Education
Born as Catherine Dalling Taylor, Stihler was educated at Coltness High School, later going on to the University of Street Andrews where she gained an Master of Arts with joint honours in International Relations and Geography and a postgraduate Master of Letters in International Security Studies.
Career
She is currently the only female Member of the European Parliament representing Scotland. In October 2014, she was elected as Rector for the University of Street Andrews. While at Street Andrews she was elected President of the Students" Association, serving from 1994 to 1995.
She also served on the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party from 1993 to 1995 and was the Young Labour delegate to the National Executive Committee from 1995 to 1997.
While a postgraduate student she stood in the Angus constituency at the 1997 general election. Catherine and David"s second child, Andrew, was born in 2011.
She was placed at third on the Labour Party list for Scotland in the 1999 European Parliament election, and therefore took the third Labour Party seat under the d"Hondt electoral system becoming the United Kingdom"s youngest Member of the European Parliament at the age of 25. Catherine was re-elected as an Member of the European Parliament for Scotland in 2004 and 2009.
She has served as the Deputy Leader of the EPLP and held positions as Labour"s Euro spokesperson on health and fisheries.
Catherine is currently Labour"s Euro-Spokesperson on Consumer Rights and is the only Scottish Member of the European Parliament on the prestigious economic and monetary affairs committee. As the Parliament"s rapporteur on construction products (2011), she has steered through a new piece of law which improved the single market on construction products whilst ensuring the highest protection against hazardous substances. She is an anti tobacco campaigner with a key interest in campaigning for greater recognition of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and helping those who have the condition have better treatment.
Her current work includes improvement of European Union public procurement rules, reform of financial services regulation in particular tackling unfair bank charges and the promotion and inclusion of all European Union citizens within the digital economy.
She was the unsuccessful Labour candidate in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, 2006.
Membership
She has been a Member of the European Parliament for Scotland since 1999, being re-elected in 2004, 2009 and 2014. After the election Stihler worked for Anne Begg, Member of Parliament for Aberdeen South, as a researcher