X-Nico

16 unusual facts about Member of the European Parliament


2010 student protest in Dublin

After viewing video footage of the disorder MEP Joe Higgins said: "The use of Garda horses and dogs against student protesters in Dublin on Wednesday is an outrageous abuse of the right to protest. The intention was clearly to intimidate peaceful protesters and it is an utter scandal They should never again be used against protesters".

Adrian Cioroianu

Following the accession of Romania to the European Union (January 1, 2007), he served as a Member of the European Parliament in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and a vice president of the ALDE group in the European Parliament.

Alan Donnelly

Alan Donnelly (born 16 July 1957) is a British politician and former trade unionist from Jarrow who served as a Labour Member of the European Parliament and leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff

Alexander Sebastian Léonce von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff (born on 5 November 1966 in Cologne) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Free Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China.

Alliance for an Open Europe

It was initiated by British Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Daniel Hannan, and its birth came in the midst of renewed questioning of the linkage between the centre-right European People's Party and the further-right eurosceptic European Democrats in the European Parliament.

Friedrich Merz

Friedrich Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German lawyer and politician, a former Member of the European Parliament (1989–1994), a former member of the Bundestag (1994–2009), and a former chairman of CDU/CSU parliamentary group (2000–2002).

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.

Member of the European Parliament

Nick Clegg, later leader of the UK Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister of the UK

Several presidents, prime ministers or deputy prime ministers of member states are former MEPs, including former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, British Deputy PM Nick Clegg, the recent Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Belgian PM Elio Di Rupo.

Winnie Ewing, past President of the Scottish National Party, and that party's first MEP.

Mojca Kleva

On May 9 2011 she became a Member of the European Parliament replacing Zoran Thaler who resigned from the position due the accusations regarding corruption.

Operation Stack

The MEP for South East England, Richard Ashworth, and the leader of Kent County Council, Paul Carter, urged French president Nicolas Sarkozy to step-in and resolve the SeaFrance dispute, protesting the difficulties incurred by the county's residents and businesses.

Orlando da Costa

Orlando da Costa was the father of Isabel dos Santos da Costa, who died as a child, as well as politician António Costa -present Mayor of Lisbon, former Portuguese Minister (Internal Affairs and Justice), Portuguese deputy, Member of the European Parliament and one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, born of his first marriage to writer Maria Antónia Palla née de Assis dos Santos.

Panayiotis Demetriou

Panayiotis Demetriou (born May 6, 1939) is a Cypriot politician and Member of the European Parliament for the European People's Party.

Parliamentary group

They are more regulated than other kinds of parliamentary groups: to gain financial support or to join committees, each parliamentary group must consist of no less than 19 MEPs from five different EU member states.

Standing Rules of the United States Senate, Rule XXIII

::Members of National Legislatures of foreign countries and Members of the European Parliament.


Alejandro Cercas

Alejandro Cercas Alonso (born 25 May 1949, Cáceres) is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.

Angelika Niebler

Angelika Niebler (née Rupertseder; born 18 February 1963) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Bavaria with the Christian Social Union in Bavaria and the Member of the Bureau of the European People's Party.

Anne Laperrouze

Anne Laperrouze (born 4 July 1956 in Puylaurens, Tarn) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France.

Antoine Duquesne

Antoine Duquesne (3 February 1941 – 4 November 2010) was a Belgian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the French Community of Belgium with the MR/MCC/PRL, Member of the Bureau of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

Barbara Weiler

Barbara Weiler (born on 17 September 1946 in Düsseldorf) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Socialist Group and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

Center for Global Politics

Justas Vincas Paleckis, Member of the European Parliament, Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Cristiana Muscardini

Cristiana Muscardini (born on 6 November 1948 in Cannobio) is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for North-West Italy with Future and Freedom (FLI).

Edward Gierek

Gierek married Stanisława, née Jędrusik, and they had two sons, one of whom is MEP Adam Gierek.

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.

European Court of Auditors

Terry Wynn MEP who served on the Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control, reaching the position of chairman, has also backed these calls stating that it is impossible for the Commission to achieve these standards.

Franziska Brantner

Franziska Katharina Brantner (born 24 August 1979, Lörrach) is a German member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Genowefa Grabowska

Genowefa Grabowska (born on 1 January 1944 in Przystajń) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Silesian Voivodship with the Social Democracy of Poland, part of the Socialist Group and sits on

Gerardo Galeote Quecedo

Gerardo Galeote Quecedo (born January 27, 1957 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a lawyer and former Spanish Member of the European Parliament from 2001-09.

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.

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.

Holger Krahmer

Holger Krahmer (born on 16 October 1970 in Leipzig) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Free Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

Independent Fianna Fáil

He sat in the Technical Group of Independents which was a technical alliance of mainly left wing MEPs who were not allied with either the Soviet influenced Communist parties or the mainstream Social Democratic parties.

Israel lobby in the United Kingdom

In 2006 Chris Davies, a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for the northwest of England wrote to a pro-Israel constituent that she "enjoyed wallowing in her own filth."

István Pálfi

István Pálfi (23 September 1966, Berettyóújfalu - 15 July 2006, Berettyóújfalu) was a Hungarian politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Hungarian Civic Party, part of the European People's Party and sit on the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and its Committee on Regional Development.

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.

Margarita Starkevičiūtė

Margarita Starkevičiūtė (born March 15, 1956 in Yeniseysk, Russia) is a Lithuanian politician and Member of the European Parliament (2004-2009) for the Liberal and Centre Union; part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

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.

New Britain Party

Some former members later joined the United Kingdom Independence Party, including Mike Nattrass, later a Member of the European Parliament for UKIP, who stood as New Britain candidate in the Dudley West by-election of 1994, gaining 146 votes.

Paul-Marie Coûteaux

Paul-Marie Coûteaux (born 31 July 1956 in Paris) is the son of André Couteaux and a French politician, writer, and former Member of the European Parliament for Ile-de-France with the Mouvement pour la France, Member of the Bureau of the Independence and Democracy and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Peter Ainsworth

On leaving university he became a researcher to the former Conservative Member of the European Parliament, Sir John Stewart-Clark, and then in 1981 became a merchant banker.

Raimon Obiols i Germà

Josep Maria "Raimon" Obiols i Germà (born 5 August 1940 in Barcelona) is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), part of the Party of European Socialists.

Ralf Walter

Ralf Walter (born on 15 March 1958 in Andernach) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Socialist Group and is vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets.

Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi

In March 2012, Baroness Warsi was criticised by a number of Conservative MPs at a meeting of the 1922 Committee for her handling of MEP Roger Helmer's defection to UKIP.

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

Esther Silvana Koch-Mehrin (born on 17 November 1970 in Wuppertal) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Free Democratic Party of Germany.

Stephen Kinnock

He is the son of Neil Kinnock, former leader of the Labour Party and ex-chair of the British Council, and Glenys Kinnock, a former Labour Member of the European Parliament and Minister of State at (2009–10) at the UK Foreign Office.

Tiernan Brady

From 2000–2007 he served as Director of Organisation for Pat the Cope Gallagher, MEP and Mary Coughlan,TD.

Trevor Colman

Bernard Trevor Colman (born 27 August 1941 in St Breward, Cornwall) is a Member of the European Parliament for South West England.

Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler

Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler (born on 1 December 1950 in Augsburg) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Socialist Group and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Zbigniew Kuźmiuk

Zbigniew Krzysztof Kuźmiuk (born on 19 September 1956 in Komorowo) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Masovian Voivodship with the Polish People's Party, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets.

Zbigniew Zaleski

Zbigniew Zaleski (born on 29 April 1947 in Rogoziniec) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Lublin Voivodship with the Civic Platform, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade.

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.

Zuzana Roithová

Zuzana Roithová (born on 30 January 1953 in Prague) is a Czech politician and a Member of the European Parliament for the Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party, part of the European People's Party.