Nathalie Loiseau
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
2 July 2019
ConstituencyFrance
Minister for European Affairs
In office
21 June 2017 – 27 March 2019
PresidentEmmanuel Macron
Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe
Preceded byMarielle de Sarnez
Succeeded byAmélie de Montchalin
Director of the École nationale d'administration
In office
3 October 2012 – 21 June 2017
Preceded byBernard Boucault
Succeeded byPatrick Gérard
Personal details
Born
Nathalie Ducoulombier

(1964-06-01) 1 June 1964 (age 59)
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Political partyLa République En Marche!
Children4
EducationLycée Carnot
Alma materSciences Po
Inalco

Nathalie Loiseau (French pronunciation: [natali lwazo]; born 1 June 1964) is a French politician, diplomat and academic administrator who has served as a Member of European Parliament since 2019. Previously she was director of the École nationale d'administration (ENA) from 2012 to 2017 and as the French Minister for European Affairs from 21 June 2017 to 27 March 2019. She was the top candidate of the La République En Marche electoral list in the 2019 European elections.[1]

Early life

Nathalie Loiseau was born on 1 June 1964 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.[2][3][4] Her father was a corporate consultant in mergers and acquisitions.[2]

Loiseau graduated from Sciences Po in 1983.[2][4] In 1984, she appeared on a list of candidates for a students' union linked to the far-right Groupe Union Défense.[5] She also studied Chinese language at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales.[6]

Career in diplomacy

Nathalie Loiseau with Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra, 2017

Loiseau joined the French foreign service in 1986.[2][3] She served as a diplomat in Indonesia from 1990 to 1992.[3] She was an advisor to Foreign Minister Alain Juppé from 1993 to 1995.[2][3] She later served diplomatic missions in Dakar, Senegal and Rabat, Morocco.[4] She served as the Communications Director at the Embassy of France, Washington, D.C. from 2002 to 2007.[2][4] She was the head of Human Resources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2011, and as its chief of staff from 2011 to 2012.[2][3]

Loiseau was the director of the École nationale d'administration (ENA) between 2012 and 2017.[4]

Political career

On 21 June 2017, Loiseau succeeded Marielle de Sarnez as the French Minister for European Affairs.[7]

Louiseau has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 2019 European elections. She has since been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the chairwoman of its Subcommittee on Security and Defence. In 2020, she also joined the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union.[8]

In addition to her committee assignments, Loiseau is part of the Parliament's delegations for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union; to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean; and for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.[9] She is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights[10] the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights[11] and the MEPs Against Cancer group.[12] Since 2021, she has been chairing the Parliament's delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly, which provides parliamentary oversight over the implementation of the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.[13][14]

Political positions

In a 2022 letter to European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius, Loiseau – together with Pierre Karleskind and Stéphanie Yon-Courtin – urged the EU to take measures to end British water treatment facilities’ discharges of raw sewage into shared waters, part of what they argued was an unacceptable lowering of environmental standards since Brexit.[15]

Also in 2022, Loiseau and Bart Groothuis wrote a letter to local officials in Strasbourg, criticizing a deal between Chinese technology company Nuctech and Strasbourg Airport to provide airport scanning systems, arguing the firm would get access to data on its travelers, including EU lawmakers.[16]

Personal life

Loiseau is married and has four children.[2][4] She is a Roman Catholic, and a feminist.[2]

In March 2019, Loiseau posted a joke to her private Facebook page about owning a cat which she had named 'Brexit', saying that "He wakes me up every morning meowing to death because he wants to go out, and then when I open the door he stays put, undecided, and then glares at me when I put him out."[17] The quote was reprinted by Le Journal du Dimanche,[18] and in response to the widespread international media coverage Loiseau clarified that she does not own a cat, and her comments were intended as a joke.[19]

Works

References

  1. ^ "Remaniement : Loiseau, Mahjoubi et Griveaux quittent le gouvernement". Le Parisien. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nivelle, Pascale (25 November 2012). "Nathalie Loiseau. Femme d'Etat". Libération. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e Peiron, Denis (13 March 2015). "À la tête de l'ENA, Nathalie Loiseau bouscule les conformismes". La Croix. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kauffmann, Sylvie (8 September 2015). "Nathalie Loiseau, directrice de l'ENA, choisit carrière et vie privée". Le Monde. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  5. ^ Pierre Lepelletier (23 April 2019). "Étudiante, Nathalie Loiseau a figuré sur une liste d'un syndicat d'extrême droite". Le Figaro. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  6. ^ Actimage (5 October 2012). "Mme Nathalie LOISEAU, ministre plénipotentiaire, est nommée directrice de l'École nationale d'administration" (in French). Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA). Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  7. ^ Paolini, Esther (21 June 2017). "Nathalie Loiseau, de l'ENA aux Affaires européennes". Le Figaro. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  8. ^ Members of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union European Parliament, press release of July 9, 2020.
  9. ^ Nathalie Loiseau European Parliament.
  10. ^ Intergroup on Children’s Rights European Parliament,
  11. ^ Members European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights.
  12. ^ MAC MEPs in the 2019-24 legislature MEPs Against Cancer.
  13. ^ Hans von der Burchard and Maïa de La Baume (October 5, 2021), European Parliament approves new joint EU-UK Brexit assembly Politico Europe.
  14. ^ Nisa Khan (9 December 2021), Movers & Shakers Parliament Magazine.
  15. ^ Philip Blenkinsop (26 August 26 2022), The scum also rises - French lawmakers urge crackdown on UK sea sewage Reuters.
  16. ^ Shannon Van Sant (13 October 2022), MEPs cry foul as Strasbourg Airport buys Chinese scanners Politico Europe.
  17. ^ "France's EU minister names her cat 'Brexit' because 'he meows loudly to be let out but won't go through the door'". The Independent. 18 March 2019. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022.
  18. ^ JDD, Le (16 March 2019). "Nathalie Loiseau sur l'annonce de sa candidature aux européennes : "Je n'ai rien calculé"". lejdd.fr (in French). Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  19. ^ "No, sadly a French minister didn't call her cat 'Brexit'". France 24. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
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