Pascal Durand (born 3 October 1960) is a French lawyer and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

of La République En Marche ! (LREM) who has been serving as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 2014 to 2024.

Political career

Career in national politics

Durand was elected spokesperson for

Europe Ecology – The Greens The Ecologists – Europe Ecology The Greens (), commonly known as The Ecologists (, LE) and formerly as Europe Ecology The Greens ( , EELV ) until 2023, is a centre-left to left-wing green political party in France. The party is a member of th ...

(EELV) at the party's 2011 congress in

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle'') is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department. Wi ...

. He later served as national secretary of EELV from 23 June 2012 to 30 November 2013, succeeding

Cécile Duflot Cécile Duflot (; born 1 April 1975) is a French non-governmental organisation ( NGO) leader and former politician. She has been a government minister and political party leader. She was Minister of Territorial Equality and Housing () in the ...

. In the EELV primaries ahead of the 2012 presidential elections, Durand served as director of candidate

Nicolas Hulot Nicolas Jacques André Hulot (; born 30 April 1955) is a French journalist and environmental activist. He is the founder and honorary president of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation, an environmental group established in 1990. Hulot ran as a candid ...

's campaign. When Hulot eventually lost against

Eva Joly Eva Joly (; born Gro Eva Farseth; 5 December 1943) is a Norwegian-born French ''juge d'instruction'' (magistrate) and politician for Europe Écologie–The Greens. She represented that party as a candidate for the presidency of France in the 20 ...

, Durand joined Joly's campaign team.

Member of the European Parliament

Since 2014, Durand has been a

. In May 2019, he was reelected, this time as member of the Renew Europe group. In parliament, Durand has been serving on the

Committee on Constitutional Affairs The Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) is a committee of the European Parliament dealing with institutional matters such as revisions to the Treaties of the European Union, inter-institutional agreements, and the Parliament's internal rules ...

since 2014. On the Committee, he serves as coordinator for the Renew Europe group where he works to reform EU institutions and to launch the works of the

Conference on the Future of Europe The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium- to long-term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to ...

. Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the Conference. Durand is also a substitute member of the

Committee on Legal Affairs The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities The main responsibilities of the committee are the interpretation and application of international and European law and the compliance of European U ...

(JURI) and the

Committee on Budgetary Control The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) is a Committees of the European Parliament, committee of the European Parliament. with 30 permanent members. It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesi ...

(CONT). In the past, he was a member of the

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) is a Committees of the European Parliament, committee of the European Parliament. Work of the committee The committee is responsible for: * Coordination at Community level of na ...

(2014-2019) and the Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (2016-2017) that investigated the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

revelations and tax avoidance schemes more broadly. Notably, he authored an own-initiative report on the extension of product lifetime (2017) and served as lead rapporteur on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (2022). In February 2016, Durand left EELV to join

's campaign for the 2017 presidential elections. In 2019, Durand was the only French delegate to vote against the

Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, formally the Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 9 ...

.` In addition to his committee assignments, Durand is part of the European Parliament Intergroup on Fighting against Poverty, the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, the Responsible Business Conduct Working Group, the

MEPs Against Cancer MEPs Against Cancer is a group of 23 Members of the European Parliament who aim to "promote action on cancer as an EU priority and harness European health policy to that end" and to encourage every country to develop a national plan for combatin ...

group and the

Spinelli Group The Spinelli Group is an initiative founded with a view to reinvigorate the endeavour for federalisation of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic uni ...

. Pascal Durand led the negotiation on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive as rapporteur for the European Parliament.

Political positions

In the preparations for a

in 2020, Durand proposed

Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German former politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 200 ...

and

Emma Bonino Emma Bonino (born 9 March 1948) is an Italian politician. She was a senator for Rome between 2008 and 2013, and again between 2018 and 2022. She also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Previously, she was a Member of the Eu ...

as potential chairs for the conference. In May 2021, Durand joined a group of 39 mostly Green Party lawmakers from the European Parliament who in a letter urged the leaders of Germany, France and Italy not to support Arctic LNG 2, a $21 billion Russian Arctic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, due to climate change concerns.Kate Abnett and Simon Jessop (19 May 2021)
EU lawmakers urge France, Germany, Italy to ditch Arctic LNG 2 support
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''.

References

External links

* http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124693/PASCAL_DURAND/home {{DEFAULTSORT:Durand, Pascal 1960 births Living people MEPs for Île-de-France 2014–2019 MEPs for France 2019–2024 People from Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis Politicians from Île-de-France Europe Ecology – The Greens politicians