Antonio Tajani

Antonio Tajani
Tajani in a 2006 EPP Summit
European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Günter Verheugen (Enterprise and Industry)
European Commissioner for Transport
In office 9 May 2008 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Jacques Barrot
Succeeded by	Siim Kallas
Member of the European Parliament for Italy
In office 19 July 1994 – 9 May 2008
Personal details
Born	4 August 1953 (1953-08-04) Rome, Italy
Political party	People of Freedom
Alma mater	Sapienza University of Rome
Profession	Lawyer

Antonio Tajani (born 4 August 1953, in Rome) is an Italian politician. He is the current European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and has also been one of the five Vice-President of the European Commission since May 2008.

Studies and early career

After attending a classical high school in Rome, he earned a degree in Law at the Sapienza University of Rome.

Tajani was an official in the Italian Air Forces. After attending a specialized air defense course, he became radar controller.

Tajani has been a professional journalist, editor of parliamentary affairs for the weekly "Il settimanale", presenter of Radio 1 RAI news programme, and head of the Rome editorial office of the newspaper "Il Giornale", owned by the Berlusconi family. He was special envoy to Lebanon, the Soviet Union and Somalia.

He is married with two children.

Political career

In his youth Tajani was a militant of Fronte Monarchico Giovanile (Youth Monarchist Front), a student organization of the Monarchist party of Italy. Even later, he has always advocated for the return from exile of the House of Savoy (banned according to the Italian Constitution)

He was one of the founders of the Forza Italia party in 1994, then regional coordinator of the party in the Latium from 1994 in 2005.

In the first Berlusconi government (1994-95), Tajani was a spokesman of the Prime Minister.

In 1996 he ran for MP in the Alatri college, but obtained only 45.3% of the votes and was defeated by the representative of the Olive Tree.

In 2001Tajani was a candidate for mayor of Rome forthe coalition of the House of Freedom, defeated, however, by Walter Veltroni with the 47.8 % of votes.

Since 2002 (Estoril Congress ) Tajani is one of 10 vice-presidents of the European People's Party. He was re-elected at the Rome Congress in 2006 and then again at the Bonn conference in 2009.

Member of the European Parliament

In 1994 Tajani was elected MEP, later confirmed in 1999 and 2004.He was chairman of the delegation of Forza Italia to the European Parliament from June 1999 until May 2008.

At the 2004 European elections he was elected from a list of Forza Italia in the Central college, receiving 122.000 preferences. He was admitted to the European People's Party.

Tajani was a Member of the European Parliament for Central Italy with the Forza Italia party from 2004 to 2008 and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and a member of the Delegation for relations with Israel.

He was a member of the European Convention, which drafted the text of the European Constitution that never entered into force.

European Commissioner

On 8 May 2008, he was appointed as Italy's EU Commissioner by newly elected Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, replacing Franco Frattini, new Italian foreign minister. Tajani received the Commissioner for Transport portfolio. He was officially approved in his post by the European Parliament on 18 June 2008 with a vote of 507 to 53 with 64 abstentions. As such, Tajani oversaw the drafting of the new EU Regulation relating to transport, which came into force in December 2009. The regulation has not yet been implemented in Italy.

In 2009 he was reappointed as a member of Italian nationality of the second Barroso Commission, as European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship; he remains one of the four Vice-Presidents of the Commission. The confirmation of Tajani has followed the decline of the candidacy of Massimo D'Alema as High Representative for Foreign Policy. For Tajani an alternative foreshadowed would have been a candidacy as president of the Lazio Region.

On the 15 April 2010 a headline in the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, proclaimed that European Commissioner Antonio Tajani had unveiled a plan declaring tourism a human right. In introducing his plan, Tajani stated, "Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life." EurActiv, an independent media portal, criticized the article by The Sunday Times as an example of misleading information about the EU which appears in the British press and is then picked up by other Anglo-Saxon media. EurActiv notes that "the article on The Sunday Times never quotes the Commissioner as having made such a statement".

Career

• Graduate in law (University of Rome La Sapienza)
• 1982: Editor of Il Settimanale
• 1982: presenter of Radio 1 news programme
• 1983: head of the Rome editorial office of the newspaper 'Il Giornale'
• 1994: Spokesman for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
• 2001: Member of Rome City Council
• Since 2002: Vice-chairman of the European People's Party

External links

Media related to Antonio Tajani at Wikimedia Commons

• Antonio Tajani, Official Media Gallery
• European Parliament biography of Antonio Tajani (incl. Speeches, Questions and Motions)
• Declaration (PDF) of financial interests (Italian)

Political offices
Preceded by Franco Frattini	Italian European Commissioner 2008–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Jacques Barrot	European Commissioner for Transport 2008–2010	Succeeded by Siim Kallas
Preceded by Günter Verheugen as European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry	European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship 2010–present	Incumbent