Our congratulations go out to Green MEP Ulrike Lunacek, who has been re-elected vice-president of the European Parliament.
The Parliament is elected for five years, but the term of office for president, vice-presidents, quaestors and committee chairs is only half of that: two-and-a-half years.
Yesterday, parliamentarians elected a new president, Antonio Tajani, for the second half of the 2014 - 2019 legislature. Outgoing President Martin Schulz presided over Tajani's election, who in turn oversaw the election of 14 vice-presidents and five quaestors today.
Having already been elected vice-president on 1 July 2014, this will be Lunacek’s second term in the position.
Among her core political strengths are human, LGBTI, minority, migrant‘s and women’s rights, foreign policy and the Greening of politics in the EU and Austria.
Lunacek is the first openly lesbian politician to be elected vice-president of the European Parliament, and she is also co-president of the Parliament’s LGBTI intergroup.
Until now, she has been vice-president of the Sakharov Prize Network and the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). She is also the Kosovo-Rapporteur, a Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a Substitute Member in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the delegation leader of the Austrian Greens in the European Parliament.
As a Green, as a feminist woman and as a lesbian, she represents and empowers not just women and LGBTI people, but others who believe in a Europe that is open to the world - a Europe that cherishes our diversity, demands inclusiveness and speaks in a language of cooperation and hope instead of confrontation and fear.
We wish her all the very best in her work.
For more information on Ulrike Lunacek, you can check out her website and social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
