Democratic Union. In her lifetime, she has published numerous scientific articles and reports pertaining to European perspectives towards drug problems, organized crime, women in contemporary societies, as well as social policies.

wn.com/Marietta_Giannakou

Marije Cornelissen
Marije Cornelissen (March 9, 1974 in Stiens) is a Dutch politician. In the 2009 she was elected in the European Parliament.
Cornelissen grew up in a leftwing and feminist family. At a young age she participated in the demonstrations against the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the Netheralnds. As the only atheist student she attended a strict catholic primary school. Cornelissen studied international relations at the University of Utrecht, where specialized in conflict studies.
Since the 1990s Cornelissen has been active in the GreenLeft. Between 1996 and 1997 she worked as assistant to MEP Nel van Dijk on women's rights (between 1996 and 1997). In addition she was active in the Feminist Network of the GreenLeft (chair between 1996 and 2001) and she was active in the European Green Party, where she coordinated the dialogue between East and West European Greens (Dutch delegate between 1999 and 2006). She also worked at the party bureau (1997–1999) and was a member of the party board (2001–2005). Between 2002 and 2003 she was international secretary of the GreenLeft where she participated in the Dutch demonstrations against the War in Iraq. In 2004 European Parliament election she was put on the eight spot of the GreenLeft list.

wn.com/Marije_Cornelissen

Marina Yannakoudakis
Marina Yannakoudakis (born 16 April 1956) is a Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament for London first elected at the 2009 European Parliament election.
Yannakoudakis was born in Paddington. She studied for a BSc in government, politics and modern history at Brunel University, where she was chairman of the Conservative students, and also received an MA in education from the Open University.
She was a member of Barnet London Borough Council for Oakleigh Park Ward from 2006 to 2010 where she was a member of the appeals committee.
She is a full member of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and a substitute member of the Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering. She is a member of the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee.
She is also a member of the High-Level Contact Group for relations with the Turkish Cypriot community in the northern part of the island. She is the Conservative and the European Conservatives and Reformists spokesman on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.

wn.com/Marina_Yannakoudakis

Mario Mauro
Mario Mauro (born July 24, 1961 in San Giovanni Rotondo) is an Italian Member of the European Parliament and a teacher of history. He's married with Giovanna, they have two children, Francesca Romana and Angelo. He graduated in Lettere and Filosofia at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) in Milan, in 1985. In 2008 he started teaching at the Università Europea di Roma.
Mauro was first elected at the European Parliament in 1999 with the PPE-DE group. From 1999 to 2004 he was Vice President for the Education and Culture Commission. On July 20, 2004 he was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.. In June 2009 he was elected again at the European Parliament. Currently he holds, in addition to his position as European Parliamentary, the following positions: 1) Personal Representative of the OSCE presidency against racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with special reference to discrimination against Christians (2009). 2) Professor contracted "Fundamental human rights in natural law and international agreements" and "History of European institutions" at the European University of Rome (since 2008). In his parliamentary duties, which can be accessed http://www.europarl.europa.eu, he maintains a dynamic work of monitoring the activity of the Commission for the promotion and defense of human rights in various parts of the world and protection of activists who suffer persecution or discrimination of local authorities.

wn.com/Mario_Mauro

Marit Paulsen
Marit Eli Paulsen, née Björnerud, (born 24 November 1939 in Oslo) is a Norwegian-born Swedish politician, and a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Party of Sweden 1999-2004 and 2009–present. She is a well-known figure in the Swedish public debate on environmental and food quality issues, initially as a non-partisan, and was an avid proponent of Swedish membership in the European Union during the EU membership referendum campaign in 1994.
In 1998 she joined the Liberal Party, and served as 2nd Vice President of the party 1999-2007. In the 2009 European Parliament elections, she was elected to the European Parliament as top candidate of the Liberal Party list. She gained more personal votes than any other Swedish candidate.

wn.com/Marit_Paulsen

Marita Ulvskog
Marita Ulvskog (born 4 September 1951 in Luleå) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician. She was a member of the Riksdag 1998-2009. She was the Swedish Minister for Home Affairs from 1994 to 1996 and Minister for Culture from 1996 to 2004. She was the party secretary of the Social Democrats 2004-2009.
On 30 September 2008 it was revealed that Ulvskog would be the number one candidate for the Social Democrats in the 2009 elections för the EU parliament, even though she during the 90's was involved in the critical debate on EU. She was elected with a strong support of personal votes and now serves as a member of the European parliament. She is the vice president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats at the European parliament.

wn.com/Marita_Ulvskog

Mark Eyskens
Marc Maria Frans, Viscount Eyskens (born 29 April 1933), known as Mark Eyskens [ˈmɑɾk ˈʔɛɪ̯skəns] (

listen), is a Belgian economist and politician in the Christian People's Party (Belgium), now called Christian Democratic and Flemish, and briefly served as Prime Minister of Belgium in 1981.
He was born in Leuven, the son of Gaston Eyskens, and lived for a time at the International House of New York. When Germany invaded Belgium Eyskens and his mother fled to France but upon the Belgian capitulation the family returned to Leuven.
In 1953 Mark Eyskens attained a bachelor's degree in philosophy. In 1956 Eyskens became a doctor iuris at the University of Leuven. In 1957 he obtained a Master of Arts in Economics at Columbia University. In 1962 he received a doctorate in economic sciences. In 1962 he became a professor at the University of Leuven (1962–1998). From 1971 to 1976 he was chairman of the university. He was a member of the Club of Rome (1972–1978).
In 1962 Eyskens started his political career as a counsellor in the cabinet of the Minister of Finance André Dequae.

wn.com/Mark_Eyskens

Markus Pieper
Markus Pieper (b. 15 May 1963, Hamelin) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Markus_Pieper

Marta Andreasen
Marta Andreasen (born 26 November 1954) is an Argentine-born Spanish accountant, employed in January 2002 by the European Commission as Chief Accountant, and notable for raising concerns about flaws in the commission's accounting system which she felt left the commission vulnerable to potential fraud. She was subsequently elected as a Member of the European Parliament for United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in 2009.
She qualified in 1977 as a certified public accountant in Buenos Aires, then worked for five years as an auditor at Price Waterhouse. From 1982 on she worked as a finance and administration manager, then as a regional finance director at various companies, such as Rockwell Automation and Lotus Development, mostly in Spain.^{[citation needed]}
She joined the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1998, where she reported serious problems with its accounting system, raised her concerns with the management and suggested ways of reforms. After initial resistance, Arthur Andersen were assigned for an outside analysis. In August 2000, their report described the OECD's internal accounting systems as outdated and inadequate. Andreasen, however, was suspended from her job for 15 months.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Marta_Andreasen

Martin Callanan
Martin Callanan (born 8 August 1961) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the North East England constituency since 1999, and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009.
Callanan was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Before becoming an MEP, he stood as a parliamentary candidate for Washington (in the 1987 election), Gateshead East (in the 1992 election), and Tynemouth (in the 1997 election).
He vehemently opposed the erection of the "Angel of the North" sculpture by Antony Gormley.
Before his election to the European Parliament, Callanan worked as a project engineer at Scottish and Newcastle breweries and holds a BSc degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Newcastle Polytechnic. Callanan was the last Conservative member of Gateshead Borough Council, before standing down in 1996. He is a member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Callanan is a regular contributor to ConservativeHome, writing a monthly report.

wn.com/Martin_Callanan

Martin Ehrenhauser
Martin Ehrenhauser (born September the 18, 1978) is an Austrian Member of the European Parliament. He took his seat in the parliament when Hans-Peter Martin's List, an independent Austrian list led by author and MEP Hans-Peter Martin gained 17.7% of the Austrian vote in the 2009 elections for the European Parliament.
He, like his former mentor Hans-Peter Martin, has gained wide media attention for exposing 'scandals' in the European Union.

wn.com/Martin_Ehrenhauser

Mary Honeyball
Mary Hilda Rosamund Honeyball (born 12 November 1952 in Weymouth, Dorset) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party representing London. She has been a member of the European Parliament since 2000. Seventh on Labour's 1999 list, she had not been elected in the European Parliament Election, 1999, but replaced Pauline Green who resigned as an MEP in November 1999.
Before her election to the European Parliament, Honeyball's career was in the charitable and non-governmental sector. During the 1980s she ran the Council for Voluntary Service in the London Borough of Newham, before going on to work as a Senior Manager for SCOPE, the cerebral palsy charity. She was later the General Secretary of the Association of Chief Officers of Probation from 1994 to 1998, and prior to that Chief Executive of Gingerbread, the charity for single parent families. She was also a councillor in the London Borough of Barnet from 1978 to 1986. Honeyball unsuccessfully contested Norwich North for Labour in 1987.

wn.com/Mary_Honeyball

Matthias Groote
Matthias Groote is a German politician and has been a Member of the European Parliament since October 2005. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which is a part of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. He is the current chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the delegation for relations with Japan. He is a substitute on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Matthias Groote was born on 21 October 1973 in Leer and went to secondary school in Westrhauderfehn, taking the leaving exam in 1990. He became an industrial engineer in 1995 and worked on plant design. In 1995 and 1996 he ran an alternate public service with the German Red Cross. He was a technical engineer in 1999, became a qualified industrial engineer in 2005, and also became a sales engineer in 2005.
Matthias Groote has been a member of the Ostrhauderfehn local council since 1996, a member of the Leer district council since 2001, and the chair of the Ostrhauderfehn SPD council group since 2001. He first became a member of the Social Democratic Party in 1996 and has been a member of the Leer SPD District Executive since 1997. He was chair of the Leer District Young Socialists from 1997 to 2002, vice-chair of the Weser-Ems District Young Socialists from 1999 to 2002, and has been a member of the Executive of the Weser-Ems Social-Democratic Association for Local Politics since 2003.

wn.com/Matthias_Groote

Matti Vanhanen
Matti Taneli Vanhanen (

pronunciation (help·info)) (born November 4, 1955) is a Finnish politician who was Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party, and in the second half of 2006 he was President of the European Council. In his earlier career he was a journalist.
Vanhanen is the son of professor Tatu Vanhanen and Anni Tiihonen. He is an abstainer of alcohol and 2 meters tall.
He studied political science at the University of Helsinki, graduating as a Master of Social Sciences in 1989. He was chairman of the Centre Party Youth League from 1980 to 1983. He also served as a member of the Espoo City Council from 1981 to 1984. Vanhanen used to work as a journalist. He was an editor (1985–1988) and editor-in-chief (1988–1991) at the local newspaper Kehäsanomat. In a column in Suomenmaa (the Centre Party’s organ), he strongly condemned the Baltic Star pro-Estonian independence demonstration held in Helsinki in July 1985, calling the demonstration "provocative".

wn.com/Matti_Vanhanen

Maurice Ponga
Maurice Ponga (born 5 June 1947 in Kouaoua, New Caledonia) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Overseas constituency.
Ponga is a Melanesian (Kanak), but unlike most Kanaks, he opposes New Caledonia's independence from France and is a member of The Rally-UMP, a major anti-independence party. He has represented the party, known as RPCR until 2002, in the Congress of New Caledonia between 1995 and 2009. While in office, he participated in all but one New Caledonian government. Most recently, as Minister of Youth and Sports in the Martin II government, he played a major role in the success of Noumea's bid for the 2011 Pacific Games.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the UMP's candidate in the Pacific Section of the Overseas constituency, and his candidacy was locally supported by all anti-independence parties. The UMP won one seat in the constituency with 29.7% of the votes, and since the UMP obtained its highest result in the Pacific Section (44.4%), Ponga was elected to the European Parliament. He is the second New Caledonian and second Kanak to serve as an MEP, after Dick Ukeiwé (also a member of the RPCR), who served between 1989 and 1994.

wn.com/Maurice_Ponga

Małgorzata Handzlik
Małgorzata Handzlik (born January 1, 1965 in Bielsko-Biała) is a member of the European Parliament. She was elected in 2004 by the Polish people as a candidate of Citizens Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, "PO").
She learned Esperanto in the 1980s during her travels with her husband George Handzlik, an Esperanto singer, writer, publisher, and teacher. Apart from promoting her party's objectives, Handzlik has declared to stand in for multilingualism and equal linguistic rights for all citizens. Handzlik is a fluent speaker of Esperanto and proposes to investigate the possible role of this language as a second language for all Europeans.

wn.com/Małgorzata_Handzlik

Metin Kazak
Metin Kazak (Bulgarian: Метин Казак; born 29 July 1972) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of European Parliament. He is a member of Movement for Rights and Freedoms. He was first elected to the European Parliament in 2007, and re-elected in 2009.

wn.com/Metin_Kazak

Michael Cramer
Michael Cramer (born 16 June 1949 in Gevelsberg) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Greens.

wn.com/Michael_Cramer

Michael Gahler
Michael Gahler (born April 22, 1960 Frankfurt/Main) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Hesse. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
He studied in Mainz and Dijon (1981-87) before training as a lawyer. He joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1990, moved to work for the CDU in 1993. He has been a politician since 1986, when he won a seat on the city council of Hattersheim. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1999.
He is Vice-President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and a member of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the delegation for relations with Iran.
He is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

wn.com/Michael_Gahler

Michalis Tremopoulos
Michalis Tremopoulos (Greek: Μιχάλης Τρεμόπουλος, b. 3 March 1958, Serres) is a Greek journalist, lawyer, environmentalist and politician. Member of European Parliament since 2009.
He graduated in law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1991, and in social ecology at the Goddard College in Vermont in 1993. He worked as a TV, radio and newspaper journalist.
He is a member of Ecologist Greens party. He won a seat in the European parliament in 2009 EP elections.

wn.com/Michalis_Tremopoulos

Michel Dantin
Michel Dantin (born 15 January 1960, Lyon) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the South-East France constituency. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.
In 1983 at age 23, he became a municipal councillor in Chambéry under Gaullist mayor Pierre Dumas. In 1985, he was elected to the General Council of Savoie for the Rally for the Republic, becoming the youngest councillor. He was Vice President of the General Council under the presidencies of Michel Barnier (1994–98). When seeking a third cantonal term in 1998, he was defeated by Socialist candidate Thierry Repentin. However, he was re-elected as municipal councillor on the RPR or UMP lists in 1989, 1995, 2001 and 2008.
He served in the ministerial cabinets of Hervé Gaymard and Dominique Bussereau between 2002 and 2007, and since 2007 in the cabinet of Michel Barnier.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the sixth candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the South-East region, but he was not elected. However, the fifth UMP MEP, Nora Berra, will not sit in the European Parliament due to her appointment to the government and Dantin will take her seat.

wn.com/Michel_Dantin

Michèle Rivasi
Michèle Rivasi (born February 9, 1953 in Montélimar, Drôme) is Member of the European Parliament, representing South East France for Europe Écologie–The Greens.
A former teacher at the École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines (Eng: Normal Superior school of Letters and Human Sciences), in 1986 she founded the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity following the Chernobyl disaster.
Rivasi represented the Drôme's 1st constituency (Valence) between 1997 and 2002. She was classfied as an independent ecologist close to the PS, but has since joined Europe Écologie–The Greens.
From September 2003 to November 2004, she was the director of Greenpeace in France.
In 2009, The Greens selected her to lead the Europe Écologie list in the South-East constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections, in addition to which she is an assistant to the Mayor of Valence, and a member of the General Council of the Drôme.

wn.com/Michèle_Rivasi

Michèle Striffler
Michèle Striffler (born 23 August 1957 in Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the East constituency.
She was a member of the liberal wing of the Socialist Party, close to Jean-Marie Bockel, but she joined Bockel's Modern Left (LGM). The Modern Left is a member of the presidential majority of Nicolas Sarkozy. Striffler is assistant to the mayor of Mulhouse, Bockel.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the second candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the East region, and was elected to the European Parliament, where she sits with the Group of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Michèle_Striffler

Miguel Portas
Miguel de Sacadura Cabral Portas (1 May 1958 – 24 April 2012) was a Portuguese politician and a Member of the European Parliament for the Left Bloc, part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group. He was a member of the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament and a member of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries.
Miguel Portas was the older brother of current Foreign Affairs Minister and leader of the right-wing CDS–PP, Paulo Portas, and a great-nephew of Artur de Sacadura Cabral.
Miguel Portas got a Degree in Economics, at School of Economics and Management, in 1986. He worked has a cultural animator in the county of Ourique (1984), sociocultural animator and trainer in the Algarve hills as agents of development (1987). Moving on a career as a journalist, he was director of the cultural magazine "Contraste" (1986) and later he was hired as editor of the weekly journal "Expresso" (1988), where he was the international editor between 1992 and 1994. He also directed the weekly "Já" (1996), he was a reporter for magazine "Vida Mundial" (1998-1999), columnist for "Diário de Notícias" (2000-2006) and the weekly "Sol" (2008-2012). He was co-author and host of two television documentary series, "Indian Ocean" (2000) and "Periplus" (2004), on the Mediterranean. He had three books published: "And the rest is landscape" (2002, chronicles, essays and interviews), "The Labyrinth" (2006 - on Lebanon) and "Periplus" (2009 - dedicated to the Mediterranean).

wn.com/Miguel_Portas

Mike Nattrass
Mike Nattrass MEP FRICS is an English politician and Member of the European Parliament, representing the West Midlands constituency for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), elected for the first time in June 2004 and re-elected in June 2009.
Born on 14 December 1945 in Leeds, Yorkshire, with Black Country links on his mother’s side, he is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) and co-founder, in the 1980s, of Nattrass Giles, a commercial property business.
Nattrass joined the New Britain Party in 1994 whose candidates were absorbed into the Referendum Party in 1997. He gained the highest vote in the West Midlands for the Referendum Party at the 1997 general election.^{[citation needed]} In 1998, he accepted an invitation to join UKIP from its leader Michael Holmes and sat on the UKIP National Executive Committee. In 2000 he became Party Chairman under Leader Jeffrey Titford and from 2002 to 2006 he was Deputy Leader under Roger Knapman.
Nattrass stood in many by elections and general elections representing UKIP, including the May 2008 Crewe and Nantwich by-election and in South Staffordshire at the general election in 2010.

wn.com/Mike_Nattrass

Milan Zver
Milan Zver (born 25 May 1962) is a Slovenian politician, sociologist and political scientist. He currently serves as vice-president of the Slovenian Democratic Party. Between 2004 and 2008, he was Minister for Education and Sports in Janez Janša's centre right government. In the European elections of 2009, he received the highest number of preferential votes in Slovenia, and was subsequently elected to the European Parliament.
He is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.
Zver was born in Ljubljana, former Yugoslavia, but spent most of his childhood in the village of Destrnik in the eastern Slovenian region of Styria. After finishing high school in Ptuj, he enrolled to the University of Ljubljana, where he studied sociology and political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences. He graduated in 1987 and continued his studies at the University of Graz under the supervision of the scholar Horst Haselsteiner. He obtained his MA in 1990, but in 1992 he left the research work at the university and decided to undertake public service in Slovenia instead. A member of Slovenian Social Democratic Party since 1990, Zver served as advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister Jože Pučnik and later to the Minister of Defence Janez Janša. After the Social Democratic Party left Janez Drnovšek's coalition government in 1994, Zver served as a secretary of the Municipal Council of Ljubljana until 1999, and later as an advisor to the parliamentary group of the Slovenian Social Democratic Party (now known as the Slovenian Democratic Party) in the National Assembly of Slovenia. From 2002 to 2004, he served as member of the Municipal Council of Ljubljana.

wn.com/Milan_Zver

Miloslav Ransdorf
Miloslav Ransdorf (born 15 February 1953 in Rakovník) is a Czech politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left party group in the European Parliament.
He was videotaped sleeping through a committee session of the European Parliament

wn.com/Miloslav_Ransdorf

Mirek Topolánek
Mirek Topolánek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmɪrɛk ˈtopolaːnɛk]) (born 15 May 1956) is a former prime minister of the Czech Republic and former President of the European Council. A member of the Civic Democratic Party, he was chairman of the center-right party between November 2002 and March 2010, succeeding Václav Klaus, who was elected President in 2003.
On 24 March 2009, Topolánek announced his resignation as Prime Minister – and that of his governing coalition, after it lost a no-confidence vote in the Czech House of Deputies. He remained in office until 8 May, at which point Jan Fischer took office as an independent Prime Minister leading an interim caretaker government
Mirek Topolánek attended a military high school in Opava, where he became a Socialistic Union of Youth member which he claimed to be semi-obligatory for future officers. After finishing he studied at Brno University of Technology where he received an Ing. degree in mechanical engineering. In 1996 he won a scholarship for Training Course in Management of small and medium enterprise (MIM) in Cyprus and also attended a post-graduate Course in Corporate Management (Centre for Management Training, Čelákovice CZ).

wn.com/Mirek_Topolánek

Miroslav Ouzký
Miroslav Ouzký (born 18 August 1958 in Chlumec nad Cidlinou) is a Czech Member of the European Parliament. He was elected on the Civic Democratic Party ticket and sits with the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
He studied medicine at university in Prague. He worked as a surgeon and director of a hospital in Kadaň. Thereafter, he served in a city council. In 1998 he was elected as a member of the Czech Parliament until 2004. Since then he has been a member of the European Parliament. On 20 July 2004 he was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. In February 2007, he became the Chair of the Environmental Committee of the European Parliament, succeeding Karl-Heinz Florenz.
He is married, and has a son and daughter.

wn.com/Miroslav_Ouzký

Mitro Repo
Mitro Repo (born September 3, 1958) is a Finnish orthodox priest and member of the European Parliament since 2009, elected as an independent candidate on the Social Democratic Party's ticket.
Repo is a third generation priest. He studied theology at the University of Helsinki.
Repo's position on the Finnish Church's involvement in splitting the Estonian Orthodox Church^{[disambiguation needed ]} led him into a conflict with metropolitan Johannes in the 1990s and finally to his temporary suspension.
Repo has been a popular speaker and commentator in radio and television talk shows. In addition to his church services, he has visited workers in their factories and financial and business leaders.
Repo was asked by several parties to run as a candidate in European Parliament elections, and he finally chose the Social Democrats. His decision to stand in the election led to a conflict between Repo and the church leadership. In the end, the Finnish Orthodox Church banned him from serving in religious services and wearing his trademark priestly outfit.

wn.com/Mitro_Repo

Monica Macovei
Monica Luisa Macovei (Romanian pronunciation: [moˈnika luˈiza] or [luˈisa] [makoˈvej]; born 4 February 1959 ) is a Romanian politician, lawyer and former prosecutor, currently a Member of the European Parliament from the Democratic Liberal Party. She was the Minister of Justice of Romania in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. In this position she was credited with implementing justice reforms that helped Romania enter the European Union (EU) on January 1, 2007.
Monica Macovei graduated in 1982 with honors from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest; in 1994 she received a master's of law in comparative constitutional law from the University of the State of New York/Central European University. She has served as a lecturer in law at the University of Bucharest. She has also authored a number of books and articles on legal and human rights themes.
Macovei was a prosecutor between 1983 and 1997, during the Communist and in the post-Communist Romania, resigning after an investigation by the Prosecutor's Office accused her of "repeated negligence in dealing with cases and repeated delays in resolving some cases". From 1997 to 2004 she was a lawyer with the Bucharest Bar.

wn.com/Monica_Macovei

Monika Beňová
Monika Flašíková-Beňová (born August 15, 1968, Bratislava) is a member of the European Parliament from the party Smer in Slovakia. She is a member of the Party of European Socialists.
She presently serves on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.
She directed several companies between 1992-1999. In 1999 she became vicechairwoman of Smer, a socialdemocratic party in Slovakia. Having been elected to the Slovakian Parliament on October 15 of 2002, she got involved in the Committee for European Integration, which she directed. After that she took part in the Joint Parliamentary Committee between the European Parliament and the Slovakian one. She was observer at the European Parliament from 2003 to 2004. In the European Parliament Elections of 2004, she became member of the European Parliament. She was re-elected in the European Parliament Elections of 2009, receiving the most personal preference votes of any candidate in Slovakia.
She is married to businessman Fedor Flašík and stood for election as Monika Flašíková-Beňová in the 2009 elections.

wn.com/Monika_Beňová

Morten Løkkegaard
Morten Løkkegaard, born 20 December 1964, is a Venstre Party MEP representing Denmark. He was elected in 2009.

wn.com/Morten_Løkkegaard

Morten Messerschmidt
Morten Messerschmidt (born 13 November 1980) LL.M., is member of the European Parliament for the Danish People's Party. He won his seat in a landslide in the 2009 elections with 284,500 personal votes.
Before taking his seat in the European Parliament, he was a member of the Danish parliament (Danish: Folketinget) from 8 February 2005, having won his seat with 3,812 personal votes.

wn.com/Morten_Messerschmidt

Nathalie Griesbeck
Natalie Griesbeck (born 24 May 1956 in Metz) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the East of France. She is a member of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
She sits on the Committee on Budgets and is a substitute for the Committee on Transport and Tourism. She is also a member of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Mercosur and a substitute for the delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and ASEAN.
She was the second candidate in the East constituency on the MoDem list, while Jean-François Kahn was the top candidate. The list only won one seat, but Kahn resigned before the session opened, giving his position to Griesbeck.
Griesbeck has a master's degree in public law (1979) and postgraduate diplomas (DEAs) in public law (1980) and legal history (1981). She was formerly a lecturer in public law at the University of Metz, and has also served as deputy mayor of Metz, with responsibility for finance and economic development, vice-chair of Metz Council, with responsibility for economic development, a member of the Moselle Council, and chair of Transcité (2001–2003). She holds the Palmes académiques and the Ordre National du Mérite.

wn.com/Nathalie_Griesbeck

Nessa Childers
Nessa Maria Vereker Childers (born 9 October 1956) is an Irish Labour Party (S&D) politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East constituency since 2009.
She is the daughter of the fourth President of Ireland, Erskine H. Childers and his second wife, Rita Childers. She has an Arts and Psychology degree from Trinity College, Dublin and a postgraduate diploma from University College Dublin. She previously worked as a psychoanalyst in private practice.
She is a former councillor for the Green Party in Blackrock in south Dublin. She was elected in 2004 and resigned from her seat in August 2008.
Childers originally joined the Labour Party before the 2004 local elections, but when she failed to get a nomination to run for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, she switched to the Green Party and was elected as a Green councillor.
In September 2008 she resigned from the Green Party to run for the Labour Party in the East constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election.

wn.com/Nessa_Childers

Niccolò Rinaldi
In 2009 he was elected at the European Parliament with Italia dei Valori. He is member of the ALDE group, of which he has been, since 2000 and until the election, general secretary adjunct. He is currently Vice President for the group. He is also head of delegation for IDV (Italia dei Valori) at the European Parliament.
Born in Florence in 1962, he graduated in Political Science with a dissertation on the "road economy" in Dakar, which was the result of a "field research" in Senegal. He was responsible for the information at the UN in Afghanistan. He lived in Peshawar (Pakistan's turbulent city on the border with Afghanistan), Kabul and in the rest of the country. Afghanistan has been a harsh and exciting period, a school of life - a period in which he wrote some books ("Islam, guerra e dintorni", published by L'Harmattan (Italy) with a foreword by Jas Gawronski and translated into French under the title of "Dieu, guerre and autres paysages" with a foreword by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, "Droga di Dio", published by L'Ancora, the tale "Firenze, Herat e la forza di Kabul", published in "Imago Mundi: Piazza di Guerra", edizioni Festina Lente). In 1991 he left the United Nations and he started working at the European Parliament, as political adviser. In 2000 he became one of the Secretaries General of the Parliament. He also managed the implementation of various projects with multimedia installations in Florence for the collective memory about the blockade of town (e.g. "Piazza di guerra", 2003), the Rwandan genocide ("Silence for Rwanda", 2004), the Holocaust ("Anatomy of a Genocide", 2009, which has been recently published by Giuntina with the title "Piccola anatomia di un genocidio - Auschwitz e oltre). In 2009 he was elected MEP with Italia dei Valori . He is now Vice-President for ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) and IDV Head of Delegation in the European Parliament.

wn.com/Niccolò_Rinaldi

Nicole Kiil-Nielsen
Nicole Kiil-Nielsen (born 21 August 1949, in Larchamp) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the West France constituency. She is a member of The Greens.
She has been a feminist and anti-nuclear activist since the 1960s. She won her first elected office in the 2001 municipal elections in Rennes as a candidate on Edmond Hervé's winning left-wing coalition list. She became assistant to the Mayor in charge of decentralized co-operation and international solidarity. However, in the 2008 municipal elections, she did not join Daniel Delaveau's left-wing union list and led her own list, Rennes verte et solidaire, which won 8.93% in the first round and did not participate in the runoff.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the second candidate on the Europe Écologie list in the West region and was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Nicole_Kiil-Nielsen

Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage (

/ˈfærɑːʒ/, FARR-ahzh; born 3 April 1964, Farnborough, Kent), is a British politician and is the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a position he also held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.
Farage is a founding member of the UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after they signed the Maastricht Treaty. Having unsuccessfully campaigned in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994, he gained a seat as an MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament Election — the first year the regional list system was used — and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage describes himself as a libertarian and rejects the notion that he is a conservative.
In September 2006, Farage became the UKIP Leader and led the party through the 2009 European Parliament Election in which it received the second highest share of the popular vote, defeating Labour and the Liberal Democrats with over two million votes. However he stepped down in November 2009 to concentrate on contesting the Speaker John Bercow's seat of Buckingham in the 2010 general election.

wn.com/Nigel_Farage

Niki Tzavela
Niki Tzavela (Greek: Νίκη Τζαβέλλα; born 30 June 1947 in Lamia) is 1 of the 22 Greek MEPs in the European parliament. She headed the EP list of LAOS. She is Vice-Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the United States of America and Vice-Chair of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group in the European Parliament. She is a Member of the Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy and a Member of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. She has also been a MP in the Greek parliament between 1994 and 1996.
Former non political positions include Head of the Greek Manpower Employment Organisation (1989-1993), Vice-Chair of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Organising Committee (OEOA), and Vice-Chair of the Kokkalis Foundation.
Tzavela attained her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Psychology from Howard University in Washington, DC and her Master’s in Labour Economics from Leeds University.
She is a Board Member of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

wn.com/Niki_Tzavela

Nikki Sinclaire
Nicole "Nikki" Sinclaire (born 26 July 1968 in London) is a European politician from the United Kingdom and is a current Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands. She was elected MEP in June 2009 as a UK Independence Party candidate but had the UKIP whip withdrawn in 2010.
Educated at the University of Kent at Canterbury graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) qualification. Sinclaire has worked for Lloyds as a 'problem troubleshooter', was employed as a Gateway store manager and worked in Cyprus in the hospitality sector.^{[citation needed]}
Sinclaire held many positions within UKIP including Head Office Manager (1999–2001), member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Party Secretary under the leadership of Roger Knapman.
In 2001 she was disqualified from the NEC, shortly after being elected.^{[citation needed]} In 2003, representing herself, she took UKIP to the High Court, successfully overturning her disqualification.^{[citation needed]} In 2004 she became Party Secretary, a position which she left to become political assistant and advisor to Mike Nattrass, MEP for the West Midlands (2004–2009).^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Nikki_Sinclaire

Nirj Deva
Niranjan Joseph "Nirj" De Silva Deva-Aditya FRSA DL (born 11 May 1948) is a politician from the United Kingdom. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been a Member of the European Parliament representing South East England since 1999. He was previously a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons from 1992 to 1997, representing the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth.
Deva was born in Sri Lanka into a politically active family, and was raised in Britain. He was only the fourth Asian-born person to be elected a Member of the House of Commons, and was the first Asian-born person to be elected as a Conservative member of the European Parliament.
Deva was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to a leading family of Rajasthani (Indian) descent, and is a Roman Catholic. He spent his Primary and secondary education at St.Joseph's College, which is a leading Catholic school in Colombo. He holds Sri Lankan and British citizenship, and speaks Sinhalese and English.
Deva was educated at Loughborough University, where he completed a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and was subsequently a Postgraduate Research Fellow in Economics.

wn.com/Nirj_Deva

Norica Nicolai
Norica Nicolai (born Norica Clinci; January 27, 1958) is a Romanian lawyer and politician. A member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), she was a member of the Romanian Senate for Cluj County from 2000 to 2008, and has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2009. She was at the centre of a conflict between Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu and President Traian Băsescu in early 2008, with the latter rejecting, ultimately successfully, the former's nomination of Nicolai to be Justice Minister.
She is married and has one child.
She was born in Sinaia, and, following secondary studies at the town's George Enescu High School, in 1983 she graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest; she also holds a doctorate in criminal law. From 1983 to 1991, she was a prosecutor at the Olteniţa courthouse, and from 1991 to 1993 was legal adviser to a rural trucking company in Călăraşi. She worked as a lawyer in the same city from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2001, Nicolai was president of the Economic and Social Council, a public institution that facilitates dialogue between employers, unions and the government; and was a secretary of state at the Labour Ministry from 1997 to 2000. She belonged to the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNŢ-CD) from 1997 until August 2000, when it expelled her for signing a declaration in support of then-PNL member Theodor Stolojan; the PNŢ-CD supported Mugur Isărescu in the upcoming presidential election.

wn.com/Norica_Nicolai

Nuno Teixeira
Nuno Severiano Teixeira (born November 5, 1957 in Guinea-Bissau) is a Portuguese politician.
He was the Minister of Internal Administration in the 14th Constitutional Government of Portugal. He was the Minister of National Defense between 2006 and 2009.

wn.com/Nuno_Teixeira

Ole Christensen
Ole Christensen aka. Ole EU (born 7 May 1955 in Pandrup, North Jutland) is a Danish politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Social Democrats, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Regional Development and a member of the delegation to the EU–Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Christensen worked as an ironmonger from 1971 to 1976, before joining the Queen's Lifeguard Regiment as a Junior NCO (1976-90). During his service, he was a senior shop steward and member of the National Executive of HKKF trade union for non-commissioned army personnel.
He was Vice-Chairman of the Danish TUC in Brovst (1984-1988), and Chairman of Brovst constituency organisation (1984-1989). He then served as a member of Brovst town council (1989-2004), including terms of office as Mayor (1998-2002) and Deputy Mayor (2002-2004).
Having matriculated at the Aalborg School of Commerce in 1979, and graduated Bachelor of Commerce in 1984, he qualified and worked as an instructor at Aalborg Training School in 1990 before becoming a business consultant with Aalborg Trade Council (1992-98). He has been involved in various other trade union and local government organizations in North Jutland.

wn.com/Ole_Christensen

Olle Schmidt
Torsten Olof "Olle" Fredrik Schmidt (born July 22, 1949 in Axvall, Västra Götaland County) is a Swedish politician. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Liberal People's Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, between 1999 and 2004, and again since 2006.
He sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. He is also a member of the Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners and a member of the delegation for relations with Croatia.

wn.com/Olle_Schmidt

Othmar Karas
Othmar Karas (born 24 December 1957 in Ybbs an der Donau, Lower Austria) is an Austrian politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Austrian People's Party, vice-chair of the EPP-ED group, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, a member of the delegation for relations with Japan, a substitute for the delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China, and a member of the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013.
He is married to Dr. Christa Waldheim-Karas, daughter of Kurt Waldheim and Elisabeth Waldheim.

wn.com/Othmar_Karas

Paavo Lipponen
Paavo Tapio Lipponen (

pronunciation (help·info)) (born 23 April 1941) is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005. He also served as Speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2003–2007 and was his party's nominee in the 2012 Finnish presidential election but received only 6.7% of the votes, making it the biggest defeat the Social Democratic Party has ever had in Finnish Presidential elections.
Lipponen was born in Turtola (subsequently renamed Pello), son of Orvo Lipponen and his wife Hilkka Iisalo. Paavo's maternal grandparents were Jaakko Antero Ingman/Iisalo (a distant relative of Count Adolf Fredrik Munck af Fulkila and Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim) and his wife Siiri Törnroos. Paavo Lipponen spent his childhood and youth in Kuopio.
Receiving his gymnasium diploma from the Lyceum of Kuopio in 1959, he then studied philosophy and literature at Dartmouth College for one year.

wn.com/Paavo_Lipponen

Paolo De Castro
Paolo De Castro (born 2 February 1958) is an Italian politician, and former Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies. In 2009 he was elected to the European Parliament, and currently serves as chair of the parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
He has also served as professor of Agricultural Economics at the Veterinary Medicine University of Bologna. He is married and has two sons.
Born in San Pietro Vernotico, Apulia, in 1980 he graduated he graduated at Bologna getting the maximum mark in Agricultural Science.
From January 2001 to May 2004 the Minister chaired the "Nomisma" Economics' Studies Institute. He also chaired the Qualivita Foundation and currently runs the International Agricultural Policy Magazine edited by the Informatore Agrario in Verona. He is professor at the Agriculture Academy of Bologna, the Georgofili Agricultural Economics Academy of Florence, the Agriculture Academy of Pesaro and the National Academy of Treja. From 1996 to 1998 he was economic advisor of Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Economic Advisor of the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Resources, Michele Pinto. Since 1 June to 31 December 2000 he was appointed as special Advisor of the EU Commission's President. From 21 October 1998 to 25 April 2000 he served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Policies in both Governments chaired by Massimo D'Alema. On November 2000, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi awarded him the "Cavaliere di Gran Croce al merito della Repubblica Italiana"merit honour. He is scientific coordinator of the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) in Paris, and scientific Director of the Genio Rurale Magazine: a magazine on goods evaluation and territory science of Edagricole. He is also member of the Italian Agricultural Economists' Society (SIDEA) and of the European Agricultural Economics Association (EAEA).

wn.com/Paolo_De_Castro

Pascal Canfin
Pascal Canfin (born in Arras on 22 August 1974) is a French politician, currently serving as Deputy Minister for Development under the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A member of Europe Écologie–The Greens, he was a Member of the European Parliament between the 2009 European election, when he was elected in the Île-de-France constituency, and his appointment to Government.
Pascal Canfin graduated initially from the Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and then from Newcastle University.
Between 2003 and 2009, he was a journalist for the monthly magazine Alternatives économiques and a specialist for questions linked to the environment, social economy as well as corporate social responsibility.
Prior to that he was a human resources consultant (1999–2003), after being a representative of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) trade union for Nord-Pas-de-Calais (1997–1999).
Alongside his journalistic work, Pascal Canfin got politically involved with the Greens (France) in France. He was responsible for the party’s Economic, Social and Public Services Committee between 2005 and 2009.

wn.com/Pascal_Canfin

Patrice Tirolien
Patrice Tirolien (born 17 March 1946 in Grand-Bourg, Guadeloupe) is a French politician who served in the French National Assembly from 1995–1997 and is also a Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Overseas constituency. He is also mayor of Grand-Bourg.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the PS candidate in the Atlantic Section of the Overseas constituency, and his candidacy was locally supported by all anti-independence parties. The PS won one seat in the constituency with 20.26% of the votes, and since the PS obtained its highest result in the Atlantic Section, Tirolien was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Patrice_Tirolien

Patrick Le Hyaric
Patrick Le Hyaric (born February 4, 1957 in Orléans, Loiret) is a French journalist, politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency. He is the director of the newspaper L'Humanité since 2000, when he replaced Pierre Zarka.
Le Hyaric is a member of the executive of the French Communist Party and also the federal secretary of the Communist federation in the Morbihan. In 2004, he led the PCF list in the West constituency. The PCF list obtained 4.1% in the constituency but no MEPs were elected.
In 2009, he was selected to lead the Left Front list in the Île-de-France constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. His list won 6.32% of the vote and he was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Patrick_Le_Hyaric

Paul Nuttall
Paul Andrew Nuttall MEP (born 30 November 1976, Liverpool) is the Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party and Member of the European Parliament for the North West England region.
Nuttall was educated at Savio High School and studied A-Levels at Hugh Baird College in Bootle, Merseyside, followed by a HND in Sports Science at North Lincolnshire College. He holds a BA in History from Edge Hill University as well as a Masters from Liverpool Hope University, specialising in the British Edwardian politics. He earned a Certificate of Education from the University of Central Lancashire.
Between academia and politics, Paul Nuttall lived and worked in Barcelona before returning to Merseyside to lecture history at Hugh Baird College and Liverpool Hope University.
Paul Nuttall joined the UK Independence Party in 2004 and formed the South Sefton branch in 2005 to enable the party to contest elections in north Merseyside. This branch has gone on to be one of the best performing branches for UKIP in the North West region and Paul continues to be involved with the branch today. Between 2006-07, he worked as an assistant in the European Parliament to John Whittaker, MEP

wn.com/Paul_Nuttall

Pavel Poc
RNDr. Pavel Poc (* 26. 5 1964, Havlíčkův Brod) is member of Czech Social Democratic Party and member of European Parliament.

Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague - final state examination in general biology (1988); doctorate in natural science in the field of general biology (1988). Environmental law - Faculty of Law, Charles University, Prague (1994–1995). Master of Public Administration - University of Economics, Prague and EHSAL Management School Brussels (1996). Financial management course (1999). Course in local economic development (Fond pomoci místní správě) (2000).
Expert at the ethological laboratory of the Physiology Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ČSAV), Prague (to 1992). Employee of the Mariánské Lázně municipal authority - municipal ecologist (1992); from 1993, head of the environmental department. Member of the board of directors of CHEVAK a.s., member of the supervisory board of Parking Centrum a.s., Mariánské Lázně (1998–2002). Commercial director, executive director and partner, Zahradní a parková spol. s r.o. (2003–2009).

wn.com/Pavel_Poc

Paweł Kowal
Paweł Kowal (born 22 July 1975 in Rzeszów) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament for Poland Comes First (PJN). He is currently Chairman of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in the European Parliament.
Kowal was elected to the Sejm in the 2005 election for Law and Justice, having received 12,625 votes in 12 – Chrzanów district. He won re-election in 2007: having more than doubled his personal vote to 26,184.
In 2009, he ran for the European Parliament in the Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie constituency, which includes Chrzanów. He came second amongst PiS candidates, behind Zbigniew Ziobro, with Law and Justice winning two seats, so was elected. He resigned his seat in the Sejm three days later.
During the 2010 presidential election Kowal was the head of the delegation of the European Parliament's observers. He joined Poland Comes First when that party split from Law and Justice in 2010.

wn.com/Paweł_Kowal

Paweł Zalewski
Paweł Zalewski (born September 25, 1964 in Warsaw) is a Polish politician. He was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 14068 votes in 11 Sieradz district, candidating from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list.
He was also a member of Sejm 1991-1993.

wn.com/Paweł_Zalewski

Pervenche Berès
Pervenche Berès (born 10 March 1957 in Paris) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Île-de-France. She is a member of the Socialist Party; part of the Party of European Socialists. On 28 July 2004 she was elected Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.. She was the rapporteur of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS).

wn.com/Pervenche_Berès

Peter Skinner
Peter Skinner (born 1 June 1959 in Oxford) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party for South East England. Educated at St. Josephs R.C. Secondary Modern School in Orpington, Kent, he attended Bradford University between 1979 and 1982 where he attained a BSc in Economics and Politics. Between 1986 and 87 he undertook a post-graduate course in Industrial Relations and in 1991 completed a post-graduate Diploma in Education. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994, when he represented the Kent West constituency before the reforms in European Elections created multi-member constituencies based on British regions in 1999.
In both 1999 and 2004 he was elected as the top candidate on the Labour Party's list, determined in 1999 by the NEC, and in 2004 by a ballot of party members. In 2009, he was re-elected.
Peter Skinner was born in Oxford on 1 June 1959. He attended Bradford University, graduating from there with a BSc in Economics and Politics, and was later a post-graduate student at the Universities of Warwick, Coventry and Greenwich. Skinner has also gained a professional qualifications in Management.

wn.com/Peter_Skinner

Peter van Dalen
Peter van Dalen (born 3 September 1958 in Zwijndrecht) is a Dutch civil servant and politician. He is a member of the ChristianUnion party, a socially conservative Protestant party, and was formerly a member of the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF), which merged with the Reformed Political League (GPV) to form the ChristianUnion. He is a Member of the European Parliament in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) grouping.
Van Dalen was educated at the Develstein College, in Zwijndrecht, and studied history and international relations at Utrecht University. At university, van Dalen was a member of the SSR-NU, a Christian social club for students, and worked in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands as a member of staff for Meindert Leerling, with responsibility for health policy. After graduating in 1983, van Dalen enrolled in Utrecht's law school, but had to drop out in 1985 because he was constantly travelling abroad and was too busy to keep up with his studies. He became a senior policy officer for Leen van der Waal, a Member of the European Parliament for a joint RPF-GPV-SPG (Reformed Political Party) ticket in 1984. In 1989, van Dalen joined the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, dealing with the then-European Economic Community (EEC). From 1990 to 2009, van Dalen held increasingly senior positions in the Ministry, reaching the position of Superintendent-Director of the Inspectorate of Transport and Public Works.

wn.com/Peter_van_Dalen

Peter Šťastný
Peter Šťastný (born September 18, 1956), also known colloquially as "Peter the Great" and "Stosh", is a retired Slovak professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1980 to 1995. During his time with the Quebec Nordiques, Stastny became a Canadian citizen. Since 2004, he has also served as a Member of the European Parliament for Slovakia. During his NHL career, he played with the Quebec Nordiques, New Jersey Devils, and St. Louis Blues.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998 and ranks 34th all time in NHL points (and second overall for Slovaks).
Peter Šťastný was a prolific scorer in the NHL in the 1980s. He started his career in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques in 1980 and was traded in 1989 to the New Jersey Devils. As a star member of a team playing in a francophone city, Stastny endeared himself to the Quebec fans by learning to speak French, and later learned to speak English. He retired as a member of the St. Louis Blues in 1995.
When the startling news broke in 1980 that Czechoslovakia player of the year, Peter Šťastný, and his brother Anton, had defected to Canada to play with the Quebec Nordiques, it represented a watershed moment in professional hockey as one of the first major stars of Eastern bloc hockey to join the NHL. The following year, his brother Marián joined them to become the third trio of brothers to play on the same professional hockey team (the first being the Bentley brothers of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1940s and the second being the Plager brothers of the St. Louis Blues in the 1970s).

wn.com/Peter_Šťastný

Philip Bradbourn
Philip Bradbourn OBE MEP (born 9 August 1951, Tipton, Staffordshire) is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands, for the Conservative Party. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1999.
He was a parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton South East in the 1992 general election and stood for the European Parliament in County Durham in 1994.
Until his election he was adviser to the Conservative Group Leader on Wolverhampton City Council. He held various local authority posts mainly based around planning. He was also the Chairman of the West Midlands Region Conservatives.
In the 1992 General Election he stood as Conservative Candidate in the Wolverhampton South-East Parliamentary Constituency and in the 1994 European Elections was European Conservative Candidate for the County Durham European Constituency.
Born in Tipton in 1951, Philip Bradbourn was educated at Tipton Grammar School and then at Wulfrun College and Worcester College where he obtained a post-graduate Diploma in Municipal Administration in 1972. Raised in the Black Country, he still lives in the area.

wn.com/Philip_Bradbourn

Philippe Juvin
Philippe Juvin (born 1 February 1964 in Orléans, Loiret) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the Île-de-France constituency.
Juvin was president of the Union of Youths for Progress, a left-wing Gaullist youth movement, between 1989 and 1995. As a member of the Rally for the Republic, he joined the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in 2002. He has since held executive position within the UMP's Hauts-de-Seine section.
He is currently Mayor of La Garenne-Colombes, where he was first municipal councillor between 1983 and 2001 before being elected mayor that same year and easily re-elected in 2008.
In the 2009 European elections, he was the fifth candidate on the Union for a Popular Movement list in the Île-de-France region, and was elected to the European Parliament.
Considerably implied in his charge of European member of parliament and very ambitious,he competes for very high functions
From June 2009 to January 2010, date his resignation of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine, Philippe Juvin kept his councillor's mandate looking till the definitive validation of the European elections of June, 2009. Philippe Juvin accumulated during this period the functions of mayor, Member of the European Parliament, councillor and department head of a hospital.

wn.com/Philippe_Juvin

Philippe Lamberts
Philippe Lamberts (born 1963 in Brussels) is a Belgian politician, co-spokesperson of the European Green Party (first with Ulrike Lunacek, then with Monica Frassoni) and a Member of the European Parliament for the Ecolo party.
He graduated as an engineer at the Université catholique de Louvain in 1986. Since 1987 he has worked as a manager in the private sector. Between 1999 and 2003 he was an adviser of the Vice-Prime Minister Isabelle Durant on foreign affairs and defence.

wn.com/Philippe_Lamberts

Pierre de Decker
Pierre (Pieter) Jacques François de Decker (1812, Zele, East Flanders - 4 January 1891, Brussels) was a Belgian Roman Catholic politician, statesman and author.
He was educated at a Jesuit school, studied law at Paris, and became a journalist on the staff of the Revue de Bruxelles. In 1839 he was elected to the Belgian lower chamber, where he gained a great reputation for oratory. He was a member of parliament from 1839 to 1866. As such he took historical initiatives to promote the Dutch language that was being evicted from political life after the Belgian Revolution of 1830 (against the Union with Holland as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands), although the majority of the population (Flanders) spoke Dutch. So De Decker was at the origin of the 'Pétitionnement en faveur de la langue Flamande' in 1840 and of the instauration of the 'Flemish Commission' in 1855.
In 1855 he became Minister of the Interior and the tenth Prime Minister of Belgium. As such he was the first leader of the government since the revolution of 1830 who dared to address the parliament in Dutch (Flemish). He attempted, by combining the moderate elements of the Catholic and Liberal parties, the impossible task of resolving the educational and other questions by which Belgium was distracted.

wn.com/Pierre_de_Decker

Pierre Werner
Pierre Werner (29 December 1913 - 24 June 2002) was a Luxembourg politician. Pierre Werner was born in Saint-André-lez-Lille, Nord, France to parents from Luxembourg. During the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg (1940–45) Werner, working as a banker, gave clandestine support to the resistance against the occupation forces. After World War 2 he became the Controller of the banking system in his country. He attended the Bretton Woods conference which set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Werner entered the Luxembourg government as Finance Minister in 1953, and was 19th and 21st Prime Minister from 1959 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1984. He also served as Minister for Culture.
As Prime minister, Werner, a Christian Democrat, undertook the diversification of the national economy, hard hit by a major Europe-wide crisis in the steel industry, by attracting new industrial investments, as well as financial services to the Grand Duchy. He placed Luxembourg on the map of global satellite communications. He is remembered for having used “tripartite” social mediation (industry, labour and government) to overcome the severe steel crisis which lasted from 1979 to 1984. He placed the process of European integration at the centre of the policy of his country. With friends such as Joseph Bech, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, Werner was a determined advocate of European integration. During his terms in office, he negotiated the relocation of several European institutions to Luxembourg.

wn.com/Pierre_Werner

Pilar del Castillo
Pilar del Castillo Vera (born 31 July 1952 in Nador, Morocco) is a Member of the European Parliament from Spain.
Minister of Education, Culture and Sport from 2000 to 2004, she was elected to the national parliament at the 2004 General Election representing Granada Province but resigned in July 2004 when she was elected to the European Parliament in the European elections of 2004 for the first time.
She is a member of the Partido Popular (People's Party) which is in turn a member of the European People's Party.
She is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), substitute for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, a member of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China and a substitute for the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (including Libya)

wn.com/Pilar_del_Castillo

Pino Arlacchi
Giuseppe Arlacchi, also known as Pino, (February 21, 1951) is an Italian sociologist and is well known worldwide for his studies and essays about the Mafia. Actually he represents the Italian Democratic Party and is a member of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) parliamentary group from 2010.
On September 1, 1997 he was appointed Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), with the rank of Under-Secretary-General. Currently, he is a full professor of sociology at the University of Sassari.
He was born in Gioia Tauro, Calabria (Italy). In the early 1990s he was involved in the foundation of the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA), a law-enforcement agency specially entrusted with fighting organized crime.
Later on he became president of IASOC (Internation Organization of studies on organized crime). Finally, he was appointed honorary president of the Giovanni Falcone foundation, named after noted magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was also a close friend of him.

wn.com/Pino_Arlacchi

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
Poul Oluf Nyrup Rasmussen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈpɒʊ̯l ˈnyːˀɔb ˈʁɑsmusn̩], informally Poul Nyrup, born 15 June 1943), was Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) from 2004 to 2011. He was the leader of the governing Social Democrats from 1992 to 2002. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2004–09.
Rasmussen was born to a working-class family in Esbjerg in 1943. His parents were Oluf Nyrup Rasmussen and Vera Eline Nyrup Rasmussen. He was educated at the University of Copenhagen, earning a M.sc. degree in Economics in 1971. While studying he was active in the social democratic student union Frit Forum, where he met some of his future political colleagues. He paid his way through university by doing several jobs, like counting traffic and being a part-time delivery boy.
Rasmussen replaced Svend Auken, the long serving leader of the Social Democrats, after his failure to form a government with the Radikale Venstre after the 1990 election, despite good results for both parties. Many in the party felt that Auken had stuck to a too left wing agenda, scuttling a possible deal with the more centrist Radikale Venstre.

wn.com/Poul_Nyrup_Rasmussen

Poul Schlüter
Poul Holmskov Schlüter (Danish pronunciation: [pʌʊ̯l hʌlmsɡʌʊ̯ slydɐ], 3 April 1929) is a Danish politician, who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1982 to 1993.
Born in Tønder, south Jutland, he graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1957 with a degree in law, and joined the bar in 1960. Schlüter was a member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) for the Conservative People's Party from 1964 to 1994. He was also Chairman of the Conservative People's Party from 1974 to 1977 and from 1981 to 1993.
In 1982, after Prime Minister Anker Jørgensen was forced to resign, Schlüter cobbled together a four-party coalition and was appointed his successor. He was the first member of the Conservative People's Party to become Prime Minister, as well as the first conservative to hold the office since 1901. During his time as Prime Minister, he was named "Nordic Politician of the Year" (in 1984). He has since been granted a large number of Danish and international awards and medals.
Previously, he had served as a member of the Council of Europe from 1971 to 1974, and had headed the Danish Delegation to the Nordic Council, where he served as a member of the Council Presidium, in 1978 and 1979. He retired as Prime Minister in 1993 after an inquiry found that he had misinformed the Danish Parliament. The case was known as the Tamil Case, (in Danish: "Tamilsagen"), as it involved asylum requests from Tamil refugees.

wn.com/Poul_Schlüter

Proinsias De Rossa
Proinsias De Rossa (born 15 May 1940) is a former Irish Labour Party politician. He was President of the Workers' Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left; later, he was a senior member of the Labour Party. He was Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997. He was a Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency from 1989 to 1992 and from 1999 to 2012.
Born as Francis Ross in 1940 in Dublin, he was educated at Marlborough Street National School and Dublin Institute of Technology. Soon after his sixteenth birthday, in May 1956, he joined the IRA, and was politically active in Sinn Féin from an early age. During the IRA Border Campaign, he was captured training IRA members in Glencree in May 1956, served seven months in Mountjoy Prison and was then interned at the Curragh Camp.
He worked in his family's fruit and vegetable shop and later was employed as a postman and an encyclopaedia salesman. He took the Official Sinn Féin side in the 1970 split. In 1977 he contested his first general election for the party, which that year was renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party (in 1982 the name changed again to the Workers' Party).

wn.com/Proinsias_De_Rossa

Rachida Dati
Rachida Dati (27 November 1965 in Saint-Rémy, Saône-et-Loire) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament, representing Île-de-France. Before her election, she held the cabinet post of Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice. She was a spokesperson for Nicolas Sarkozy during the French presidential election of 2007. After his victory, Sarkozy appointed her to his Government on 18 May 2007.
She was elected mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris on 29 March 2008.
Dati was born to a Moroccan father, a bricklayer named Mbarek, and an Algerian mother, named Fatima-Zohra. Rachida Dati is the second child of a family of 12. She spent her childhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in Bourgogne.^{[citation needed]}
After attending Catholic school, she began work at 16 as a paramedical assistant. She then worked for three years as an accountant at Elf Aquitaine while continuing her studies in economics and business management.
After meeting Jean-Luc Lagardère in 1990, she entered the audit management team of Matra Nortel communication. She later spent a year in London at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the records management and archiving department. In 1994, she was an auditing supervisor and secretary-general of the bureau of urban development studies at Suez (then Lyonnaise des Eaux). From 1995 to 1997, she worked as a technical advisor at the legal management division of the Ministry of Education.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Rachida_Dati

Rainer Wieland
Rainer Wieland (b. 19 February 1957, Stuttgart) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Baden-Württemberg. Since 2009 he is one of the 14 Vice Presidents of the Parliament. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party. Rainer Wieland is chairman of Europa-Union Deutschland Baden-Württemberg (regional section of UEF) and since 2011 President of Europa-Union Deutschland.

wn.com/Rainer_Wieland

Ramona Mănescu
Ramona Nicole Mănescu (born 6 December 1972, Constanţa) is a Romanian politician and lawyer. She is a Member of the European Parliament (2007–present) from the National Liberal Party and is part of the ALDE group in the European Parliament. As a member of this group she is a coordinator in the Regional Development Committee and a member in the Culture and Education Committee.
Mănescu has a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest. After graduating, the liberal MEP has followed several postgraduate studies, with institutions such as: Romanian Diplomatic Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006), National Intelligence Academy, Supreme National Security College, dissertation on "Romanian Defense Industry" (2006), National Defense University - National Defence College, dissertation on "Romania and the European Security and Defence Policy" (2005). Mănescu also has an MA in "International Relations and European Integration" from the National School of Administration and Political Science of Bucharest (2006).

wn.com/Ramona_Mănescu

Rebecca Harms
Rebecca Harms (born 7 December 1956 in Hambrock, Uelzen, Lower Saxony) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Alliance '90/The Greens, part of the European Greens. In July 2009 she was elected as co-president of the The Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European parliament.
Harms began her career as an apprentice landscape designer. In 1984 Undine von Blottnitz employed her as an assistant after being elected to the European Parliament. She has made numerous documentaries. From 1994 to 2004 she was a member of the Parliament of Lower Saxony. From 1998 she was leader of her party. She is a member of the Parteirat of her party.
She lives in Dickfeitzen in the Wendland region. This region became known nationwide for the Gorleben atomic waste site.

wn.com/Rebecca_Harms

Reinhard Bütikofer
Reinhard Hans Bütikofer (born January 26, 1953) is a German politician for the Alliance 90/The Greens party and was from 8 December 2002 till 16 November 2008 party leader, together with Claudia Roth.
Bütikofer was born in Mannheim and grew up in Speyer. He studied philosophy, sinology and history in Heidelberg, but did not finish his studies. He was engaged in the student's movement and one of the "K groups", the Maoist Communist League of West Germany (Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland; KBW). From the 1980s onwards, he became active in Heidelberg municipal politics for the Green-Alternative List.
In 1984, he was elected into the town council of Heidelberg and became member of the Green party, the starting point of his political career with Alliance 90/The Greens. In 1988, he was elected in the Landtag (state parliament) of Baden-Württemberg. He was Member of the Landtag until 1996.
After a "family year", in 1997 Bütikofer became co-chairman of the Baden-Württembergian Green party. Two years later he was elected secretary general of the federal party. In December, 2002 he became co-chairman of the federal party. On 3 March 2008 he announced not to stand again as a party chairman and to run for European Parliament in 2009, to which he was elected.

wn.com/Reinhard_Bütikofer

Renate Sommer
Renate Sommer (b. 10 September 1958, Bochum) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for North Rhine-Westphalia. She is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Renate_Sommer

Ria Oomen-Ruijten
Ria Oomen-Ruijten (born 6 September 1950 in Echt, Limburg) is a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal, a member of the bureau of the [[European People's Party (Christian Democrats) group, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs and is a substitute member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.

wn.com/Ria_Oomen-Ruijten

Richard Ashworth
Richard James Ashworth (born 17 September 1947 in Folkestone) is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England for the Conservative Party. He is married with three daughters. Ashworth was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and studied agriculture and management at Seale-Hayne College in Devon.
He has been the chairman of a further education college (Plumpton in East Sussex) for a number of years as well as serving on several public bodies in the education sector. His interests include music, theatre, sport, aviation and country pursuits.
He is the Conservative Spokesman on budgets in the European Parliament.
He was a parliamentary candidate for North Devon in 1997, and for the South East region for the 1999 European Parliament elections.
Before being elected in 2004 he was a dairy farmer in East Sussex for over thirty years and during this time operated his own dairy business. He has also acted as chairman of United Milk Plc and of NFU Corporate.
He was a member of the Minister of Agriculture's food chain advisory committee.

wn.com/Richard_Ashworth

Richard Howitt
Richard Howitt (born 5 April 1961 in Reading, Berkshire) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party for the East of England. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994.
Howitt was brought up in a single parent family, in a council house and went to a comprehensive school. He graduated with a BA degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford in 1982 and has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Hertfordshire.
After leaving university, he worked for four years in the voluntary sector and eight years for a disability organisation.
Howitt served as a councillor on Harlow District Council from 1983 to 1995, including three years as Leader of the council. He was the Labour Party candidate in Billericay in the 1987 general election.
He was elected to the European Parliament, representing the Essex South constituency, and has served for the East of England constituency since 1999.
Richard Howitt has been a member of the Labour Party's National Policy Forum since 1994.

wn.com/Richard_Howitt

Richard Seeber
Richard Seeber (born 15 January 1962 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian politician (Austrian People's Party ÖVP) and member of the European Parliament. Richard Seeber is married and has four children.

Between 1968 and 1972, Richard Seeber went to the elementary school in Haiming in Tyrol. From 1972 to 1980, he studied at the high school in Imst Tyrol specialising in scientific subjects.
In 1980, Seeber started to study laws at the University of Innsbruck. On June 30, 1984 he was awarded his doctor of law's degree. In the same period, Seeber was enrolled in economic studies at the University of Innsbruck and he completed his degree in 1988 with the title Mag. rer. soc. oec. During his studies, he took various language classes. Under those are English and French.
Thanks to his excellent language skills, he worked as cruise director on Romanian and Bulgarian ships plying the Danube and as tourist guide in Romania and at the Black Sea Coast during 1985 and 1989. From 1987 to the beginning of 1989, Richard Seeber worked for 13 months as barrister at the district court of Imst as well as at the regional court of Innsbruck. In 1990, he worked as trainee lawyer before taking up his new employment in the tourism department of the Tyrol Chamber of Commerce in 1991.

wn.com/Richard_Seeber

Riikka Manner
Riikka Manner (née Pakarinen, born August 24, 1981 in Varkaus, Finland) is a Finnish Member of the European parliament since 2009. She represents the Centre Party.
She was elected to the Varkaus city council in 2008. She has worked as a press assistant to Eero Reijonen, Risto Autio, and Paavo Väyrynen. In 2009, she was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Riikka_Manner

Rita Borsellino
Rita Borsellino (born 2 June 1945 in Palermo) is a Sicilian anti-Mafia activist, politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Democratic Party. She is the sister of late judge Paolo Borsellino, killed by a Mafia car bomb in 1992.
Graduated in Pharmaceutics in 1967, after the death of her brother Rita Borsellino has become one of the most popular anti-mafia activists in Sicily, and founded in 1995 Libera, a civil organization with the main goal to diffuse an anti-mafia culture among the youth Sicilians, of which she is currently vice-president. Since 1998 she is also Chairman of "Associazione Piera Cutino - guarire dalla talassemia", a non-profit foundation that promotes medical research against thalassaemia.
In 2005, some minor parties of The Union, mainly from the radical left wing, endorsed her as candidate for the primary election. She was then backed also by the Democrats of the Left, being eventually supported by all the coalition parties, except the Daisy (Margherita) who presented another candidate, University of Catania's Dean Ferdinando Latteri. In the primary election, held on December 4, 2005, she then defeated her competitor, and gained the candidacy of the Union for the Sicilian regional election held on 28 May 2006, where she lost to incumbent governor Salvatore Cuffaro.

wn.com/Rita_Borsellino

Robert Goebbels
Robert Goebbels (born 3 April 1944) is a politician in Luxembourg, and a Member of the European Parliament for the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. Goebbels is often associated with the GMO and Pro-Nuclear lobby.

wn.com/Robert_Goebbels

Robert Rochefort
Robert Rochefort (born 19 September 1955 in Paris) is a French economist and politician.
In 2009, he joined the MoDem and was selected to lead the MoDem list in the South-West constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. He was the MoDem's only elected Member of the European Parliament in that region.

wn.com/Robert_Rochefort

Robert Sturdy
Robert Sturdy (born 22 June 1944 in Wetherby, West Yorkshire) is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the East of England constituency for the Conservative Party. He has held the seat since 1999. Before then, he was the MEP for Cambridge and Bedfordshire North, from 1994 to 1999.
Before being elected he was a farmer and is a former county chair of the Young Farmers.
His son is Julian Sturdy, the MP for York Outer.

wn.com/Robert_Sturdy

Roberts Zīle
Dr. Roberts Zīle (born June 20, 1958 in Riga) is a Latvian economist and politician and Member of the European Parliament for the National Alliance, a free market national conservative political party in Latvia and part of the European Conservatives and Reformists. He was formerly vice-president of the now defunct Union for a Europe of Nations group.
Zīle was born in Riga and educated at the Riga 25th high school and graduated from the University of Latvia in 1981, with a degree in economics. Later, in 1997, Zīle gained a PhD. in economics from the Latvian University of Agriculture.
During the 1990s, Zīle was a member of the Riga City Council. He was elected a Deputy of the Saeima from Riga in 1995. In the government of Guntars Krasts, Zīle served as the Minister of Finance from 1997 to 1998. He served as the State Secretary for International Trade and Financial Institutions under Prime Ministers Vilis Krištopans, Andris Šķēle, and Andris Bērziņš. In the government of Einars Repše, he served as the Minister of Communications from 2002 to 2004. Zīle was the Prime Ministerial candidate of the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (TB/LNNK) parties for the Latvian parliamentary election, 2006. At the 2009 European Parliament elections, Zīle was the top candidate for the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK ticket, and was elected. TB/LNNK had been in the Union for Europe of the Nations political grouping the European Parliament, but as the group organically broke up, TB/LNNK joined the new European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), whose largest members include the British Conservative Party, the Czech Civic Democratic Party and the Polish Law and Justice party.

wn.com/Roberts_Zīle

Roger Helmer
Roger Helmer (born 25 January 1944 in London) is a British business executive and politician and a United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 as a Conservative Party MEP, and re-elected in 2004 and 2009. In March 2012 he defected from the Conservatives to UKIP.
On 12 October 2011 Helmer announced that he would resign from the European Parliament at the end of the year, citing "increasing disillusion with the attitudes of the Conservative Party" as the main reason, although admitting that his "twelve-and-a-half years banging my head against the same brick wall in Brussels is perhaps long enough". Helmer expected to be replaced by Rupert Matthews who was next on the Conservative party list in the European Parliament election, 2009. However the Tory party was reported to be looking into golliwog dolls featuring on the front cover of a book published by a company of which Matthews is director and shareholder and would not confirm that Matthews would succeed him. Helmer delayed standing down before deciding to defect to UKIP with the intention to fulfil his term until 2014.

wn.com/Roger_Helmer

Rolandas Paksas
Rolandas Paksas (

pronunciation (help·info); born 10 June 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who was President of Lithuania from 2003 to 2004. He was previously Prime Minister of Lithuania in 1999 and again from 2000 to 2001, and he also served as Mayor of Vilnius from 1997 to 1999 and again from 2000 to 2001. He has led Order and Justice since 2004 and has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2009.
A national aerobatics champion in the 1980s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Paksas founded a construction company, Restako. In 1997, he was elected to Vilnius City Council for the centre-right Homeland Union and became mayor. In May 1999, Paksas was appointed Prime Minister, but resigned five months later after a disagreement over privatisation. Paksas joined the Liberal Union of Lithuania (LLS) in 2000. The LLS won the 2000 election, and Paksas became PM again, but he left within seven months after another dispute over economic reforms.
In 2002, Paksas founded the Liberal Democratic Party, and ran for the presidency, winning the run-off against incumbent Valdas Adamkus in January 2003. It emerged that he had granted citizenship to a major campaign donor, leading to his impeachment and removal from office in April 2004. He is the only European head of state to have been impeached. Barred from the Seimas, Paksas was elected to the European Parliament in 2009, while leading his party, now called Order and Justice (TT), and seeking to overturn the ban.

wn.com/Rolandas_Paksas

Romana Jordan Cizelj
Romana Jordan Cizelj (born 8 January 1966) is a Slovenian politician and physicist, currently serving as Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Slovenian Democratic Party, which is part of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
Romana Jordan was born in the Styrian town of Celje, where she attended the prestigious First Celje Grammar School. In 1990 she graduated in electrical engineering at the University of Ljubljana and in 2000 she obtained a PhD on a thesis on nuclear engineering. Between 1990 and 2002 she worked as a researcher at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana.
She entered active politics in 1998, when she was elected on the Supervisory Board of the municipality of Domžale. In 2002, she was elected member of the Domžale Municipal Council on the list of the Slovenian Democratic Party. In 2004, she was elected to the European Parliament.
Romana Jordan Cizelj is a substitute for the Committee on Budgets, a substitute for the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013, a member of the delegation for relations with the United States, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Canada.

wn.com/Romana_Jordan_Cizelj

Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi (Italian pronunciation: [roˈmaːno ˈprɔːdi] (

listen); born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008. He was also the tenth President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004.
Prodi ran in 1996 as lead candidate of The Olive Tree coalition, winning the general election and serving as Prime Minister of Italy until 1998. Following the victory of his coalition The Union over the House of Freedoms led by Silvio Berlusconi in the April 2006 Italian elections Prodi was in power again. On 24 January 2008, he lost a vote of confidence in the Senate house, and consequently tendered his resignation as Prime Minister to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, but continued in office for almost four months for routine business, until early elections were held and a new government was formed.
On 14 October 2007, Prodi became the first President of the Democratic Party upon foundation of the party.

wn.com/Romano_Prodi

Rumiana Jeleva
Rumiana Ruseva Jeleva Bulgarian: Румяна Русева Желева (born on April 18, 1969 in the village of Zagortsi) was Bulgaria's minister of foreign affairs (July 2009 – January 2010), the third woman to hold this office after Irina Bokova and Nadezhda Mihailova. Jeleva was a key figure in the "Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria" (GERB) political party which won the 2009 parliamentary elections. From 2007–2009 she served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and headed the Bulgarian delegation in the EPP Group. She was nominated by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov as Commissioner in the "Barroso II Commission" and was affiliated with the European People's Party (EPP). However, an article in the German newspaper Die Welt accused her husband of links with the Russian mafia.
Jeleva holds a B.A. in sociology from the University of Sofia (1995) and a PhD in sociology from Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg (2003).
The Bulgarian pronunciation of the name Jeleva is [ˈʒɛlɛvɐ], with the [ʒ]-sound of English pleasure (voiced palato-alveolar fricative). According to the current official standards for the Romanization of Bulgarian, her name should be transliterated as "Zheleva". Because of this confusion, some people erroneously pronounce the name with a y-sound, [j].^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Rumiana_Jeleva

Ruud Lubbers
Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈryt ˈlʏbərs] (

listen); born May 7, 1939) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from November 4, 1982 until August 22, 1994.
He previously served as Minister of Economic Affairs from May 11, 1973 until December 19, 1977 in the Cabinet den Uyl. He became a Member of the House of Representatives from December 22, 1977 until November 4, 1982. When the Parliamentary leader of Christian Democratic Appeal in the House of Representatives Wim Aantjes resigned of a World War II controversy, Lubbers succeed him as Parliamentary leader, he served from November 7, 1978 until November 4, 1982. When the Christian Democratic Appeal Party leader and sitting Prime Minister Dries van Agt announced his retirement, Lubbers was chosen to succeed him. Lubbers became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, leading the Cabinets Lubbers I, II and III. Lubbers was regarded by many during his time in office as an ideological heir to Margaret Thatcher. One of his campaign slogans was: "meer markt, minder overheid" (more market, less government).

wn.com/Ruud_Lubbers

Ryszard Legutko

Ryszard Antoni Legutko (Polish pronunciation: [ˈrɨʂart anˈtɔɲi lɛˈɡutkɔ]), born 24 December 1949. Polish philosopher and politician. Professor of philosophy at the Jagellonian University in Kraków, specializing in ancient philosophy and political theory. Known for publications described by extreme left-wing as extreme right-wing, such as "Nie lubię tolerancji" ("I don't like tolerance").
Under communism he was one of the editors of the samizdat quarterly “Arka”. After the collapse of the communist regime he co-founded the Centre for Political Thought, which combines research, teaching, seminars and conferences and is also a publishing house. He has translated and written commentaries to Plato’s Phaedo (1995), Euthyphro (1998) and Apology (2003). He is the author of several books: Plato’s Critique of Democracy (1990), Toleration (1997), A Treatise on Liberty (2007) and An Essay on the Polish Soul (2008). His latest book, Socrates, is forthcoming.
In 2005 he was elected to a seat in the Polish Senate (representing the Law and Justice Party), where he became Deputy Speaker. In 2007 he was Poland’s Education Minister, and in 2007-2009 Secretary of State in the Chancellery of President Lech Kaczyński. He is currently a member of the European Parliament, where he sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Deputy Chairman of the Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group.

wn.com/Ryszard_Legutko

Sajjad Karim
Sajjad Haider Karim also known as Saj ( born 11 July 1970) is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England.
Karim was the first British Muslim elected to the European Parliament on 4 June 2004. He was re-elected in June 2009.
Karim, who is a British Pakistani, was born in Blackburn in Lancashire. He attended Walter Street County primary school Brierfield and thereafter Mansfield High School, Brierfield. He completed his A levels at Nelson and Colne College before studying Law at University. Karim attended the College of Law in Chester studying Law. He qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1997.
His earliest political activity started with leafleting at the age of seven for the then Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Pendle. He later joined the Liberal Democrats in 1989. Sajjad was elected a member of Pendle Borough Council in 1994 and served until 2002 representing Brierfield ward.
Karim, who is the first British Muslim elected to the European Parliament, was elected to represent the North West England in 2004 as a Liberal Democrat. On 26 November 2007 he re-joined the Conservative Party and was re-elected to the European Parliament in June 2009.

wn.com/Sajjad_Karim

Sampo Terho
Sampo Terho (Born 20 September 1977) is a Finnish politician and scholar. He is currently serving as the chairman of Suomalaisuuden Liitto and Member of the European Parliament.

Terho graduated from University of Tampere in 2003 with a Master's degree in Finnish History, and has worked as a researcher in the Finnish National Defence University. Terho has also served as a peacekeeper in Kosovo. Terho received the second largest amount of votes on the True Finns' electoral list in the 2009 European Parliament election. He succeeded Timo Soini in the European Parliament when Soini was elected to Parliament of Finland in the 2011 election.

wn.com/Sampo_Terho

Sandra Kalniete
Sandra Kalniete (born 22 December 1952) is a Latvian politician, author, diplomat and independence movement leader. She served as Foreign Minister of Latvia 2002–2004 and as European Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries in 2004. Since 2009, she has served as Member of the European Parliament for the European People's Party.
She is currently a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) and Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). Additionally she is on the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and the Vice-Chair for the Delegation for relations with Japan. Kalniete is also the chairperson of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group, an all-party group in the European Parliament involved in promoting the Prague Process. The group includes 40 MEPs from across the political spectrum including the European People's Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the Greens, and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

wn.com/Sandra_Kalniete

Sandrine Bélier
Sandrine Bélier (born 2 September 1973 in Longjumeau) is a French environmental jurist, politician of Europe Écologie–The Greens and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the East constituency.
In 2009, she was selected to lead the Europe Écologie list in the East constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. Her list won over 14%, so she was easily elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Sandrine_Bélier

Sari Essayah
Sari Miriam Essayah (born 21 February 1967 in Haukivuori) is a Finnish retired race walker and a politician, Member of the European Parliament since 2009. Her father is from Morocco.
After retiring from sports she entered politics and represented the Christian Democrats in the Finnish parliament between 2003–2007 but failed to get reelected in the election of 2007. She served as the Christian Democrats' party secretary from 2007 to 2009. Essayah was elected to the European Parliament in 2009.
Essayah was a president candidate in the finnish president election in 2012, Essayah came last with 2.47 percent of the votes, the winner was Sauli Niinistö.

wn.com/Sari_Essayah

Sergio Cofferati
Sergio Cofferati (born 30 January 1948) is an Italian politician who, after serving as mayor of Bologna for the Democrats of the Left from 2004 to 2009, and thus has been elected as Member of the European Parliament in 2009 for the Italian Democratic Party.
Cofferati was born at Sesto ed Uniti, in the province of Cremona.
Initially an employee for the Milan's Pirelli and a member of CGIL, Cofferati rose up in the major Italian trade union, becoming leader of Filcea (the chemical labour wing of CGIL) in 1988, and leader of the CGIL itself in 1990, succeeding Bruno Trentin. He led the CGIL until 2002, after having obtained some relevant triumphs such as negotiating the reform of pensions in 1995, and opposing the change of article 18 of the "workers' statute", a 1970 bill, which allows Italian judges to condemn enterprise to assume workers from theirself fired. After having left his position in the CGIL, he went back to his position at Pirelli but his old factory didn't exist anymore.
In 2004, he was elected as Mayor of Bologna, replacing Giorgio Guazzaloca. In 2008, he decided not to run for his second term as mayor; in 2009 he has been candidated and elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Sergio_Cofferati

Siiri Oviir
Siiri Oviir (born 3 November 1947 in Tallinn, Estonia) is an Estonian politician and Member of the European Parliament. She previously belonged to the Estonian Centre Party of where she decided to leave on 9 April 2012.

wn.com/Siiri_Oviir

Silvia Adriana Ţicău
Silvia Adriana Ţicău (born 14 November 1970 in Galaţi) is a Romanian politician and Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Romania to the European Union.

wn.com/Silvia_Adriana_Ţicău

Silvia Costa
Silvia Costa Acosta-Martínez (born May 4, 1964 in La Palma, Pinar del Río Province) is a former high jumper from Cuba most known for winning medals at the 1985 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 1993 World Championships in Athletics. She also has three medals from the Summer Universiade. Her personal best jump (set in 1989) is 2.04 metres, which puts her 9th in the all-time performers list.
Costa is married to Spanish citizen José Sanleandro.

wn.com/Silvia_Costa

Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsilvjo berluˈskoːni] (

listen); born 29 September 1936) is an Italian politician and media tycoon who served three times as Prime Minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the controlling shareholder of Mediaset and owner of A.C. Milan. He is nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) for his knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour, which he received in 1977.
Berlusconi is the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy, and third longest-serving since Italy's unification, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti, holding three separate terms. Technically, he has been sworn in four times because after a cabinet reshuffle, as happened with Berlusconi in 2005, the new ministry is sworn in and subjected to a vote of confidence. He is the leader of the People of Freedom political movement, a centre-right party he founded in 2009. From November 2009 to November 2011, he was the most senior leader of the G8 countries. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 169th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$5.9 billion.

wn.com/Silvio_Berlusconi

Simon Busuttil
Simon Busuttil (born 20 March 1969 in Attard) is a Maltese politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the Nationalist Party, a member of the bureau of the European People's Party, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and its Committee on Budgets.
He is also a substitute for the Committee on Regional Development, a substitute for the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013, vice-chair of the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (including Libya), and a member of the delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.

wn.com/Simon_Busuttil

Sirpa Pietikäinen
Sirpa Pietikäinen (born April 19, 1959 in Parikkala, Finland) is a Finnish politician from the National Coalition Party. She is a Member of the European Parliament since 2008, and re-elected in 2009.
She was in the Hämeenlinna town council (1981-1992). She is a former Member of Finnish Parliament, former Minister for the Environment (1991-1995). Pietikäinen was the Chair of Finnish United Nations Association between 1996 and 2007. Pietikäinen was the World Federation of United Nations Associations chairwoman between 2000 and 2004. She has also worked for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and One World International.
Pietikäinen has an MBA degree from Helsinki School of Economics. She has received The Knight Commander's Order of the White Rose of Finland (1993). She speaks Finnish, English, French, Swedish and German.
Her articles have been published in:
In 2003, Pietikäinen was convicted of aggravated drunk driving after moving her car in a parking lot at midnight. She was fined, given a suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for five months.

wn.com/Sirpa_Pietikäinen

Slavcho Binev
Archon Slavcho Penchev Binev (sometimes (Slavi Binev) was born on December 10, 1965 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Slavcho Binev was elected member of the European Parliament from Bulgaria on May 20, 2007. He is currently a non-attached MEP.At this moment Binev is President of People for Real, Open and United Democracy / PROUD / President of the Conservative Party for Democracy and Success / CPD and Success /

wn.com/Slavcho_Binev

Sophie in 't Veld
Sophia Helena ("Sophie") in 't Veld (born 13 September 1963) is a Dutch Member of the European Parliament for the social liberal party Democrats 66 as part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Sophia Helena in 't Veld was born on 13 September 1963 in Vollenhove, Overijssel, the Netherlands.
From 1982 to 1991, she studied history at Leiden University.
From 1996 to 2004, she was the secretary general of the ELDR group in the Committee of the Regions. In the 2004 internal party elections she defeated the sitting D66 MEPs. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since 20 July 2004, for Democrats 66 as part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group.
She is an Honorary Associate of the UK National Secular Society, which in 2011 awarded her with the Secularist of the Year prize. She has also sought a condemnation of Pope Benedict XVI over his critical comments on gender theory.
A Washington judge ruled in 2009 that the United States government does not need to explain to Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld why she must undergo additional security checks each time she visits the US.

wn.com/Sophie_in_'t_Veld

Stanimir Ilchev
Stanimir Yankov Ilchev (Bulgarian: Станимир Янков Илчев) (born 31 July 1953 in Burgas) is a Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the National Movement Simeon II, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007 with the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union.

wn.com/Stanimir_Ilchev

Stavros Lambrinidis
Stavros Lambrinidis (Greek: Σταύρος Λαμπρινίδης; born 6 February 1962, in Athens) is a Member of the European Parliament for the PA.SO.K. that served as a Vice President of the European Parliament and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece .
After graduating from the Athens College, M.E.P. Stavros Lambrinidis was admitted in Amherst College in 1980 where he received his B.A. degree in economics and political sciences with the distinctions of Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa and a full scholarship for the rest of his studies (he spent a year in the University of Chicago as well). He completed his education in 1988, with a J.D. degree from Yale Law School (some years after his close friend Hillary Clinton).
In Yale University he worked as an Associate Professor in the School of Business Administration, as well as the editor-in-chief of The Yale Journal of International Law.
He trained in International Trade, Transactions and Arbitration, as a colleague of Lloyd Cutler (founder of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. and law advisor of the White House during Jimmy Carter's and Bill Clinton's Presidencies). After finishing his training, he was assigned the post of the Chairman of the Committee for Human Rights in the Bar Association of Washington, D.C..

wn.com/Stavros_Lambrinidis

Struan Stevenson
Struan Stevenson (born 4 April 1948 in Ballantrae, Ayrshire) is a Scottish politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland and Vice Chair of the Committee on Fisheries, in addition to which, he is member of the Executive of the Scottish Conservative party.
Stevenson served his early political career as a local councillor for 22 years, sitting on South Ayrshire Council and its predecessor body the Kyle and Carrick District Council. He stood for election to Parliament at the 1987 election, the 1992 election and 1997 election. He was then elected to the European Parliament in 1999, and retained his seat in 2004.

wn.com/Struan_Stevenson

Stuart Agnew
John Stuart Agnew (born 30 August 1949 in Norwich) is a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region for the United Kingdom Independence Party. He was elected in 2009.
He is a Norfolk farmer who formerly represented Norfolk on the NFU Council. He is a long term UKIP member. In the European Parliament he sits on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
He ran for UKIP in the 2001 General Election in Mid Norfolk and in the 2005 General Election in Norfolk North, and stood in Broadland in the 2010 UK general election

wn.com/Stuart_Agnew

Stéphane Le Foll
Stéphane Le Foll (born 9 February 1960 in Le Mans) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the West of France. He is a member of the Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists, and was first elected in 2004.

wn.com/Stéphane_Le_Foll

Sven Giegold
Sven Giegold (born 17 November 1969) is a German politician for the Alliance 90/The Greens party and one of the founding members of Attac Germany. He became a member of the Greens only in 2008, and was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 elections.
Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Giegold grew up in Hanover, Lower Saxony. He enrolled at the University of Lüneburg in 1991 majoring in political science and economics, and later attended the University of Bremen. He earned his Master's degree from the University of Birmingham in 1996. He returned to the University of Bremen to pursue his Ph.D. under supervision of Jörg Huffschmid, but later abandoned his studies in favor of his political career.
Giegold was one of the 200 founding members of Attac's German branch in 2000 and was one of their most notable activists until 2008.

wn.com/Sven_Giegold

Sylvie Goulard
Sylvie Goulard (born 6 December 1964 in Marseille) is a French politician. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the West region of France in the 2009 European elections. As an MEP she is a member of the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs, and ALDE group coordinator, as well as a substitute member of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development. She is a member of MoDem's national executive board and Sylvie is also a foreign affairs advisor, and former president of the Mouvement Européen France fr:Mouvement Europeen-France, the oldest pluralist association defending the European ideal. Having graduated with a law degree from the Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III and having studied at both Sciences Po (Paris) and l'Ecole nationale d'administration (ENA) she now teaches at the College of Europe in Bruges.
Political advisor to Romano Prodi when he was President of the European Commission, from 2001 to 2004, she followed the work of the Convention presided by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing which was primarily made up of members of national parliaments, who had been charged by the European Council to draft a European constitution.

wn.com/Sylvie_Goulard

Sylvie Guillaume
Sylvie Guillaume (born 11 June 1962 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the South-East France constituency.
Guillaume joined the Socialist Party (PS) in 1988 in the Rhône. She is a regional councillor in the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, and a Lyon municipal councillor.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the second candidate on the PS list in the South-East region, and was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Sylvie_Guillaume

Søren Søndergaard
Søren Bo Søndergaard (born 16 August 1955 in Kyndby) is a teacher, metalworker and former member of the Danish parliament. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the People's Movement against the EU.

wn.com/Søren_Søndergaard

Sławomir Nitras
Sławomir Witold Nitras [swaˈvɔmir ˈvitɔlt ˈɲitras] (born 26 April 1973 in Połczyn-Zdrój) is a Polish politician, political scientist, member of Civic Platform (PO), an MP in the lower house of Parliament from 2005–2009 and currently a Member of the European Parliament.
He was educated at the University of Szczecin, graduating in 1998 in Political Science from the Faculty of Humanities. From 1997 to 1998 he was employed as a lecturer at the Institute of Philosophy and Political Science at the University of Szczecin.
From 1998 to 1999 he was manager of the Koszalin voivodeship Governor’s office, and in 1999 - 2002 sat on the Board of the Kruszywa Koszalin PLC mines. He spent the following three years running his own business.
From 1998 to 2002 he was a Solidarity Election Action (AWS) councillor in the Western Pomeranian voivodeship sejmik. He was elected a Civic Platform (PO) MP for Szczecin in the 2005 getting 14238 votes in 41 Szczecin district and 2007 parliamentary elections, gaining 65,993 votes in 2007 (the highest individual number of votes in the constituency since 1989). During both terms in office he was a member of the Treasury Committee and in his second term he was also a member of the Economy Committee and the Accessible Government Extraordinary Committee.

wn.com/Sławomir_Nitras

Tadeusz Cymański
Tadeusz Cymański (Polish pronunciation: [taˈdɛuʂ tsɨˈmaɲskʲi], born 6 June 1955 in Nowy Staw) is a Polish conservative politician. He is anti-left and anti-liberal politician. He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 23518 votes in 25 Gdańsk district, candidating from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list.
He was also a member of Sejm 1997-2001 and Sejm 2001-2005.

wn.com/Tadeusz_Cymański

Tadeusz Zwiefka
Tadeusz Antoni Zwiefka (Polish pronunciation: [taˈdɛuʐ ˈzvʲɛfka], born 28 December 1954 in Tuchola) is a Polish journalist and politician. Since 2004, member of the European Parliament.
Tadeusz Zwiefka comes from Tuchola in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship, he worked in Szczecin and Warsaw, and today he lives in Poznań.
He is an educated lawyer but he works as a journalist in Polish TV (TVP) and a lecturer. He was an editor-in-chief of Polish TV regional centre in Poznań, later a journalist in central TVP1 news (Wiadomości), parliamentary reporter, director of the Szczecin TV regional centre. He was a co-founder of the popular Telekurier reporters magazine in TVP3.
He is also an academic lecturer of TV journalism and Polish language culture in Poznań colleges and in the Higher School of Environmental Management in Tuchola (Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania Środowiskiem w Tucholi). Besides his native Polish language, he speaks some German, English and Russian.
In the European elections of 13 June 2004 he was a candidate of Civic Platform in Kuyavian-Pomeranian constituency and received 26,144 votes - the best result made him the only MEP in the region.

wn.com/Tadeusz_Zwiefka

Takis Hadjigeorgiou
Takis is a Cypriot politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Progressive Party of Working People, sitting with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group, on the European Parliament's Committee of Foreign Affairs.
He is also a member of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and Delegation to the EU-Armenia, EU-Azerbaijan and EU-Georgia Parliamentary Cooperation Committees.
Born in Pano Akourdaleia, Paphos in 1956, Takis completed his studies in law National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and journalism (Journalism Workshop) in Athens in 1980 and subsequently moved back to Cyprus. Upon returning to his home country, he worked as a freelance journalist and later produced and aired programs with the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. He became famous through his TV talk show "Χωρίς Πλαίσια" (Without Borders), which covered controversial issues touching upon the more difficult aspects of Cyprus history. Between 1995 and 2007 he served as the Managing Director of Radio Astra 92.8 in Cyprus.

wn.com/Takis_Hadjigeorgiou

Tanja Fajon
Tanja Fajon (born 9 May 1971) is a Slovenian politician and journalist, currently serving as Member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
Fajon was born in Ljubljana, where she obtained her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Ljubljana. She also holds a BA in marketing in non-profit organizations (with honors). In 2005 Fajon obtained a MA degree in international studies from the College of Interdisciplinary Studies in Belgium.
In December 2010, she was the first person to receive an honorary doctorate from American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in Sarajevo.
A journalist, Fajon worked for Radio Glas Ljubljane between 1991 and 1995. She was also a reporter for Republika (1993) and later worked for RTV Slovenija (1995–2009), from 2001 as its EU correspondent from Brussels.
In 2009 she was elected to the European Parliament on behalf of the Social Democrats, associated with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Fajon is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and a substitute on the Committee on Transport and Tourism.

wn.com/Tanja_Fajon

Tarja Cronberg
'Tarja Cronberg (née Mattila, born 29 June 1943 in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and former Minister of Labour. She was also a Member of the Finnish Parliament (2003–2007), representing the Green League. She was elected as the chairperson of her party in 2005 and remained in this position until 2009, when she was replaced by Anni Sinnemäki.
Cronberg was born in Helsinki, Finland and currently resides in Polvijärvi. She holds two Ph.D. degrees: in technology from Lund University, Sweden and in business administration from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
Cronberg has worked in various positions in both business and education, such as an associate professorship at the Technical University of Denmark, among others. She has long exercised political leadership in Europe's networked society. Currently a member of the European Parliament she was a Member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2007 and a former Minister of Labor. She chaired the Green League party from 2005 to 2009 and served on several parliamentary committees (foreign affairs, security and defense, employment). She was a member of the EU Competitiveness Council (2008-2009) and of the EU Employment and Social Affairs Council (2007-2009).

wn.com/Tarja_Cronberg

Tatjana Ždanoka
Tatyana Arkad'evna Zhdanok, (Russian: Татья́на Арка́дьевна Ждано́к, also spelled as Tatyana Zhdanok), born May 8, 1950 in Riga, is a Latvian politician and Member of the European Parliament and a co-Chairperson of For Human Rights in United Latvia; part of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group. Zhdanok is co-chairperson of ForHRUL since 2001. Since she is prohibited from being nominated to Latvian Parliament or local councils under Latvian law due to her former allegiance with the Communist Party of Latvia after January 1991, she is (similarly with Alfrēds Rubiks) in the peculiar position of being restricted to Europarliament elections.
Born in Riga, Zhdanok is of Latvian Jewish origin, coming from a family decimated by Latvian Nazi collaborators during World War II.
Zhdanok became politically active in the late 1980s, at first a member of the Popular Front, she soon became one of the leaders of the Interfront, a political organization opposing Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union and market reforms. Prior to that, she taught mathematics at the University of Latvia, where she received her doctorate in mathematics in 1992. In 1989, she was elected to the Riga city Soviet, and in 1990, to Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR. Zhdanok was also active with the Communist Party of Latvia.

wn.com/Tatjana_Ždanoka

Thanasis Pafilis
Thanasis Pafilis (Greek: Θανάσης Παφίλης) (born 8 November 1954) is a Greek politician and former Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Greece from 2004 to 2009; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. Since 2009 he has been a member of the Greek parliament. He was born in Pitsio, Phthiotis.

wn.com/Thanasis_Pafilis

Thanos Plevris
Athanasios Plevris (Greek: Αθανάσιος Πλεύρης) or Thanos Plevris is a Greek member of parliament and son of Greek author Konstantinos Plevris. He was elected into office in the 2007 parliamentary election with the Popular Orthodox Rally party.
Plevris practices law in Athens, having completed post-graduate study in Heidelberg University, and earned a doctorate from the University of Athens. He completed his military service as a sergeant in the Greek special forces. In June 2009 Plevris was elected as MEP and was replaced in the Greek parliament by Georgios Georgiou but returned to the Greek parliament again after the Greek legislative election, 2009.

wn.com/Thanos_Plevris

Theodor Stolojan
Theodor Dumitru Stolojan (Romanian pronunciation: [teˈodor stoloˈʒan]; born 24 October 1943) is a Romanian politician. An economist by training, he is a leader of the Democratic-Liberal Party. He previously served as Prime minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992. He and his wife Elena have a son, Vlad Stolojan, and a daughter, Ada Palea. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament for Romania, representing the Democratic Liberal Party (EPP-ED).
Before the 1989 Revolution he worked at the Committee for State Planning, together with Nicolae Văcăroiu, who was President of the Senate between 20 December 2000 and 14 October 2008.
During the rule of Nicolae Ceauşescu he worked at the Ministry of Finances between 1972 and 1977 as an economist in the State Budget Department, then between 1978 and 1982 as Chief of Accountancy of State Budget and then as deputy director of the Department for Foreign Exchange and International Financial Relations until the 1989 Romanian Revolution. He was the Prime minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992, then worked for the World Bank and for a Romanian private company. In 2000 he re-entered politics as a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL); he ran for the presidency of Romania in the November 2000 elections, but came in third, behind Ion Iliescu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor. He was named president of the PNL in August 2002.

wn.com/Theodor_Stolojan

Thijs Berman
Thijs Berman (born September 26, 1957 in Coevorden) is a Dutch politician and a Member of the European Parliament. Thijs is also a member of the AWEPA Governing Council.
Berman was born in the Province of Drenthe and grew up in the Province of Groningen. After initially studying acting in Maastricht, he turned to psychology. He earned a bachelor degree in psychology from Utrecht University in 1983 and a master's from the University of Amsterdam in 1987. Since, he was a correspondent in Paris and Moscow for the Dutch Public Radio (Radio 1), the Dutch international radio Wereldomroep, the agrarian daily Agrarisch Dagblad, and magazine Elsevier. He presented many radio and television shows, notably for broadcaster IKON.
In June 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament. He is a member of the Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Development and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. He is also a substitute for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and for the Committee on Budgetary Control. Further he is the chair of the Delegation for relations with Afghanistan.

wn.com/Thijs_Berman

Théo Lefèvre
Théodore Joseph Albéric Marie "Théo" Lefèvre (Ghent, 17 January 1914 - Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, 18 September 1973) was a lawyer at the Ghent court of justice. In 1946 he became deputy of the Belgian parliament for the PSC-CVP. Between 25 April 1961 and 28 July 1965 he was the 39th Prime Minister of Belgium.

wn.com/Théo_Lefèvre

Timothy Kirkhope
Timothy John Robert Kirkhope (born 29 April 1945) is a British lawyer and politician, currently serving as Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber for the Conservative Party. After serving for ten years as Member of Parliament for Leeds North East, he was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999. Since December 2004 he has been leader of the Conservative delegation on a number of occasions, and is also the Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel's Europe grouping.
Kirkhope was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and educated at the Royal Grammar School there and subsequently at the Law Society College of Law in Guildford before qualifying as a Solicitor in 1973. He was a Senior Partner in Newcastle law firm Wilkinson Marshall Clayton and Gibson (now part of Eversheds) until giving up practice on election to Parliament in 1987.
In 1982 he was elected to Northumberland County Council and served as a Director of Newcastle Airport. He obtained a Private Pilot’s Licence in 1983. He was very active in Hospital Broadcasting being the Chairman of Radio Tyneside for some years, and has maintained his links with the company. He was also very active in charitable work for the Macmillan Cancer Relief organization in Newcastle and the Family Service Unit movement.

wn.com/Timothy_Kirkhope

Tokia Saïfi
Tokia Afféda Saïfi (born July 11, 1959 in Hautmont, Nord) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the North-West of France. She is a member of the Radical party and of the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party. She is a former member of Ecology Generation.

wn.com/Tokia_Saïfi

Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He resigned from all of these positions in June 2007.
Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party used the phrases "New Labour" and "New Socialism" to define its policy, and moved away from its support of state socialism since the 1960s and created a new version of the ethical socialism that was last pursued by Clement Attlee. Critics of Blair claim that "New Labour" did not adhere to socialism as claimed, and that it effectively advocated capitalism. Blair subsequently led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. At 43 years old, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government implemented a number of 1997 manifesto pledges, introducing the minimum wage, Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information Act, and carrying out devolution, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

wn.com/Tony_Blair

Tunne Kelam
Tunne-Väldo Kelam MEP (born Tunne-Väldo Sink 10 July 1936 in Taheva, Estonia) is an Estonian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Pro Patria Union (Estonia), part of the European People's Party.
After graduating from Tallinn 2. Secondary School in 1954 he went on to study history in University of Tartu. After graduation from university he was a senior researcher in the State Central Archives of Estonia from 1959 to 1965 and a lecturer on international relations in Society "Science" from 1959 to 1970. From 1965 to 1975 he was a senior editor of Estonian Soviet Encyclopaedia, but had to quit the job because of his anti-Soviet views. He was then employed by the National Library of Estonia as a senior librarian, but was not allowed to continue on his profession after 1979. From there on he held many menial jobs, including the position of a caretaker in a chicken farm.
By the end of 1980s he had become one of the leading dissidents in Estonian society. He was a founding member of the Estonian National Independence Party (ERSP, Eesti Rahvusliku Sõltumatuse Partei) in 1988 and a member of Estonian Citizens Head Committee, people movement supporting the sovereignty of Estonia, from 1989 to 1990. From 1990 to 1992 he was the Chairman of the Estonian Committee, an executive body of the Congress of Estonia, legislative assembly competing with the Supreme Soviet for political power in Estonian SSR. After a new parliament, Riigikogu was established and elected in summer 1992 he became a member of parliament. He held this position till 2004 when he was elected to the European Parliament. He served as a Vice Speaker of Riigikogu from 1992 till 2003.

wn.com/Tunne_Kelam

Ulrike Lunacek
Ulrike Lunacek (born 26 May 1957 in Krems an der Donau) is an Austrian politician. She used to be a Member of Parliament of the National Council of Austria, and since 2009 is a Member of the European Parliament for Austria.
She is a member of the Austrian party The Greens – The Green Alternative. Since 5 May 2006, Lunacek was a spokesperson of the European Green Party. Lunacek works as a professional interpreter for the languages English and Spanish and as a journalist. She lives openly as a lesbian.

Media related to Ulrike Lunacek at Wikimedia Commons

wn.com/Ulrike_Lunacek

Valdemar Tomaševski
Valdemar Tomaševski (born 3 March 1965), rendered in Polish orthography as Waldemar Tomaszewski, is a [[polish politician and Member of the European Parliament. Leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL), Tomaševski has been an MEP since 2009. He sits in the European Conservatives and Reformists group, of which he is a Member of the Bureau on the group executive.
First elected to Vilnius district council for Electoral Action in 1995, Tomaševski was elected President of AWPL in 1999. He was first elected to the Seimas at the 2000 election, winning 51% of the vote in Šalčininkai. In the same year, he became deputy mayor of Vilnius district, serving from 2000 to 2003. Finding himself as one of only two AWPL members in the Seimas, during the parliamentary term, he moved between factions, including Homeland Union and Order and Justice.
Tomaševski was re-elected to the Seimas in 2004 with 63% of the vote: one of five candidates in the country elected in the first round. He was re-elected again at the 2008 election, winning 61%: eight times his nearest competitor's share. He was AWPL's candidate in the May 2009 presidential election, the first that AWPL had entered, and received 4.7% of the national vote, in fourth, with Dalia Grybauskaite winning comfortably.

wn.com/Valdemar_Tomaševski

Vicky Ford
Victoria Grace "Vicky" Ford (born September 21, 1967 in Omagh, County Tyrone) was elected as Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament for East of England in the 2009 European Parliament election.
The daughter of two doctors, Ford spent much of her early life in Northern Ireland. Her husband is also a doctor. They have three children.
She studied maths and economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, before working in infrastructure finance for 14 years, mainly at JP Morgan.
Before being elected to the European Parliament in 2009, she was a local councillor in South Cambridgeshire. She was also the Conservative candidate in the 2005 general election for Birmingham Northfield, within which lies the plant of MG Rover.
She was the Conservative Party spokesman on Economic and Monetary affairs in the European Parliament from 2009–11 and is a member of the Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

wn.com/Vicky_Ford

Viktor Klima
Viktor Klima (born 4 June 1947) is an Austrian Social Democrat politician and businessman. He was chancellor of Austria from 1997 to 2000.
Born in Schwechat, Lower Austria, Klima started working for the then state-owned OMV oil company in 1969 and remained with the company up to the beginning of his political career in 1992, in his later years serving as a member of their management board.
Although Klima was then unknown to the majority of Austrians, in 1992 Chancellor Franz Vranitzky made him Minister of Transportation and Nationalised Industry, a position Klima held till 1996, when he became Minister of Finance for a year.
In 1997, upon Vranitzky's resignation, Klima was elected chairman of the Social Democratic party and was sworn in as Chancellor of Austria, having renewed the grand coalition between his own party (Social Democratic Party of Austria, SPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), with Wolfgang Schüssel serving as his vice chancellor.
Influenced by the "Third Way" strategy of other European leaders such as Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, under Klima's chairmanship the Social Democrats played down their allegiance to Marxism and thus to their own political roots and very clearly continued their move from the political left towards the centre, frequently using spin doctors and embracing populism as a political strategy.

wn.com/Viktor_Klima

Viktor Uspaskich
Viktor Uspaskich (Russian: Виктор Викторович Успасских Lithuanian: Viktoras Uspaskichas) (born 24 July 1959 in Urdoma, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Soviet Union) is a Russian born Lithuanian entrepreneur, professional welder and politician.
He arrived in Lithuanian SSR in 1985 and worked as a welder in the gas industry. He left shortly after for Finland, before returning in 1987, divorcing his Belarussian wife with two children (Julia, Eduard) and marrying Jolanta Blažytė. He formed his own company Efektas in 1990, and took citizenship of the newly formed Republic of Lithuania in 1991.
With power he quickly gained tremendous success in his business empire that now includes the importation of natural gas from Gazprom, in addition to flourishing enterprises in the food production and animal fodder industries.
Between 1997 and 2003 he was chairman of the Association of Lithuanian Employers, and in 2000 was selected as a non-party member of the Naujoji sąjunga (New Union) social liberal party in the Seimas (parliament). His own political ambitions led him to form the Darbo Partija (Labour Party) in 2003. The DP scored highly during the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections, gaining 30.2% of the popular vote and returning 5 MEPs. That same year, he became Minister of Economic Affairs in Lithuania's coalition government.

wn.com/Viktor_Uspaskich

Vilja Savisaar
Vilja Savisaar-Toomast (born 15 August 1962, Antsla as Vilja Laanaru; 1996-2009 named Vilja Savisaar) is an Estonian politician, currently a Member of the European Parliament. She previously belonged to the Estonian Centre Party of where she decided to leave on 9 April 2012.
In 1992–1995, Vilja Laanaru was a member of Riigikogu, belonging to the Independent Royalist Party of Estonia. In 1997, she joined the Estonian Centre Party and has several times been elected to Riigikogu as well as worked in Tallinn city government. In 2009, she became Member of the European Parliament after Edgar Savisaar renounced his mandate, so as to remain mayor of Tallinn.
She has been President of the Estonian Volleyball Federation since 2007 and since November 2008, in the Executive Committee of the Estonian Olympic Committee for the next 4 years.
In 1996, Vilja Laanaru married Centre Party leader Edgar Savisaar; they divorced in 2009. They have one daughter. In August 2010, she married opera singer Taimo Toomast and changed her surname to Savisaar-Toomast.

wn.com/Vilja_Savisaar

Ville Itälä
Ville Heimo Antero Itälä (born May 10, 1959 in Luumäki) is a Finnish politician. He was elected member of the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) from the district of Finland Proper in 1995. Itälä served as the Minister of Interior under Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen in 2000–2003. He was elected chairman of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) in 2001. Following his resignation as party leader in 2004, he was succeeded by Jyrki Katainen. Itälä was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 29th February 2012.

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Vincent Peillon
Vincent Benoît Camille Peillon (French pronunciation: [vɛ̃.sɑ̃ pɛ.jɔ̃] ; born 7 July 1960 at Suresnes) is Minister for Education in the French Government. He is a longstanding French politician and since 2004 has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West France (allied with the Socialist Party and the Party of European Socialists).

wn.com/Vincent_Peillon

Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; IPA: [vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪr vɫɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn] (

listen); born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician who has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008 and as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. Putin also serves as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when president Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move. Putin won the 2000 presidential election; in 2004 he was re-elected for a second term lasting until 7 May 2008.
Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term. After his successor Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election, Putin was nominated by Medvedev to be Russia's Prime Minister; Putin took office on 8 May 2008 and a period of so-called "tandemocracy" followed. In September 2011, Putin and Medvedev agreed he should seek a third, non-consecutive term in the 2012 presidential election, which he won in the first round on 4 March 2012.

wn.com/Vladimir_Putin

Véronique Mathieu
Véronique Mathieu (born 28 October 1955 in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the East of France. She is a member of the Radical Party, associated to the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party.

wn.com/Véronique_Mathieu

Walthère Frère-Orban
Hubert Joseph Walthère Frère-Orban (22 April 1812 - 2 January 1896) was a Belgian liberal politician and statesman.
He was born at Liège, received his education at home and in Paris, and began the practice of law in his native town. He identified himself with the Liberal party, and was conspicuous in the controversy with the Catholic clergy.
In 1846, he wrote the program, which was accepted as the charter for a liberal political party. In 1847 he was elected to the Belgian Chamber and appointed Minister of Public Works. and from 1848 to 1852 he held the portfolio of Finance. He founded the national bank of Belgium, reduced postage, abolished the newspaper tax and was a strong advocate of free trade.
His work, La mainmorte et la charité (1854–57), directed against the Conservatives, produced a great effect on the position of parties in Belgium. As a result, in 1857, the Liberals returned to power and Frère-Orban became once more Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Charles Rogier, whom he succeeded to become the 11th Prime Minister in 1868. In 1870 the Catholics regained their supremacy and forced him to retire, but from 1878 to 1884 he was again at the head of the cabinet, most notably breaking off diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1880 (which were restored in 1884).

wn.com/Walthère_Frère-Orban

Werner Langen
Werner Langen (born 27 November 1949) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Rhineland-Palatinate. He is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

Media related to Werner Langen at Wikimedia Commons

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Wilfried Martens
Wilfried Martens (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈβ̞ɪlfɾiˑt ˈmɑɾtəns] (

listen); born Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens, 19 April 1936) is a Belgian politician. He was born in Sleidinge (East Flanders). Martens was the 44th Prime Minister of Belgium from 3 April 1979 to 6 April 1981 and 17 December 1981 to 7 March 1992.
Martens was a Chair of the Belgian Christian People's Party (now renamed Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V)) from 1972–79, sitting as a Deputy in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (federal parliament) from 1974–91, and serving as a Senator from 1991 – 94.
He co-founded the European People's Party (EPP) in 1976 and has been EPP President since 1992.
From 1993 he was President of the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD), until its merger with the EPP in 1996. Martens also negotiated with Finnish conservative politician Sauli Niinistö the merger of the European Democrat Union (EDU) into the EPP (formally concluded in 2002). The successful fusion of all centre-right European organisations into the EPP – currently the largest transnational European political party with 75 member-parties from 40 countries – is widely recognised as an important achievement of his European political legacy.

wn.com/Wilfried_Martens

Willy De Clercq
Willy Clarisse Elvire Hector, Viscount De Clercq (8 July 1927 – 28 October 2011) was a Belgian liberal politician.
De Clercq was born in Ghent. After his law and notariat studies at the University of Ghent and a scholarship at Syracuse University (Syracuse, United States), De Clerq became a lawyer at the Court of appeal in Ghent and a professor at Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Although he could have had a successful career in law, he got into politics. He was member of the Liberal youth and was elected municipal councillor and member of parliament.
De Clercq served in various coalition governments. He was secretary of state for the budget (1960–1961), deputy prime minister and minister of the budget from 1966 to 1968, deputy prime minister and minister of Finances in 1973–1974, minister of Finances in 1974–1977 and deputy prime minister in 1980.
De Clercq served as president of various international monetary instances and as president of the then liberal party PVV. He served for a term as a member of the European Commission (1985–1989). Moreover he became Minister of State in 1985. From 1989 to 2004 he was a member of the European Parliament.

wn.com/Willy_De_Clercq

Wim Kok
Willem "Wim" Kok (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɪm ˈkɔk] (

listen)); born September 29, 1938) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 22, 1994 until July 22, 2002.
A former Trade Union Leader, Kok served as Chairman of the Netherlands Association of Trade Unions from 1972 until 1976 when it merged to form the Federation Netherlands Labour Movement, Kok served as its first Chairman from 1976 until 1986 when he left to enter politics. He was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives on June 3, 1986 after the Dutch general election of 1986. The Labour Party Party leader and Parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives Joop den Uyl announced that he was stepping down after serving twenty years as Party leader. Kok was elected to succeed him and became Party leader and the Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives on July 21, 1986 and served as opposition leader during the parliamentary period of the Cabinet Lubbers II. For the Dutch general election of 1989 Kok became the lijsttrekker and the Labour Party lost 3 seats but the following cabinet formation resulted in a coalition agreement with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which formed the Cabinet Lubbers III. Kok became Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister serving from November 7, 1989 until August 22, 1994.

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Wim van de Camp
Wilhelmus Gerardus Johannes Maria (Wim) van de Camp (born 27 July 1953) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). Since 14 July 2009 he has been a Member of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal in the European Parliament, representing the European People's Party (EPP). Prior till his nomination for the European Parliament Van der Camp served as a Member of the House of Representatives for 23 years, at the time the second longest-serving MP second only to the in 1981 elected Bas van der Vlies.
Van der Camp studied tropical agriculture in Deventer and law at Radboud University Nijmegen. He worked four years at the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) before becoming an MP in 1986.
He is openly homosexual and not married. He is a member of the Catholic Church and owns a motorcycle.

wn.com/Wim_van_de_Camp

Wojciech Olejniczak
Wojciech Michał Olejniczak [ˈvɔjt͡ɕɛx ɔlɛjˈɲit͡ʂak] (

listen) (born 10 April 1974 in Łowicz, Poland) is a Polish leftist politician and member of the European Parliament.
He was the chairman of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) from 29 May 2005, to 31 May 2008 (the first chairman of that party that was not a member of Polish United Workers' Party) and the vice-speaker of Sejm since 26 October 2005. From 2 July 2003, to 31 May 2005, Olejniczak was the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 31,471 votes in the 11th Sieradz district, running on the SLD list. He was also a member of Sejm 2001–2005. He was reelected on 21 October 2007 getting 51,865 votes in the 9th Łódź district.
On 7 June 2009 he was elected Member of European Parliament from Warsaw constituency, gaining 72,854 votes.
He achieved notoriety in Poland for a speech made during the ECOSY Congress in Warsaw, Poland, which displayed his poor command of the English language. This inspired an internet meme on the basis of his speech.

wn.com/Wojciech_Olejniczak

Wolfgang Schüssel
Wolfgang Schüssel (German pronunciation: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ ˈʃʏsəl]; born 7 June 1945) is an Austrian People's Party politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognized as a rare example of an active reformer in contemporary Austrian politics, his governments were also highly controversial from the beginning, starting with the fact that he formed a coalition government with Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) on both occasions. In 2011, he retired from being an active member of parliament due to charges of corruption against members of his governments.
Born in Vienna, Schüssel attended that city's Schottengymnasium, a well known Roman Catholic gymnasium for boys, where he took his Matura exams in 1963. He went on to study at the University of Vienna, receiving a Doctorate in Law in 1968.
Schüssel was secretary of the parliamentary group of the Austrian People's Party from 1968 to 1975. From 1975 to 1991, he was Secretary General of the Austrian Business Federation, a sub-organization of the Austrian People's Party.

wn.com/Wolfgang_Schüssel

Yannick Jadot
Yannick Jadot (born July 27, 1967 in Clacy-et-Thierret, Aisne) is a French environmentalist and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the West France constituency.
As an environmentalist and humanitarian, Jadot co-ordinated Greenpeace actions in France between 2002 and 2008 but also headed the 'Alliance pour la planète and was a key player in the 2008 Grenelle Environnemental Accord.
In 2009, he announced that he was leaving Greenpeace to lead the Europe Écologie list in the West constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. His list won 16.65% and he was elected to the European Parliament, along with Nicole Kiil-Nielsen.

wn.com/Yannick_Jadot

Yves Leterme
Yves Camille Désiré Leterme (Dutch pronunciation: [iːf ləˈtɛrmə]; born 6 October 1960) is a Flemish Belgian politician, a leader of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V), and was the 48th Prime Minister of Belgium.
Leterme was the Prime Minister of Belgium from March 2008 to December 2008. He has been Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget, Institutional Reforms, Transport and the North Sea in the Belgian federal government. He is a former Minister-President of Flanders and Flemish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Despite his French name, Leterme is Flemish. He is fluent in Dutch, French and English.
On 14 July 2008, facing the imminent failure to meet a self imposed deadline to enact "constitutional reform" consisting of further devolution of powers to the nation's three linguistic communities, Leterme tendered his resignation to King Albert II, the head of state. On 17 July, King Albert, after holding a flurry of consultations with leaders of political parties, labor unions, and the employers' association, rejected Leterme's resignation. Instead, the king appointed a three person commission of representatives of the linguistic communities to investigate how to restart the reform process. The commission was to report to the king by 31 July 2008.

wn.com/Yves_Leterme

Zbigniew Ziobro
Zbigniew Tadeusz Ziobro [ˈzbʲiɡɲɛf ˈʑɔbrɔ] (

listen) (born August 18, 1970 in Kraków) is a Polish politician, since October 2005 until November 2007 Minister of Justice and Public Prosecutor General. He was elected to the Sejm on September 25, 2005 in the 13th Kraków district, running on the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list. He received over 120,000 votes in the parliamentary election, the highest percentage constituency result on a nationwide scale.
Graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. He did not complete his PhD.
He was a member of Sejm 2001-2005.
Due to his proclaimed "battle against corruption", he became one of the more popular and polarizing politicians in Poland. His uncompromising approach and publicized prosecutions earned him the title of Man of the year 2006, awarded by Wprost magazine. Yet, some of his policies were repeatedly characterized as partisan and overzealous by local and international press, including The Economist.
In 2007, allegedly linked in Andrzej Lepper bribery case former Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Janusz Kaczmarek groundlessly accused him. In a media sparring with vice-PM Andrzej Lepper, Ziobro revealed that he secretly recorded a conversation with the Minister of Agriculture.

wn.com/Zbigniew_Ziobro

Zigmantas Balčytis
Zigmantas Balčytis (born 16 November 1953 in Šilutė district municipality) is a former acting Prime Minister of Lithuania. He took office on 1 June 2006 following the resignation of Algirdas Brazauskas, but failed to be approved by the Parliament to become Prime Minister. He was succeeded on 4 July by Gediminas Kirkilas. Balčytis is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and was Minister of Finance in the Brazauskas government.

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Zita Gurmai
Zita Gurmai (born June 1, 1965 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Hungarian Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.

wn.com/Zita_Gurmai

Zoltán Bagó
Zoltán Bagó (born on 10 January 1975 in Kalocsa) is a Hungarian politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Hungarian Civic Party, part of the European People's Party.
He is a graduate of the University of Szeged, apprenticeship and internships in the offices of the national administration, and among other the U.S. Department of State. He worked in local government and municipal organizations. In the mid-90s he joined Fidesz in 2004 became the head of the party structures in his hometown of. In the 2009 elections unsuccessfully ran for parliamentary seat. However he became MEP a year later, replacing Enikő Győri.

wn.com/Zoltán_Bagó

Zoltán Balczó
Zoltán Balczó (born January 1, 1948 in Nyíregyháza) is a Hungarian politician, deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. He was a Member of the European Parliament with Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary from 2009 to 2010. His older brother is András Balczó, the Olympic champion.
After the 2010 elections he was appointed one of the deputy speakers of the National Assembly of Hungary. As a result of he was replaced by Béla Kovács in the European Parliament.

wn.com/Zoltán_Balczó

Zoran Thaler
Zoran Thaler (born 21 January 1962) is a Slovenian politician and businessman. He is a former Slovenian Foreign Minister and a former Member of European Parliament.
He was born in Kranj in former Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia). He graduated from political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. He started his political career in the Alliance of the Socialist Youth of Slovenia (ZSMS), the largely autonomous youth and student organisation, many times in opposition to the League of Communists of Slovenia.
In the first free elections in Slovenia, he was elected to the Slovenian Parliament as member of the Alliance of the Socialist Youth of Slovenia – Liberal Party (later renamed to Liberal Democratic Party) and became Deputy Foreign Minister (1990–1993) in first democratic Government of Slovenia ruled by the DEMOS coalition.^{[dead link]} He was re-elected to the Parliament in 1992 and 1996 on the list of the ruling Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. Between 1993 and 1995, he served as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Parliament.

wn.com/Zoran_Thaler

Ádám Kósa
Ádám Kósa (born on 1 July 1975 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician and elected Member of the European Parliament with the Hungarian Civic Party, part of the European People's Party. The deaf politician is the first user of Deaf Sign Language at the European Parliament.

wn.com/Ádám_Kósa

Ágnes Hankiss
Ágnes Hankiss (orig. Ágnes Erdős born on 7 March 1950 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician and elected Member of the European Parliament with Fidesz, a member of the European People's Party.

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Åsa Westlund
Åsa Ingrid Gunilla Westlund (born May 19, 1976 in Anderstorp, Jönköping County, Småland) is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.

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Élie Hoarau
Élie Hoarau (born July 8, 1938 in Sainte-Suzanne, Réunion) is a French politician and member of the Communist Party of Réunion. He is the husband of Senator Gélita Hoarau.
Hoarau was elected as a member of the National Assembly of France from 1986 to 1987, 1988 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2001. Hoarau served as mayor of Saint-Pierre, Réunion between 1982 and 2001.
He had to resign, after being sentenced on July 6, 2000 to 1 year imprisonment with suspended sentence and 50.000 FRF (7500 €) fine because of Electoral fraud .
Hoarau has served as Secretary General of the Communist Party of Réunion since 1993.
In 2009, Hoarau was elected as a member of the European Parliament for the DOM-TOM constituency in the 2009 European elections.

wn.com/Élie_Hoarau

Élisabeth Morin
Élisabeth Morin-Chartier (born 10 October 1947 in Ceaux-en-Couhé, Vienne) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the West France constituency. She is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.
She was Vice President of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council under Regional President Jean-Pierre Raffarin and assumed the presidency upon Raffarin's nomination as Prime Minister of France. Her list in the 2004 regional elections was defeated in a near-landslide by the Socialist list, led by Ségolène Royal.
In the 2004 European election, she was the third candidate on Roselyne Bachelot's UMP list in the West but she was not elected. However, when Bachelot entered the François Fillon cabinet in May 2007, she became Member of the European Parliament. She was also a member of the French Economic and Social Council between September 2004 and May 2007.
In the 2009 European elections, she was the second candidate on the UMP list in the West region and was elected to the European Parliament.

wn.com/Élisabeth_Morin

Guy Verhofstadt

Prime Minister of Belgium
In office 12 July 1999 – 20 March 2008
Monarch	Albert II
Deputy	Laurette Onkelinx Didier Reynders
Preceded by	Jean-Luc Dehaene
Succeeded by	Yves Leterme
Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2009
Preceded by	Graham Watson
Personal details
Born	(1953-04-11) 11 April 1953 (age 59) Dendermonde, Belgium
Political party	Party for Freedom and Progress (Before 1992) Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (1992–present)
Spouse(s)	Dominique Verkinderen
Alma mater	Ghent University
Signature

Political offices
Preceded by Jean-Luc Dehaene	Prime Minister of Belgium 1999–2008	Succeeded by Yves Leterme
Party political offices
Preceded by Graham Watson	Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe 2009–present	Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Verhofstadt, Guy
Alternative names
Short description	Belgian politician
Date of birth	11 April 1953
Place of birth	Dendermonde, Belgium
Date of death
Place of death

Persondata
Name	Ashworth, Richard
Alternative names
Short description	British politician
Date of birth	17 September 1947
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

Nigel Farage MEP

Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 November 2010
Preceded by	Jeffrey Titford
In office 27 September 2006 – 27 November 2009
Preceded by	Roger Knapman
Succeeded by	Lord Pearson of Rannoch
Member of the European Parliament for South East England
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 July 1999
Personal details
Born	(1964-04-03) 3 April 1964 (age 48) Kent, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Political party	UK Independence Party
Spouse(s)	Gráinne Hayes (1988-1997, divorced) Kirsten Mehr (1999-present)
Children	4
Alma mater	Dulwich College
Religion	Church of England
Website	Nigel Farage MEP

Party political offices
Preceded by ?	Chairman of the UK Independence Party 1998–2000	Succeeded by Mike Nattrass
Preceded by Roger Knapman	Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party 2006–2009	Succeeded by The Lord Pearson of Rannoch
Preceded by Jeffrey Titford	Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party 2010–present	Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Farage, Nigel
Alternative names
Short description	British politician
Date of birth	3 April 1964
Place of birth	Kent, United Kingdom
Date of death
Place of death

Verhofstadt, Guy Filmography

Famous quotes by Guy Verhofstadt:

"The people's patience is at its end. Our economy, the prosperity of our people, is in danger."

"that we continue to pressure both parties, but certainly Chairman Arafat, to go in implementing everything he has said in his speech."

"Let us face it: in the world today, money and economic strength remain more powerful arguments than the number of people you represent."

"Where do you find the strength to brave a barrage of enemy fire and to bring your wounded friends to safety at great risk to your own life? Conviction."

"Crises are challenges, not calamities."

"The idea that the world can unite without being regulated is clearly an illusion."

"Brothers in suffering, brothers in resistance, brothers in ideals and conviction. It is now our duty to further strengthen this bond in order to secure this hard-won freedom for future generations."

"That which concerns everyone must also be discussed and approved by everyone."

"There is no miracle cure for the many problems of the world."

"The conviction that ideas which threaten our freedom, our democracy and our families can never be allowed to win."

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