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.

Martin Schulz (born on 20 December 1955 in Hehlrath) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, since 2004 leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament (formerly called the Party of European Socialists group and since 2009 called the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats). Martin Schulz has a secondary level of education, he attended high school Heilig Geist Gymnasium in Würselen. He is the current President of the European Parliament.

After four years at primary school, from 1962 to 1966, Schulz attended the Heilig-Geist (Holy Spirit) grammar school in Broich (now Würselen), a district of the town of Broichweiden, for nine years, leaving without his Abitur (A-levels). From 1975 to 1976 he then trained to be a bookseller .

Over the next five years he worked for a number of publishing houses and bookshops, and in 1982 he opened his own bookshop in Würselen, which he ran until 1994.

Besides German, he speaks French and English and understands Dutch.

Derk Jan Eppink (born 7 November 1958) is a Dutch journalist, politician in Belgium, and former cabinet secretary for European Commissioners Bolkestein (1999–2004) and Kallas (2004–2007). In 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament for List Dedecker and sits on the European Conservatives and Reformists Group Executive.

Eppink was born in Steenderen, Gelderland. He studied Dutch law at the VU University in Amsterdam (1977–1981) and thereafter European law and International Politics at the University of Amsterdam. In 1984 he moved to Brussels to become trainee at the European Commission. Thereafter he worked for 3 years as assistant to Members of the European Parliament.

In 1987, Derk Jan Eppink joined the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad where he was assigned to the foreign desk. He covered South Africa, worked as correspondent in Poland and became political editor reporting on Dutch politics in The Hague. In 1995, he moved to the Flemish newspaper De Standaard where he reported on Belgian politics. He wrote two books on his experiences in Belgian politics: Vreemde Buren (Odd neighbors), Avonturen van een Nederbelg (Adventures of a Nederbelg). He was noted for his right-wing views.

Olli Ilmari Rehn ( pronunciation (help·info); born 31 March 1962 in Mikkeli, Finland) is a Finnish politician, currently serving as European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro and vice-president of the EC. He had previously served as Commissioner for Enlargement. He has held a variety of political positions in European institutions as well as in Finland.

Born in Mikkeli in Eastern Finland, Rehn studied economics, international relations and journalism at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. He gained a master's degree in political science from the University of Helsinki in 1989, and a PhD from the University of Oxford in 1996 on the subject of "Corporatism and Industrial Competitiveness in Small European States".

Rehn also played football for his hometown club Mikkelin Palloilijat in Finland's top division Mestaruussarja (now Veikkausliiga) in his youth.

He began his political career already in youth politics as a regular member of the Finnish Centre Youth and soon became the Secretary General of the Nordic Centre Youth. In 1987 he was elected as the president of the Finnish Centre Youth. That position can be seen as predicting high political responsibilities in Finnish politics.

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.