CAMPAIGNING MEP OF THE YEAR
2007
This award is for the MEP who has made an outstanding contribution to a political cause in any area. Nominations for this award were put forward by our panel of pan-European journalists.
Alexander Alvaro has been most prominently involved in political campaigning through his work as President of the Campaign for Parliament Reform. The group of MEPs is calling for greater parliamentary accountability, efficiency and transparency. The reform group was formed during the last legislature and was re-instigated fully by Alvaro in January 2005.
His work for parliamentary reform sees him campaigning outside the Parliament, holding public talks and numerous fundraising events. Alvaro was also involved in initiating the One Seat campaign with ex-MEP Cecilia Malmstrom.
The German MEP is also a coordinator on the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, a member of the Parliament’s Industry Committee, and its Palestinian Legislative Council Delegation. Most recently he has been very active in the recent EU discussions on roaming. Alvaro studied law in Germany and worked as a banker before turning to a career in politics.
Alex
Alvaro
Kathy Sinnott is a disability rights campaigner as well as an MEP. Outside Parliament she is Secretary of the Hope Project, which was set up to bring hope to people struggling with a disability and to their families. The group also aims to inform government and society about the needs of the disabled and their families.
Sinnott was also the founder and secretary of the Association for the Severely and Profoundly Mentally Handicapped. In Parliament, the Irish MEP is a member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly and part of the
Kathy Sinnott
Zita Gurmai has campaigned tirelessly over the years for parity between the sexes. In promoting women’s rights Gurmai has focused on a wide range of feminist issues – from debating the role of women in science to participating in plenary discussions on domestic violence against women and raising awareness of discrimination against young women and girls in the field of education.
Gurmai is also President of the Socialist Party’s Women's Group and Vice Chair of the Parliament’s Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee. She has played a prominent role in the Socialist Party’s childcare campaign to realise the Barcelona Targets on providing access to affordable childcare.
Outside of the European Parliament Gurmai was also the founder of the Women’s Foundation for Genuine Equality and the Founder of the Women in Public Life Foundation. She lists her principal political interests as women's issues, the environment and transport.
Zita Gurmai
