Helga Stevens | |
---|---|
Vice-Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Flemish Delegation | |
In office 1 July 2014 –1 July 2019 | |
Chairman | Syed Kamall |
Serving alongside | Ryszard Legutko Raffaele Fitto Roberts Zīle Hans-Olaf Henkel Geoffrey Van Orden |
Member of the European Parliament | |
In office 1 July 2014 –1 July 2019 | |
(Community) Senator | |
In office 5 July 2007 –6 June 2009 | |
In office 7 June 2009 –6 May 2010 | |
In office 13 July 2010 –24 May 2014 | |
Member of the Flemish Parliament | |
In office 13 June 2004 –6 June 2009 | |
In office 7 June 2009 –24 May 2014 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Sint-Truiden,Belgium | 9 August 1968
Political party | Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie |
Residence | Sint-Amandsberg |
Website | www.helgastevens.be |
Helga Stevens (born 9 August 1968) is a Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and member of the European Parliament since 2014. She is well known for her work fighting for the rights of people with disabilities. [1]
Born deaf,Helga Stevens first attended Koninklijk Instituut voor Doven en Spraakgestoorden,a special school for deaf students in Hasselt,before later switching to a mainstream school in Sint-Truiden. While spending a year in St. Louis,Missouri on a Rotary Scholarship 1987,she visited Gallaudet University and met a deaf attorney who inspired her to continue her studies in law. Back in Belgium,she studied law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and became the first deaf lawyer in Belgium. In 1993,Stevens returned to the United States and obtained a master's degree at Boalt Hall Law School of the University of California in Berkeley on a Fulbright scholarship.[ citation needed ]
In 1996,Stevens started working for the European Union of the Deaf (EUD) and was active in the Federation of Flemish Deaf Organisations.[ citation needed ]
Stevens became politically active and was for the first time a candidate in 1999 for the Belgian Senate on the People's Union list (10th place). She was again candidate for Senate in 2003 on the New Flemish Alliance list (3rd place).
She was elected as a Member of the Flemish Parliament in 2004 and as a member of the Senate in 2007. She was reelected for the Flemish Parliament in 2009 and as a member of the Senate in 2010. [2] [3]
In May 2014,Stevens was elected Member of the European Parliament. In November 2014,she was elected vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. In addition to her committee assignments,Stevens serves as president of the European Parliament's Disabilities Intergroup. [4]
In October 2016,the ECR group announced Stevens as their group's choice to be the next President of the European Parliament. [5]
The president of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. They also represent the Parliament within the European Union (EU) and internationally. The president's signature is required for laws initatied under co-decision and the EU budget.
Mairead McGuinness is an Irish politician serving as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability,Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union since October 2020. A member of Fine Gael,she previously served as First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2020. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for East from 2004 to 2014 and for Midlands–North-West from 2014 to 2020,making her Ireland's longest serving MEP. In the European Parliament,she sat with the European People's Party (EPP).
Sophia Helena "Sophie" in 't Veld is a Dutch politician of the Volt party,and formerly of the D66 party. As a D66 member,she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2004,and reelected in 2009,2014 and 2019. She was her party's top candidate for the three elections and has been its leader in the European Parliament since her first election. She left D66 and joined Volt in 2023.
Marianne Leonie Petrus Thyssen is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V) who served as European Commissioner for Employment,Social Affairs,Skills and Labour Mobility between 2014 and 2019.
Udo Bullmann is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1999. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD),part of the Party of European Socialists.
Manfred Weber is a German politician who has served as President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014. He has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany since 2004. He is a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU),part of the European People's Party.
Kathleen Van Brempt,is a Belgian social-democratic politician and member of Vooruit. She currently serves as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) as part of the Party of European Socialists and is leader of the local branch of her party in Antwerp.
Roberta Metsola is a Maltese politician. A member of Malta's Nationalist Party (PN) and the European People's Party (EPP),she is serving as president of the European Parliament since January 2022.
Sylvie Guillaume is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France. She is a member of the Socialist Party,part of the Party of European Socialists.
Élisabeth Morin-Chartier is a French politician of Agir who served as Member of the European Parliament for the West France constituency from 2009 European election until 2014. Before joining Agir in 2018,she was a member of the Union for a Popular Movement and the Republicans (LR).
Esther M. R. de Lange is a Dutch politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2007. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA),part of the European People's Party (EPP),she was elected as delegation leader in the European Parliament at a party conference on 2 November 2013 in Leeuwarden,a position she assumed the following year. In July 2014 she was elected as Vice President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament and in June 2018 as Vice President of the EPP Party.
Petra De Sutter is a Belgian gynaecologist and politician,currently serving as federal Deputy Prime Minister.
Anne Sander is a French economist and politician of the Republicans who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2014 and as one of the five Quaestors of the European Parliament since 2019.
Hilde Vautmans is a Belgian politician of the Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since January 2015,representing the Dutch-speaking electoral college of Belgium.
Michaela Šojdrová is a Czech politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2014. She is a member of the Christian and Democratic Union –Czechoslovak People's Party,part of the European People's Party.
The ninth European Parliament was elected in the 2019 elections and is to last until the 2024 elections.
Stéphane Séjourné is a French lawyer and politician who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019. Since 2021,he has led Renew Europe,a liberal pro-European parliamentary group. Séjournéwas an adviser to Emmanuel Macron during his ministerial tenure and advised him during his 2017 presidential campaign. In 2022,he became general secretary of Renaissance.
Valérie Hayer is a French lawyer and politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019.
Agnès Evren is a French politician of the Republicans (LR) who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019.
JoséManuel Fernandes is a Portuguese politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since the 2009 elections. Earlier in his career,he was President of Municipal Chamber of Vila Verde in northern Portugal.