The position was announced after the newly elected European Parliament negotiated the distribution of its committee chairs in July. Joly is now one of 20 committee leaders.
- I had never imagined that I would be a committee chair. It´s an honour, Joly said to the Norwegian news agency (NTB), when the result of the distribution of committee chairs was made public.
Eva Joly – known as a corruption hunter – will now lead the Committee of Development (DEVE), in the European Parliament.
Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons
Joly was elected to the European Parliament in June, representing Europe Ecologie, the French green electoral coalition. Joly possesses both a French and a Norwegian citizenship, which is why she is eligible for elections on behalf of the French party.
Joly has a long career as a judge in France, and is a well known anti-corruption campaigner. The 65- year old is widely known for the lead role she took on investing the French oil company Elf, which resulted in a huge corruption scandal.
Since 2005, Joly has worked as a special advisor to the The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), where she, among other things, has been working to fight corruption in developing countries.
- I will bring with me the experience of evaluating projects from my work at NORAD. Furthermore, the problematic area of tax havens is naturally one of the topics I will be working with, says Joly to the NTB.