Rasa Juknevičienė

Rasa Juknevičienė MEP
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 July 2019
Constituency	Lithuania
President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
In office 24 March 2018 – 19 November 2018
Preceded by	Paolo Alli
Succeeded by	Madeleine Moon
Vice President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
In office 21 November 2016 – 24 March 2018
Minister of National Defence
In office 9 December 2008 – 13 December 2012
President	Valdas Adamkus Dalia Grybauskaitė
Prime Minister	Andrius Kubilius
Preceded by	Juozas Olekas
Succeeded by	Juozas Olekas
Deputy Speaker of the Seimas
In office 9 November 1999 – 18 October 2000
Member of the Seimas
In office 14 November 2016 – 1 July 2019
Succeeded by	Aistė Gedvilienė
Constituency	Multi-member
In office 15 November 2004 – 14 November 2016
Preceded by	Henrikas Žukauskas
Succeeded by	Post abolished Gabrielius Landsbergis (Centras-Žaliakalnis)
Constituency	Žaliakalnis
In office 19 October 2000 – 14 November 2004
Constituency	Multi-member
In office 25 November 1996 – 18 October 2000
Preceded by	Feliksas Kolosauskas
Succeeded by	Antanas Baura
Constituency	Anykščiai - Kupiškis
Personal details
Born	(1958-01-26) 26 January 1958 Tiltagaliai, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Homeland Union
Spouse(s)	Rolandas Rastaustkas (divorced) Zenonas Juknevičius

Rasa Juknevičienė (née Urbonaitė, born 26 January 1958) is a Lithuanian politician and paediatrician, who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. She served as Minister of Defense of Lithuania since 2008 to 2012. She is a member of center right Homeland Union.

Early life and education

Juknevičienė is a graduate of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) and worked as a doctor until 1992.

Political career

Career in national politics

With interruptions, Juknevičienė was a member of the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) from 1996 until 2019. During her time in parliament, she held positions as Deputy Chair of the Committee on National Security and Defense; and Head of the Seimas Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Juknevičienė has been member of the Lithuanian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly since 1999. She was rapporteur of the Sub-Committee on NATO Partnerships from 2007 to 2008. She served as the Assembly's Vice-President from 2016 until 2018, when she became President.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present

Since the 2019 European Parliament election, Juknevičienė has been serving on the Parliament's Committee on Development. In 2021, she became Vice-Chair of the Group of the European People's Party in the European Parliament.

In addition to her committee assignments, Juknevičienė is part of the European Parliament Intergroup on Artificial Intelligence and Digital and the MEPs Against Cancer group.

Other activities

• European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member
• Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Member of the Advisory Council (since 2014)
• Facebook.

References

• Mąstanti globaliai, veikianti konkrečiai. Ona VOVERIENĖ. Retrieved 2009-10-11