Linda McAvan

Education

Heriot-Watt University.

Career

Before being elected she worked for Barnsley Borough Council and was the European Officer for the Coalfields Community Campaign. She currently serves as chairwoman of the Committee on Development. In addition, she has been chairing the European Parliament’s Fair Trade Working Group and serves on the European Parliament Intergroup on the Western Sahara as well as on the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights.

She is also a supporter of the Member of the European Parliament Heart Group, a group of parliamentarians who have an interest in promoting measures that will help reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases (Chemical Vapor Deposition).

Between 2002 and 2003, McAvan served as one of 16 representatives of the European Parliament in the Convention on the Future of Europe, led by former French President Valéry Giscard d"Estaing. Later that year, however, she lost out against Gary Titley in the contest to select a new leader of British Labour MEPs.

Since 2004, McAvan has been serving as treasurer of the European Parliament"s Socialist Group. In June 2007 she was elected Vice President of the group.

Between 2004 and 2014, McAvan served on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

In 2009, she drafted the European Parliament’s report on monitoring medicine safety. She also sat on the Temporary Committee on Climate Change between 2007 and 2009. Labour Party members elected McAvan to be the top-ranked Labour candidate for Yorkshire and the Humber in the 2009 European elections, narrowly beating Richard Corbett for the top place.

In 2014, she again topped the ballot.

Achievements

• In 2002, McAvan was voted United Kingdom European Woman of the Year. She received her award from the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam, who praised her efforts to engage women in the future of Europe.

Membership

She has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1998, and was first elected in a by-election following the resignation of Norman West. McAvan has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1998. She is also a member of the American College of Physicians-European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

National Coal Mining Museum for England, Member of the Steering Committee.