Eva Joly
Eva Joly MEP | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the European Parliament for France | |
| Assumed office 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 December 1943 |
| Nationality | French-Norwegian |
| Political party | Europe Écologie–The Greens |
Eva Joly (French pronunciation: [eva ʒɔli]) (born December 5, 1943 as Gro Eva Farseth) is a Norwegian-born French magistrate («Juge d'instruction») and politician for Europe Écologie–The Greens. She is now the representative for the Green Party to run for the presidency of France in 2012.
Early life
Born in Grünerløkka, Oslo, she moved to Paris at 20 to work as an au pair.[1] There she married the son of the family that employed her, Pascal Joly (now deceased) and adopted her middle name 'Eva', which is easier to pronounce in French.[1]
Career
Working as a secretary, she took her legal education at night school and became a magistrate when she was 38.[1] Joly specialised in financial affairs, and in 1990 she joined the High Court of Paris as an investigating judge.
Here she quickly made a mark with her tireless crusade against corruption, in particular taking on, among others, former minister Bernard Tapie and the bank Crédit Lyonnais. Her most famous case, however, was that of France’s leading oil company – Elf Aquitaine.[1] In the face of death threats, she carried on the case to uncover several cases of fraud, leading to the conviction of tens of persons involved in the oil business. In 2001, she received for this work the award for integrity from the non governmental organisation Transparency International.
In 2002 she was asked by the Norwegian Minister of Justice, Mr Odd Einar Dørum, to accept a three-year position as a special advisor on corruption. The Anti-Corruption and Money Laundring project was a cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and Police, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway. The project worked on issues related to financial crimes and organized crime, with a special focus on strong international cooperations. A collaboration with the Ministry of Finance was also important, in addition to strengthening connections to the private sector. The project has among other things led to a Norwegian focus on corruption in foreign affairs. During the three-year period Eva Joly also initiated the Paris Declaration Against Corruption in 2003.
In 2002, Reader's Digest named her European of the Year. The 2006 French film L'Ivresse du pouvoir (English title "Comedy of Power") is loosely based on Eva Joly.[1]
As of March 10, 2009, Joly is employed as a special adviser by the Icelandic government to investigate the possibility that white-collar crime may have played a part in the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis.[2][3] Eva enjoys enormous widespread popularity of the majority of the Icelandic and Norwegian public and has become an icon in the battle against possible frauds by the banking elite.
On 10 June 2009, she was a guest at a popular talk show in Iceland - and implied that she would quit being an advisor to the Icelandic government if they did not do more to help the investigation. [4] [5]
On 7 June 2009, Joly was elected as a French member of the European Parliament on the Ile de France "Europe Écologie" list, on which she was 2nd to Daniel Cohn-Bendit. She is chair of the Committee on Development.
In 2011, Joly was competing in the primaries of Europe Écologie–The Greens against Nicolas Hulot, Stephane L'Homme and Henri Stoll to represent the merged parties at the president of France in the election of 2012. She was elected in the second round of voting against Hulot, with 58% of votes.[6]
Published works
- Notre affaire à tous, 2000
- Korrupsjonsjeger: Fra Grünerløkka til Palais de Justice, 2001
- Est-ce dans ce monde-là que nous voulons vivre?, 2003
- May 9, 2001 op-ed in Le Monde, signed with Renaud van Ruymbeke, Bernard Bertossa and other European magistrates or attorneys-general, titled "The black boxes of financial globalization", about the Clearstream scandal (Clearstream has been qualified as a "bank of banks" and accused of being a major platform of global money laundering and tax evasion)
Affiliations
Joly sits on the advisory board of the Washington-based think-tank Global Financial Integrity.[7]
References
- ^ a b c d e Bowers, Simon (4 February 2011). "French legal firebrand turns her attention to corridors of power". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
- ^ Eva Joly adviser to Icelandic justice minister
- ^ Eva Joly named "special adviser" (in Icelandic)
- ^ DV.is - Fréttir - Ekki nóg að Valtýr lýsi sig vanhæfan
- ^ Eva Joly ósátt með seinagang mála – íhugar að hætta afskiptum af íslenska hruninu « Eyjan
- ^ "Primaire écologiste : Eva Joly l'emporte par 58 % des voix". Le Monde.
- ^ "Advisory Board - Global Financial Integrity". Retrieved 2011-11-14.
External links
Template:France MEPs 2009–2014 Template:French presidential election, 2012