Background
Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Giegold grew up in Hanover, Lower Saxony.
Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Giegold grew up in Hanover, Lower Saxony.
He enrolled at the University of Lüneburg in 1991 majoring in political science and economics, and later attended the University of Bremen. He returned to the University of Bremen to pursue his Doctor of Philosophy under supervision of Jörg Huffschmid, but later abandoned his studies in favor of his political career.
He earned his Master"s degree from the University of Birmingham in 1996. Giegold was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 elections. He has since been serving on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
In this capacity, he was responsible for draft legislation to set up the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in 2010.
In 2013, in their capacity as the parliament’s lead negotiators, Giegold and fellow Member of the European Parliament Marianne Thyssen reached an inter-institutional compromise agreement on creating the Single Supervisory Mechanism (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia) with the member states. Giegold was a Green Party delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010.
Following the 2014 elections, Giegold joined fellow MEPs Othmar Karas, Sylvie Goulard, Sophie in "t Veld and Alessia Mosca in an open letter aimed at exerting pressure on the President of the European Commission and national government leaders during the nominations process to improve the gender balance in the composition of the European Commission. Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens" Action (ATTAC), Member
FIAN Germany, Member
Institut Solidarische Moderne, Member
Tax Justice Network, Member
ver.di, Member.
He became a member of the Greens only in 2008, and was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 elections. Since 2014, he has been the Greens–European Free Alliance group co-ordinator for the committee.
Giegold was one of the 200 founding members of Attac"s German branch in 2000 and was one of their most notable activists until 2008. Between 2009 and 2011, Giegold was a member of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis. Since 2015, he has also been a member of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect.
In addition, Giegold is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.
Development and Peace Foundation (SEF), Member of the Board of Trustees
Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft (FÖSouth), Member of the Advisory Board.