Career
In addition, she was the Socialist Group coordinator in the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI). Valenciano resigned from the European Parliament in 2008 when she was elected to the Spanish Congress of Deputies in the national elections, representing Madrid. From 2012 to 2014, she was also the Socialists" deputy secretary general, under the leadership of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.
In February 2014, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party chose Valenciano as its lead candidate for the European elections.
At the time, Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) was the second biggest Socialist party delegation in the European Parliament’s South&Doctorate Group, with 23 MEPs. On 14 May 2014, Valenciano and her Conservative couterpart Miguel Arias Cañete were featured in Spanish television"s first live debate between the country’s leading candidates for a European Parliament election.
Valenciano was widely perceived to have beaten Arias in the debate, yet the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) returned just 14 MEPs to the Parliament, nine fewer than it had in 2009. Following the elections, Valenciano reentered the European Parliament and assumed the position of chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI).
In addition, she serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union, and the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.
In September 2014, Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) chairman Pedro Sánchez replaced Valenciano as head of the party’s delegation of MEPs and instead appointed Iratxe García. During the 2015 presidential elections in Haiti, Valenciano headed the European Union"s observation mission to monitor the preparations and organization of the vote.