With its committees in place, the European Parliament is now in working order. In this supplement, Europolitics has drawn up a full list of the committees, a succinct presentation of each chairperson and a list of members of each committee (as of 24 July 2009)..

FOREIGN AFFAIRS (AFET)

Gabriele Albertini(EPP, Italy) – The ex-mayor of Milan (1997 to 2006), born in 1950, became an MEP in 2004. Initially a man of business, he ran the family company specialised in aluminium metallurgy from 1974 to 1997 and has participated in several employee organisations, such as Confindustria. He has been government delegate to the Municipality of Milan since 2000 dealing with waste water purification. He has received multiple foreign decorations, such as the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation, the Honorary CBE and the Official of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic, among others.

DEVELOPMENT (DEVE)

Eva Joly (Greens, France) – Eva Joly, a French magistrate born in Oslo in 1943, has been an MEP since 2009. She joined the High Court of Paris in 1990 as an investigating judge where she made herself known through her fight against corruption. In this context, she fought against former Minister Bernard Tapie, the French bank Crédit Lyonnais and, most famously, the oil company Elf Aquitaine, among others, despite receiving several death threats. Indeed, she put Elf’s former ‘big boss’, Loïc Le Foch Prigent, behind bars and put forward Roland Dumas, a close friend and minister of François Mitterand, for examination. In March 2009, Joly was hired as a special advisor by the Icelandic government to investigate the possibility that white-collar crime may have partly contributed to the 2008-2009 Icelandic financial crisis. She is also advisor to the Norwegian government in the struggle against corruption and international financial crime. Joly is founder of ‘Network’, a private network of judges and investigating officers with a reputation for being tough in the fight against corruption. Although she was close to the French democratic movement, she joined the Green lists during the last elections.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE (INTA)

Vital Moreira(S&D, Portugal) – A graduate from Coimbra University’s Faculty of Law, where he received his doctorate in public law, Vital Moreira, 65, is currently teaching at Coimbra and is a recognised expert in constitutional law in Portugal. Following the Portuguese democratic revolution, in 1974, Moreira became a member of the Constituent Assembly, which ratified the country’s new constitution in 1976. From 1976 to 1982, he was an MP and, between 1983 and 1989, a judge in Portugal’s Constitutional Court. He was also a member of the Venice Commission (Council of Europe) and of the European network of independent experts to monitor the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Today, Moreira is on the board of Forum Novas Fronteiras, a think tank close to the Portuguese Socialist Party.

BUDGETS (BUDG)

Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France) – Alain Lamassoure, born in Pau in 1944, was an MEP from 1989 to 1993 and was re-elected in 1999. He belongs to the UMP within the European People’s Party. He was chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control, from 1992 to 1993, and a member of the European Convention, from 2002 to 2003. In France, he was technical advisor in the offices of the president of the Republic from 1978 to 1981 (under President Valérie Giscard D’Estaing). Lamassoure was a member of the French National Assembly from 1986 to 1993 and, from 2001 to 2008, he chaired the Council of Elected Representatives of the Basque Country. In 1993 he became minister with special responsibility for European affairs until 1995 (under the Édouard Balladur government and the Mitterand presidency) and was minister with special responsibility for the budget and government spokesperson from 1995 to 1997 (under the De Villepin government and the Chirac presidency).

BUDGETARY CONTROL (CONT)

Luigi De Magistris (ALDE, Italy) – Luigi De Magistris was the second Italian to have received the most votes during the elections on the Italia dei Valori lists led by former judge Antonio Di Pietro. Born in Naples in 1967, he is to take over the reigns of the Budgetary Control Committee. He was a judge for 15 years in Naples, in Calabria, where he fought against organised crime: his cases often revolved around the ties between mafia and politics. Recently, he was at the heart of a controversy because his cases involved public personas such as Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Justice Minister Clemente Mastella. Declaring himself “prevented from working,» he turned towards politics as it seemed the “only way to improve the current situation with regards to rights and the struggle against organised crime”. He hopes to guarantee that EU funds are truly being consecrated to the economic development of member states.

ECONOMIC AND MONETARY AFFAIRS (ECON)

Sharon Bowles (ALDE, UK) – Born in Oxford in 1953, Sharon Bowles became an MEP in 2004 after having been elected third on the Liberal Democrats list in the South-East of the UK. She is a chartered and European patent attorney, much like her husband, Andrew Horton, and is a registered trademark agent. Bowles is the professional representative before the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (European Trade Mark and Designs Office) and, in February 2006, played a crucial role in the formation of the temporary committee of inquiry into the crisis of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. She was shadow rapporteur for ALDE during the Payment Services Directive negotiations as well as for Solvency II. She is rapporteur for the Parliament on fiscal fraud, although she has also been involved in various matters in many other committees such as taking part in the debate on computer implemented inventions and following all matters related to intellectual property.

EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS (EMPL)

Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) – Pervenche Berès was, until 2004, president of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and substitute member of the Constitutional Affairs Committee. Born in 1957, she was raised within the European Parliament’s walls. She began her career as an administrator in the French National Assembly in 1981. She was Laurent Fabius’ international affairs advisor and then became president of the assembly. She is, and will remain, ‘Fabiusian’: she followed her mentor throughout his own development and thus called for a ‘no’ vote on the Constitutional Treaty. An MEP since 1994, she was vice-president of the European Parliament’s delegation to the Convention for the drawing up of a draft Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU in 1999 and a substitute member of the European Convention on the future of the EU, from February 2002 to July 2003.

ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY (ENVI)

Jo Leinen (S&D, Germany) – Born in 1948 in Bisten, Germany, Joe Leinen’s dedication to environmental policy is clear: as a member of the German SPD he integrated its Environment Committee, among others, from 1981 to 1985 and received the German Environment Foundation Prize in 1985. He was also minister for the environment in Saarland from 1985 to 1994 and is currently vice-president of Eurosolar. Leinen was a member of the Committee of the Regions from 1995 to 1999 but his true European career began in 1999 when he entered the European Parliament. He was vice-president (2002 to 2004) and then president (2004 to 2009) of the Constitutional Affairs Committee.

INDUSTRY, RESEARCH AND ENERGY (ITRE)

Herbert Reul(EPP, Germany) – Born in 1952 in Langenfeld, Germany, Herbert Reul is an active member of his party, the CDU (within the EPP). A member of the CDU Regional Executive since 1997, he was also district chairman of the CDU section in Rheinisch-Bergisch from 1990 to 2007 and secretary-general of the CDU in the North Rhine-Westphalia Land from 1991 to 2003. Moreover, he was district chairman of the Bergisch Land CDU and CDU group vice-chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia Regional Assembly until 2000. He has also been CDU spokesman on education network in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2003. Reul has been a member, since 2003, of Westdeutscher Rundfunk’s administrative council, a radio and television broadcasting company.

INTERNAL MARKET AND CONSUMER PROTECTION (IMCO)

Malcolm Harbour (ECR, UK) – Malcolm Harbour, born in 1947 in Woking, Surrey, has been an MEP since 1999. He is a member of the British Conservative Party within the newly formed European Conservatives and Reformists Group. From 2002 to 2004, he was vice-chairman of the Science and Technology Unit (STOA) Panel, which executes science and technology related projects put forward by the European Parliament’s committees in partnership with outside contractors and partners. Before being elected to the European Parliament, Malcolm spent 32 years in the motor industry and is therefore rightfully founder of the European Forum for the Automobile and Society and was its co-chairman from 1999 to 2004. He is also a leading player in the ceramics industries as chairman and deputy chairman of the European Parliament’s Ceramics Industry Forum. He is European Parliament delegate to the World Summit on the Information Society, a reflection of his strong involvement in the European Internet Foundation. Malcolm was awarded the most ‘Business-friendly MP/MEP’ award chosen by the Forum of Private Business for his important role in steering the Services Directive and was vice-president of the EPP’s SME Union, which offers internships in enterprises for students and young university graduates.

TRANSPORT AND TOURISM (TRAN)

Brian Simpson (S&D, UK) – Brian Simpson, born in 1953 in Leigh, Lancashire, was an MEP from 1989 to 2004 and then again from 2006. He has been spokesman on transport and tourism for the European Socialist Party for quite some time, nominated in 1991 and running until 2004 and was re-elected in 2008. In this context, he coordinated transport, tourism and regional policy within the ESP from 1990 to 2004. Simpson was also president of the parliamentary delegation for relations with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland and vice-president for the delegation with the former Yugoslavia.

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT (REGI)

Danuta Hübner(EPP, Poland) – At 56 years of age, Danuta Hübner is no novice when it comes to Europe. Having graduated from university in Warsaw in external trade, she came into politics in 1994. She helped negotiate the Polish membership to the EU starting in 2001, was put in charge of European integration within Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller’s social democratic team and was his minister for European affairs from 2003 to 2004. Hübner was nominated at the European Commission in 2004 where she successfully handled the structural funds for the 2007-2013 financial period. Moreover, she was a member of the Group Amato, which inspired the current version of the Lisbon Treaty. Her battle plan is three-fold: she speaks in favour of nuclear development in Poland, of adopting the euro as the official Polish currency, and of fighting so that women may gain access to the civil services.

AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (AGRI)

Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) – A brand new MEP, Paolo De Castro was elected in the June 2009 elections in the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico) within the S&D. Born in 1958 in San Pietro Vernotico, he was the European Commission president’s special advisor in 2000. De Castro was minister of agriculture, food and forestry policies from 1998 to 2000 and was re-appointed in 2006. He also runs the International Agricultural Policymagazine.

FISHERIES (PECH)

Carmen Fraga Estevez (EPP, Spain) – The Fisheries Committee’s new president is the daughter of Manuel Fraga, a Spanish politician strongly involved in Franco’s dictatorship and one of the seven founders of the 1978 Spanish Constitution. Carmen Fraga Estévez is a member of the Spanish People’s Party (Partido Popular). Born in 1948 in Léon, Spain, she graduated with a degree in philosophy and the arts, with a major in geography, and with a master’s in law. In terms of her European career, she already presided over the Fisheries Committee, from 1997 to 1999, and was secretary-general for maritime fisheries, from 2002 to 2004. An MEP from 1994 to 2002, she was also the first vice-president of the EPP group.

CULTURE AND EDUCATION (CULT)

Doris Pack (EPP, Germany) – Part of the CDU within the European People’s Party, Doris Pack has been an MEP since 1989 and a renowned Balkan specialist. She was born in 1942 in Schiffweiler/Saar and is currently president of ‘Women in the EPP’ and executive member of the EPP. She has been EPP coordinator on the Committee on Culture, Education and the Media since 1994 and has been chairing the delegation for relations with South-East Europe since 1994. In her homeland, she was a member of the Bundestag from 1974 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1989. She was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the WEU Assembly from 1981 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1989). Pack is chair of the Franco-German Foundation for Cultural Cooperation and has been president of the European Movement on the Saar since 1998. She has also received several decorations such as the Federal Order of Merit, First Class, the French Ordre international de mérite, the Etoile civique en or and the Order of the Republic of Albania.

LEGAL AFFAIRS (JURI)

Klaus-Heiner Lehne(EPP, Germany) – Born in 1957 in Düsseldorf, Klaus-Heiner Lehne has been an MEP since 1994 for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) within the European People’s Party. He played a major role as the EPP group coordinator on the Legal Affairs Committee and brought his full support for the unlimited patentability of software. In 2003, Lehne joined the law firm Taylor Wessing as a partner and head of ‘regulatory affairs’, which advises corporate customers as to the future directions of European Union legislation. He has also been responsible for European Parliament transparency rules for quite some time. Lehne was rapporteur for the Takeover Directive and for the Directive on cross-border mergers.

CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS (LIBE)

Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar(S&D, Spain) – Born in 1961 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar was elected MEP in these last elections, in June 2009. He is a member of the Spanish PSOE within the European Socialist Party. Passionate about drawing, he began his career as a caricaturist for the Canarian newspaper La Province. In 1990, he beame executive advisor to Spanish Minister of Justice Enrique Múgica Herzog’s cabinet. He then became chief of the Minister for Public Administrations, Jerónimo Saavedra Acevedo’s cabinet, from 1993 to 1995, and then that of the minister of education, from 1995 to 1996. He was named minister of justice from 2004 to 2007 under José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and recently became president of the Spanish Public Administrations Committee.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS (AFCO)

Carlo Casini(EPP, Italy) – Originally from Florence and born in 1935, Carlo Casini was an MEP from 1984 to 1999, and since 2006, following the Italian general elections. He is a member of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (Unione dei Democratici cristiani e dei Democratici di Centro) within the European People’s Party. He is chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizen’s Rights and was rapporteur on artificial human procreation, international adoption and exploitation of minors. On a national level, Casini was a judge at the Court of Cassation in 1999. He was also a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, from 1979 to 1994, and rapporteur on the code of criminal procedure, adoption, drugs and terrorism. He is currently president of the Italian Pro-Life Movement and was awarded the Silver Medal of Merit for Social Rehabilitation by the Ministry of Justice, in 1974.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY (FEMM)

Eva-Britt Svensson (GUE-NGL, Sweden) – The Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson (GUE-NGL) did not win the Parliament’s presidency (she gained 89 votes, compared with 555 for Jerzy Buzek) but she will chair the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, of which she was formerly vice-president. Born in 1946, she was political secretary of the Left Party from 1995 until 2004. During the previous legislative term, she was also a member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, a substitute member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, the delegation for relations with Israel and a substitute member for the delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. She chaired the people’s movement ‘No to the EU’ (Sweden) from 1992 to 2001 and currently occupies the position of vice-president there.

PETITIONS (PETI)

Erminia Mazzoni (EPP, Italy) – While the rumour was that the presidency of this committee would go to the former RAI presenter, Elisabetta Gardini, Erminia Mazzoni was the chosen one in the end. She was born in 1965 in Naples. Her European Parliament webpage, so far lacking in information, does not give any further indication as to her career path. During this new legislature, as Silvio Berlusconi’s protégé, she will be a member of the Regional Development Committee. Moreover, she is a substitute member in the Transport and Tourism Committee.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS (DROI)

Heidi Hautala(Greens-EFA, Finland) – Born in 1955, the Finn, a lover of healthy cooking and reading, was the official Greens candidate in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2006 with moderate success. She was president of the League of Greens in Finland from 1987 to 1991, when she became a parliamentarian. She left the national parliament for the European Parliament in 1995 before returning to the national parliament eight years later. Now as head of the Subcommittee on Human Rights, she is starting a new chapter in her European career. She has already been involved in several directives, including one for the equal treatment of men and women in the workplace and directives on fuel quality. Nor should her battle for transparency within the institutions be forgotten, when she did not hesitate about going to the Court of Justice to gain access to certain documents.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SECURITY AND DEFENCE (SEDE)

Arnaud Danjean(EPP, France) – Born in February 1971 in Louhans (France), a graduate in political sciences/communication, Arnaud Danjean started at the French secret service (DGSE) aged 24 and quickly became a Balkans specialist. Based in Paris as of 2005, he became an advisor on the Balkans and Afghanistan at the Quai d’Orsay (the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs). He then went on to stand in the 2007 general elections against Arnaud Montebourg but failed by about 400 votes. Generally speaking, Arnaud Danjean has distinguished himself in two fields: Bosnia and Kosovo. He travelled a lot in the former Serb province, which is now independent, and was therefore very close to a number of Kosovo intellectuals and several KLA leaders who he has been able to help. But, as a sign of his talent and political acumen, he managed to maintain Belgrade’s confidence, making several trips back and forth between the two ‘capitals’ at the time of independence.