Marina Yannakoudakis
| Marina Yannakoudakis MEP |
|
|---|---|
| Member of the European Parliament for London |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 4 June 2009 |
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| Preceded by | John Bowis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 April 1956 Paddington, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Zacharias Yannakoudakis |
| Alma mater | Brunel University Open University |
| Website | Official website |
Marina Yannakoudakis (born 16 April 1956) is a Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament for London first elected at the 2009 European Parliament election.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Yannakoudakis was born in Paddington. She studied for a BSc in government, politics and modern history at Brunel University, where she was chairman of the Conservative students, and also received an MA in education from the Open University.
She was a member of Barnet London Borough Council for Oakleigh Park Ward from 2006 to 2010 where she was a member of the appeals committee.
[edit] Member of the European Parliament
She is a member of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee.[1]
She is also a member of the High-Level Contact Group for relations with the Turkish Cypriot community in the northern part of the island. She is the Conservative and the European Conservatives and Reformists spokesman on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.
She has campaigned against EU plans to give women 20 weeks maternity leave on full pay which would have cost the UK economy £2.5 billion[2]. She led calls in the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality for an impact assessment of the legislation to be conducted which resulted in the proposals being shelved.[3]
She has also actively campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Cyprus.[4] She met and received assurances from Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Derviş Eroğlu that he would sign a repeal of the gay ban into law.[5] Also in Cyprus she has worked to support efforts to find people who went missing during Cypriot intercommunal violence.[6]
Since December 2011, she has been pushing for a redress to the Test Achats vs Council of Ministers case, a European Court of Justice ruling which determined it was illegal for insurance companies to discriminate on the basis of gender in the European Union.[7]
She has also workes on issues related to women and entrepreneurship[8] and child protection.[9] In the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety she mainly concentrates on public health issues, where she has spoken out on the need for stricter rules for EU doctors[10] as well as ensuring that MRI scanner rules are not over-regulated by EU law.[11] She is the committee's contact point for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Yannakoudakis is strongly opposed to the introduction of a European Union financial transaction tax.[12][13].
[edit] Personal life
She married her Greek-born husband, Zacharias Yannakoudakis, in 1983. She was finance director of the company that they founded and ran together until her election; the couple has three children. The family lives in Barnet.
[edit] External Links
[edit] References
- ^ "European Parliament Profile". European Parliament. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96944/Marina_YANNAKOUDAKIS.html. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Groves, Jason (17 June 2011). "EU shelves plan to extend fully paid maternity leave to 20 weeks 'because we can't afford it'". The Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004482/EUs-increase-paid-maternity-leave-20-weeks-pay-halted.html. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Banks, Martin (17 June 2011). "New EU maternity rules 'set to be shelved'". The Parliament Magazine (Brussels). http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/new-eu-maternity-rules-set-to-be-shelved/. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Gray, Stephen (1 February 2012). "MEPs condemn gay arrests in Northern Cyprus". The Pink News (London). http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/02/01/meps-condemn-gay-arrests-in-northern-cyprus/. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
- ^ Lloyd, Peter (20 October 2011). "Conservative MEP gets pledge from Turkish Cypriot leader to repeal anti-gay law". The Pink Paper (London). http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory/6252/20/10/2011/Conservative-MEP-gets-pledge-from-Turkish-Cypriot-leader-to-repeal-anti-gay-law.aspx. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Banks, Martin (8 June 2011). "MEPs press for continued action to find Cyprus' disappeared". The Parliament Magazine (Brussels). http://www.theparliament.com/policy-focus/enlargement/enlargement-article/newsarticle/meps-press-for-continued-action-to-find-cyprus-disappeared/. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Morrison, Caitlin (20 December 2011). "MEP objects to ECJ ruling". Insurance Age (London). http://www.insuranceage.co.uk/insurance-age/news/2133858/mep-objects-ecj-gender-ban. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Fleming, Jeremy (4 October 2011). "MEPs urge encouragement for female web entrepreneurs". Euractiv (Brussels). http://www.euractiv.com/specialreport-small-business-driving-eu-growth/meps-urge-encouragement-female-web-entrepreneurs-news. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ "Protecting children from sex abuse". Conservatives in the European Parliament. http://www.conservativeeurope.com/news/1436/Protecting-children-from-sex-abuse.aspx. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Banks, Martin (21 November 2011). "MEP calls for language tests for doctors". The Parliament Magazine (Brussels). http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/mep-calls-for-language-testing-for-doctors/. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Yannakoudakis, Marina (2 December 2011). "MRI ban would be 'madness' - warns MEP". PublicService Europe (Brussels). http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/1203/mri-ban-would-be-madness-warns-mep. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Yannakoudakis, Marina (7 December 2011). "Tax and the City". City AM (London). http://www.cityam.com/forum/rapid-responses-56. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ^ Mason, Daniel (23 January 2012). "No plot against UK, insists EU's Barnier". PublicService Europe (Brussels). http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/1391/no-plot-against-uk-insists-eus-barnier. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
