Pascal Arimont (born 25 September 1974) is a Belgian

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 ...

(MEP) for the Christian Social Party, which sits in the

EPP Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group or simply EPP) is a political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent MEP ...

, as the single MEP from the

German-speaking electoral college The German-speaking electoral college is one of three constituencies of the European Parliament in Belgium. It elects just one MEP for East Belgium, making it the only such constituency, effectively making it first past the post between partie ...

of Belgium.

Early life and career

Arimont was born in

Malmedy Malmedy (; , historically also ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Malmedy had a total population of 12,654. The total area is 99.96 km2 which gives a population dens ...

and grew up in

Born Born may refer to: * Childbirth * Born (surname), a surname (see also for a list of people with the name) * ''Born'' (comics), a comic book limited series Places * Born, Belgium, a village in the German-speaking Community of Belgium * Born, Luxe ...

(municipality of

Amel Amel (; , ) is a Belgian municipality in the Walloon province of Liège, and is part of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (). On 1 January 2013, the municipality of Amel had a total population of 5,466. The total area is 125.15 km ...

) in the

German-speaking Community of Belgium The German-speaking Community (, , DG), also known as East Belgium ( ), is one of the three Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, federal communities of Belgium. The community is composed of nine municipalities in Liège Province, ...

. From 1998 to 2002, Arimont was parliamentary assistant to MEP

Mathieu Grosch Mathieu Jean Hubert Grosch (born 14 September 1950, in Eupen) is a Politics of Belgium, Belgian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the German-speaking Community of Belgium with the CSP-EVP, Member of the Bureau of the European Pe ...

Political career

Role in local politics

From 2006 until 2009, Arimont served as provincial councillor of

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

(and thus advisory member of the

Parliament of the German-speaking Community The Parliament of the German-speaking Community ( or PDG) is the legislative assembly of the German-speaking Community of Belgium located in Eupen. The most important tasks of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community include the election ...

). From 2009 until 2014 he was (full) member of that Parliament, where he was parliamentary group leader for the CSP.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present

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In 2014,

, who was the single German-speaking MEP since 1994, decided not to stand for re-election, and Arimont was the CSP's candidate in the 2014 European Parliament elections. Arimont was elected and joined the

European People's Party Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group or simply EPP) is a political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent ME ...

. In

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, Arimont would be re-elected to the European parliament. He would be re-elected again in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. In the European Parliament, Arimont serves on the

Committee on Regional Development A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

and 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 ...

(since 2021). Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to 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 ...

. In addition to his committee assignments, Arimont is part of the parliament's delegations for relations with the countries of Central America and to the

Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) is a trans-national body of 150 Parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America. It was established in 2006 to bolster EU-Latin American relations. It was described by Benita Ferrero-Waldner ...

. He is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals. In October 2024, Arimont called for an investigation into F1 owner

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in the Formula One Group, S ...

, believing that Liberty Media's ownership of F1 and moves to acquire

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on Road racing, road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held sin ...

may violate European competition laws.

Controversy

In December 2021, Arimont’s house was attacked while his family was inside; a

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...

was thrown under his children’s bedroom windows.Lukas Kotkamp (December 6, 2021)
MEPs express solidarity with Belgian colleague after attack on his house
''

Politico Europe ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the American news organization '' Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices in ...

''.

References

External links

Personal website
1974 births Christlich Soziale Partei (Belgium) MEPs Christlich Soziale Partei (Belgium) politicians German-speaking Community of Belgium Living people MEPs for Belgium 2014–2019 MEPs for Belgium 2019–2024 People from Malmedy MEPs for Belgium 2024–2029 {{Wallonia-politician-stub