Sabine Thillaye (born 18 May 1959) is a French-German entrepreneur and politician who has been serving as a member of the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

since 18 June 2017, representing the 5th constituency of the departement of

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as (EM) and later (, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022 ...

, but left the party in 2020 and was one of the 17 initial members of the new Ecology Democracy Solidarity group in the National Assembly.

Early career

Before being elected as a member of parliament, Thillaye led a communications and signaling agency that she had founded in 1987. Being a studied legal practitioner herself, Thillaye also gave classes in German for students of law at François Rabelais University. From 2006 to 2007, Thillaye headed the department for public relations of the business association MEDEF in the

Touraine Touraine (; ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vien ...

-province. Moreover, from 2016 to 2017, Thillaye was member of the board of directors of the association. Prior to her candidature with

En Marche! Renaissance (RE) is a List of political parties in France, political party in France that is typically described as liberalism, liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as (EM) and later (, LREM, LaREM or REM), be ...

, Thillaye had already been engaged in the promotion of the

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

. As such, she is a founding member of the association Europe Val de Loire, an organisation she presided over temporarily. Additionally, she was deputy-chairwoman of the French-German cultural center in Touraine.

Political career

In June 2016, Thillaye decided to run as a candidate for the

-movement for the legislative elections of 2017, imposing herself in the second tour against Fabrice Boigard of

Les Républicains The Republicans (, ; LR) is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed in 2015 as the refoundation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been establishe ...

(LR). Since 2018, Thillaye has been serving as chairwoman of the

Committee 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 ...

for European Affairs. In this capacity, she argued for an expansion of the committee's competences. Furthermore, she proposed to facilitate the exchange between the different parliamentary committees. Together with Richard Ferrand,

parliamentary leader A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislature, legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. ...

of La République en Marche!, Thillaye introduced a resolution aiming at the promotion of the symbols of the European Union which was accepted on 27 November 2017. In On 28 June 2018, Thillaye introduced a report on "The role of national parliaments in the European decision making process”. Amongst other things, it recommends granting the Committee for European Affairs the status a ''permanent committee'' thus enabling it to take part in the legislative process. Furthermore, the report generally suggests strengthening the relations between the national parliaments and the

European institutions European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

. In 2019, Thillaye refused to accept the legality of vote in which Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade was elected to succeed her in the role of the committee's chair. As a consequence, she was excluded from the LREM parliamentary group after a lengthy debate in January 2020. Thillaye is also a member of the National Assembly's Defence Committee, one of the house's eight permanent committees. On the committee, she is charged with questions related to European security policy as well as French-German defence cooperation.

Franco-German parliamentary working group

Together with

Andreas Jung Andreas Jung (born 13 May 1975) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg since 2005. Since 2022, Jung has been one of five de ...

, member of the German Bundestag, and her colleague from the National assembly, Christophe Arend, Thillaye served as co-chairwoman of the Franco-German parliamentary working group, which had been founded on 22 January 2018 on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the signing of the Elyséé-treaty in 1963. It was composed of six French and six German members of parliament who contributed to the drafting of the

Aachen Treaty The Aachen Treaty, formally Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation and Integration, and also known as the Treaty of Aachen (, , ), is a bilateral agreement between Germany and France concerning mutual cooperation across major subjects, which ente ...

, signed on 22 January 2019, and played a major role in the negotiations of the Franco-German parliamentary agreement, signed in Paris on 25 March 2019. Together with Jung, Thillaye was elected co-president of the bureau of the newly established

Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly The Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly (, ''APFA''; , ''DFPV'') is a joint body of the German Bundestag and the French National Assembly formed to enable cooperation between both houses. Background The French and German parliaments had p ...

on the same day.

Other activities

* Robert Schuman Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors

Political positions

In a joint letter initiated by

Norbert Röttgen Norbert Alois Röttgen (born 2 July 1965) is a German lawyer and politician who served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2012. A member of t ...

and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the

47th G7 summit The 47th G7 summit was held from 11 to 13 June 2021 in Cornwall, England, during the United Kingdom's tenure of the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7), an inter-governmental political forum of seven advanced nations. The participants include ...

in 2021, Thillaye joined some 70 legislators from Europe, the US and Japan in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and 5G.Stuart Lau (25 January 2021)
G7 lawmakers tell leaders to ‘stand up’ to China
''

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thillaye, Sabine 1959 births Living people Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Women members of the National Assembly (France) Renaissance (French political party) politicians Ecology Democracy Solidarity politicians 21st-century French women politicians People from Remscheid Deputies of the 16th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Members of Parliament for Indre-et-Loire