Joseph Daul
Encyclopedia
Joseph Daul is a French
politician and Member of the European Parliament
for the East of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP), a member-party of the European People's Party
(EPP). On 9 January 2007 he was elected Chairman of the EPP Group (at the time EPP-ED Group) in the European Parliament, replacing Hans-Gert Pöttering
, who was elected as the new President of the European Parliament
. Daul, in his capacity as EPP Group Chairman, is an ex officio Vice President of the European People's Party
.
Daul had previously come to prominence of the European Parliament
's powerful Committee on Agriculture, a position he was elected to on 23 July 2004, and right before as the Chair of the Committee Chair's Conference. He has been Mayor of Pfettisheim
(Bas-Rhin
) since 1989, and is an Officer of the Agricultural Order of Merit, Knight of the National Order of Merit and Knight of the Légion d'honneur
.
In addition to French
he speaks standard German
and Alsatian
, the German dialect spoken in his native region.
Already very early on in his professional life, he quickly became aware of the importance of becoming involved in public life and voluntary work. Joseph Daul became active in the agricultural trade union movement, through the Centre National des Jeunes Agriculteurs (CNJA - National Centre for Young Farmers), a highly-developed network at local, regional, national and European level.
This experience allowed him to complete his professional training and general education to then very quickly assume responsibilities at national and European level. Thus, in 1976 he was appointed national Vice-Chairman of the CNJA with responsibility for European affairs.
He also became a member of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA) and of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels.
At the age of 35 he continued his trade union activities beyond the youth sector and combined his professional life as a farmer with positions of responsibility at a regional, (professional organisations, cooperatives, Chamber of Agriculture), national and European level.
In 1997, when the 'mad cow' crisis arose, he was chair of the National Federation of Beef Producers in France and of the 'beef' group in Europe.
The management of the crisis required diplomacy, perspicacity and faith in the future of the sector in order to juggle with the scientific realities, media impact, the despair of producers and the psychosis among consumers. He contributed greatly to finding solutions together with the national and European authorities to overcome the crisis.
These activities, together with his experience as mayor of his town (1000 inhabitants) served to prepare Joseph Daul to take a more active role in politics when, in 1999, he was asked to represent the farming and rural communities on the RPR list under Nicolas Sarkozy.
He therefore gave up his other functions in order to concentrate solely on his responsibilities as Member of the European Parliament. However, in order to remain in touch with his constituency, Joseph Daul became deputy Mayor in his home town, Vice-President of the Community of Councils and Chairman of the Strasbourg Abattoir Management Cooperative (160 employees).
He became a very active member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, being appointed its chairman in January 2002. Under his chairmanship, the committee contributed significantly to the necessary reform of the CAP in 2003. The committee has since continued to ensure the rigorous implementation of the reform without losing sight of the need for an in-depth review in 2008, with a view to the reform in 2013.
The Committee on Agriculture has sought in particular to reflect on social issues, taking account of the concerns of European consumers and taking a close interest in environmental protection.
During his chairmanship, we have also seen the enlargement of the Union with the accession of 10 new Member States and the preparations for the forthcoming accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The agricultural problems which are specific to most of the new Member States have led to Joseph Daul making numerous trips to meet farmers, their professional representatives and the relevant government departments with the aim of informing and reassuring the agricultural sector and gauging the impact of the reforms and efforts required of them. Joseph Daul was thus able to establish an important network of contacts in these countries.
In 2002, Joseph Daul was appointed chairman of the Conference of Committee Chairmen¸ which is responsible for coordinating 'horizontal' issues affecting the 20 parliamentary committees and for preparing the draft agenda for the plenary part-sessions. As part of the reform of the European Parliament, the Conference put forward proposals for making its work more efficient.
Joseph Daul also co-chaired, together with the committee chairmen concerned, the hearings of the Commissioners and transmitted the conclusions to the President of the European Parliament.
Finally, in 2005 and 2006, he led a new round of negotiations with the Commission on commitology, obtaining some interesting concessions benefiting Parliament.
The 'Lisbon Strategy' Group headed by Joseph Daul carried out the groundwork for the work of the European Parliament and of the national parliaments to promote employment and innovation, an issue which has become a major political priority for the Union. In this connection, Joseph Daul co-chaired two meetings in 2005 and 2006 between the European Parliament and the national parliaments.
As a member of the European Parliament Delegation for the WTO negotiations, Joseph Daul formed part of the European Parliament delegation to the ministerial conferences in Seattle (1999), Doha (2001) and Cancun (2003). He was involved in the preparatory work for the ministerial conferences by regularly meeting ambassadors in Geneva in order to defend the position of the European Parliament.
In January 2007, he was elected Chairman of the EPP Group. He remains member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and substitute member of the Committee on International Trade and of the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
He is also chairman of the European Parliamentary Association (EPA), which has its seat in Strasbourg and which aims to help give parliamentary life a more convivial dimension, allowing Members of the European Parliament also to establish contacts in academic, economic and cultural circles.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
politician and Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
for the East of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
(UMP), a member-party of the European People's Party
European People's Party
The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...
(EPP). On 9 January 2007 he was elected Chairman of the EPP Group (at the time EPP-ED Group) in the European Parliament, replacing Hans-Gert Pöttering
Hans-Gert Pöttering
Hans-Gert Pöttering is a German conservative politician , and was the President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009...
, who was elected as the new President of the European Parliament
President of the European Parliament
The President of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President's signature is required for enacting most EU laws and the EU budget.Presidents serve...
. Daul, in his capacity as EPP Group Chairman, is an ex officio Vice President of the European People's Party
European People's Party
The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...
.
Daul had previously come to prominence of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
's powerful Committee on Agriculture, a position he was elected to on 23 July 2004, and right before as the Chair of the Committee Chair's Conference. He has been Mayor of Pfettisheim
Pfettisheim
Pfettisheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...
(Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...
) since 1989, and is an Officer of the Agricultural Order of Merit, Knight of the National Order of Merit and Knight of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
.
In addition to French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
he speaks standard German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Alsatian
Alsatian language
Alsatian is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region in eastern France which has passed between French and German control many times.-Language family:...
, the German dialect spoken in his native region.
Professional life and other activities
Joseph Daul comes from a large family (six brothers and sisters) and at the age of 20 he took over a small family farm of 7 ha which he has since managed with his wife and, for the last few years, his son. While the operation has grown to 75 ha, it is still family run and specialises in beef production and the cultivation of sugar beet.Already very early on in his professional life, he quickly became aware of the importance of becoming involved in public life and voluntary work. Joseph Daul became active in the agricultural trade union movement, through the Centre National des Jeunes Agriculteurs (CNJA - National Centre for Young Farmers), a highly-developed network at local, regional, national and European level.
This experience allowed him to complete his professional training and general education to then very quickly assume responsibilities at national and European level. Thus, in 1976 he was appointed national Vice-Chairman of the CNJA with responsibility for European affairs.
He also became a member of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA) and of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels.
At the age of 35 he continued his trade union activities beyond the youth sector and combined his professional life as a farmer with positions of responsibility at a regional, (professional organisations, cooperatives, Chamber of Agriculture), national and European level.
In 1997, when the 'mad cow' crisis arose, he was chair of the National Federation of Beef Producers in France and of the 'beef' group in Europe.
The management of the crisis required diplomacy, perspicacity and faith in the future of the sector in order to juggle with the scientific realities, media impact, the despair of producers and the psychosis among consumers. He contributed greatly to finding solutions together with the national and European authorities to overcome the crisis.
These activities, together with his experience as mayor of his town (1000 inhabitants) served to prepare Joseph Daul to take a more active role in politics when, in 1999, he was asked to represent the farming and rural communities on the RPR list under Nicolas Sarkozy.
He therefore gave up his other functions in order to concentrate solely on his responsibilities as Member of the European Parliament. However, in order to remain in touch with his constituency, Joseph Daul became deputy Mayor in his home town, Vice-President of the Community of Councils and Chairman of the Strasbourg Abattoir Management Cooperative (160 employees).
Responsibilities within the European Parliament
After having been elected in 1999, he naturally joined the then EPP-ED Group, now EPP Group, since it represented his most deeply held European convictions and the values which had always guided his political work.He became a very active member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, being appointed its chairman in January 2002. Under his chairmanship, the committee contributed significantly to the necessary reform of the CAP in 2003. The committee has since continued to ensure the rigorous implementation of the reform without losing sight of the need for an in-depth review in 2008, with a view to the reform in 2013.
The Committee on Agriculture has sought in particular to reflect on social issues, taking account of the concerns of European consumers and taking a close interest in environmental protection.
During his chairmanship, we have also seen the enlargement of the Union with the accession of 10 new Member States and the preparations for the forthcoming accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The agricultural problems which are specific to most of the new Member States have led to Joseph Daul making numerous trips to meet farmers, their professional representatives and the relevant government departments with the aim of informing and reassuring the agricultural sector and gauging the impact of the reforms and efforts required of them. Joseph Daul was thus able to establish an important network of contacts in these countries.
In 2002, Joseph Daul was appointed chairman of the Conference of Committee Chairmen¸ which is responsible for coordinating 'horizontal' issues affecting the 20 parliamentary committees and for preparing the draft agenda for the plenary part-sessions. As part of the reform of the European Parliament, the Conference put forward proposals for making its work more efficient.
Joseph Daul also co-chaired, together with the committee chairmen concerned, the hearings of the Commissioners and transmitted the conclusions to the President of the European Parliament.
Finally, in 2005 and 2006, he led a new round of negotiations with the Commission on commitology, obtaining some interesting concessions benefiting Parliament.
The 'Lisbon Strategy' Group headed by Joseph Daul carried out the groundwork for the work of the European Parliament and of the national parliaments to promote employment and innovation, an issue which has become a major political priority for the Union. In this connection, Joseph Daul co-chaired two meetings in 2005 and 2006 between the European Parliament and the national parliaments.
As a member of the European Parliament Delegation for the WTO negotiations, Joseph Daul formed part of the European Parliament delegation to the ministerial conferences in Seattle (1999), Doha (2001) and Cancun (2003). He was involved in the preparatory work for the ministerial conferences by regularly meeting ambassadors in Geneva in order to defend the position of the European Parliament.
In January 2007, he was elected Chairman of the EPP Group. He remains member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and substitute member of the Committee on International Trade and of the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
He is also chairman of the European Parliamentary Association (EPA), which has its seat in Strasbourg and which aims to help give parliamentary life a more convivial dimension, allowing Members of the European Parliament also to establish contacts in academic, economic and cultural circles.