Marju Lauristin (born 7 April 1940) is an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n politician, and former

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

and Minister of Social Affairs. She is a member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

, part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...

. Lauristin is currently a member of the

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

city council.

Early life and education

Lauristin is the daughter of the communist politicians

Johannes Lauristin Johannes Lauristin (pseudonym: Juhan Madarik; 29 October 1899 – 28 August 1941) was an Estonian communist politician, activist, writer and statesman who served as the first Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian Soviet So ...

and Olga Lauristin (''née'' Künnapuu), two leading politicians in the

Communist Party of Estonia The Communist Party of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei, abbreviated EKP) was a subdivision of the Soviet communist party which in 1920-1940 operated illegally in Estonia and, after the 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia by the ...

. Her stepfather was politician Hendrik Allik and her maternal half-brother is theatre director and politician

Jaak Allik Jaak Allik (born 6 October 1946) is an Estonian theatre critic, theatre director and politician. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, and was previously the Estonian Minister of Culture 1995–1999 ( et, Eesti kultuuriminister). He w ...

. She grew up and attended primary and secondary schools mainly in Tallinn, where she was a classmate of actress Ines Aru. She graduated from the Tartu State University (now

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

) in 1966 with a degree in Journalism and Sociology of Mass Communication. In 1976, Lauristin completed her PhD studies in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. Her thesis was focused on content analysis of newspaper texts. Since 2003, Lauristin has been a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

social communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

Tartu University The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

Political career

In October 1980, Lauristin was a signatory of the

Letter of 40 Intellectuals The Letter of 40 intellectuals, also The letter of 40 ( et, Neljakümne kiri), originally A public letter from Estonian SSR ( et, Avalik kiri Eesti NSV-st) was a public letter dated October 28, 1980 and posted a week later, in which 40 intellectual ...

, a public letter in which forty prominent Estonian intellectuals defended the

Estonian language Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language, written in the Latin script. It is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,0 ...

and protested the

Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

policies of the

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...

in Estonia. The signatories also expressed their unease against Republic-level government in harshly dealing with youth protests in Tallinn that were sparked a week earlier due to the banning of a public performance of the punk rock band

Propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. Together with

Edgar Savisaar Edgar Savisaar (31 May 1950 – 29 December 2022) was an Estonian politician, one of the founding members of Popular Front of Estonia and the Centre Party. He served as the acting Prime Minister of Estonia, Minister of the Interior, Minister ...

, in 1988 Lauristin established

Rahvarinne The Popular Front of Estonia ( et, Eestimaa Rahvarinne; RR), introduced to the public by the Estonian politician Edgar Savisaar under the short-lived name Popular Front for the Support of Perestroika, was a political organisation in Estonia in ...

, the first large-scale independence movement in Estonia since the country's incorporation into the USSR. In 1990 she was deputy speaker of the Estonian parliament. and in 1991 she participated and supported the vote for the

Estonian restoration of Independence Estonian Restoration of Independence, legally defined as the Restoration of the Republic of Estonia, was proclaimed on 20 August 1991. On that day at 23:02 local time, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia, in agreement with the Eston ...

. From 1992 to 1994 she was the

minister of Social Affairs of Estonia The Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia ( et, Eesti Sotsiaalministeerium) is a government ministry of Estonia responsible for social policies of the country. List of Ministers The position first appeared in the government of Mart Laar establ ...

(Estonian Social Democratic Party/'Moderates').

Member of the Estonian Parliament, 1992–2014

Following the 1992 elections, Lauristin served as a member of the

Riigikogu The Riigikogu (; from Estonian ''riigi-'', of the state, and ''kogu'', assembly) is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the Prime Minister and Chief Jus ...

, elected as a member of the People's Party Moderates ( et, Rahvaerakond Mõõdukad).

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–2017

Lauristin became a

in the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

. She has since been serving on the

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is a committee of the European Parliament that is responsible for protecting civil liberties and human rights, as listed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. ...

. She later joined the Parliament's special committees created to investigate the

Luxleaks Luxembourg Leaks (sometimes shortened to Lux Leaks or LuxLeaks) is the name of a financial scandal revealed in November 2014 by a journalistic investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It is based on ...

scandal in 2015 into the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

scandal in 2016, respectively. Within her parliamentary group, Lauristin served as vice-chairwoman under the leadership of

Gianni Pittella Giovanni Saverio Furio Pittella (born 19 November 1958) is an Italian politician who served as Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Group from 2014 to 2018 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Italy from 1999 ...

from 2014 until 2016. On the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Lauristin serves as the Parliament’s

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

in the ePrivacy Regulation. In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the Parliament’s delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee. In 2017, Lauristin run for the city council of Tartu, while promising to step down from the European Parliament if she was elected. Lauristin was eventually elected with the second most votes in the electoral district. On 27 October 2017, Lauristin left the European Parliament, following the adoption in the LIBE committee of her report on the e-Privacy Regulation.Dario Cavegn (February 28, 2017)
Estonian MEP Lauristin concludes work in European Parliament
''ERR''.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lauristin, Marju 1940 births Living people University of Tartu alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu Government ministers of Estonia Members of the Riigikogu, 1992–1995 Members of the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities Social Democratic Party (Estonia) politicians Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 2nd Class Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 3rd Class MEPs for Estonia 2014–2019 Leaders of political parties in Estonia Women MEPs for Estonia Women government ministers of Estonia Politicians from Narva Women members of the Riigikogu Voters of the Estonian restoration of Independence Estonian independence activists 20th-century Estonian politicians 21st-century Estonian politicians Estonian sociologists Members of the Riigikogu, 1999–2003 20th-century Estonian women politicians 21st-century Estonian women politicians People from Tartu