Paul Johannes George Tang (born 23 April 1967) is a Dutch politician who has been serving as a

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 ...

(MEP) since 2014. He is a member of the Labour Party, part of the

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats was officially founded as a Socialist ...

. Between 2007 and 2010 Tang was member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

of the Netherlands.

Early life

Paul Johannes George Tang was born on 23 April 1967 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Tang studied economics at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

between 1985 and 1991, graduating

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

. Afterwards he worked as assistant at

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a public university, public research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg in the southern part of the Netherlands. Tilb ...

and as trainee researcher at the University of Amsterdam. Between 1995 and 2005 he was employee at the

Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis The Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis ( nl, Centraal Planbureau, CPB, literal translation: Central Planning Bureau) is a part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the Netherlands. Its goal is to deliver economic analysis and ...

. In 2001 he earned a doctorate in economic sciences from the University of Amsterdam. He moved on to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs where he was deputy director of General Economic Policies between September 2005 and March 2007.

Political career

House of Representatives

In the Netherlands general election of 2006 he was on the candidate list of the Labour Party. He was not directly elected, but after some Labour members of the House of Representatives moved towards the cabinet, Tang took up membership of the House. In the House he dealt with fiscal and financial policies. Among them was the

Icesave dispute The Icesave dispute was a diplomatic dispute between Iceland, and the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that began after the privately owned Icelandic bank Landsbanki was placed in receivership on 7 October 2008. As ''Landsbanki'' was one of ...

and the role of the

De Nederlandsche Bank De Nederlandsche Bank NV (DNB) is the central bank of the Netherlands. Founded by King William I in 1814, it is part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). De Nederlandsche Bank is a public limited company (Dutch: '' naamloze vennoots ...

in it. In 2008 Tang was verbally reprimanded by President of the House of Representatives,

Gerdi Verbeet Gerardina Alida "Gerdi" Verbeet (born 18 April 1951) is a retired Dutch politician and political consultant who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 6 December 2006 to 19 September 2012. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), sh ...

, after speaking publicly about the then still secret (Dutch government financial prospects). In 2009, he leaked some of the financial prospect papers to

RTL Nieuws RTL Nieuws is a Dutch television news service produced by RTL Nederland. The national and international news service produces 17 bulletins each weekday and six weekend bulletins for RTL4 and RTL Z, reaching a total audience of about 1.5 million pe ...

. The Labour Party took away his speaking rights on his topics in the House for one month. In 2010, he did not seek re-election.

European Parliament

Europese campagneaftrap 2014 Partij van de Arbeid

In the internal Labour Party elections Tang was chosen to be

lijsttrekker In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the leader of a political party in an election to a legislative body. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government. In open list electoral systems, it is ...

(top party candidate) in the European Parliament elections of 2014. With 52% of the votes, he was elected in May 2014 to the European Parliament. In Parliament, Tang has been serving of the

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is a committee of the European Parliament which is responsible for the regulation of financial services, the free movement of capital and payments, taxation and competition policies, oversight ...

since 2014. He was also a member of the

Committee on Budgets The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) is a committee of the European Parliament. It has 41 members plus 39 substitute members. The committee's current chair is Jean Arthuis, who has held this position since 7 July 2014.Common Consolidated Corporation Tax Base (CCCTB), sustainable finance and Digital Services Tax. In May 2019, after the failure of drafting EU-legislation to tax tech companies, Tang presented together with

Henk Nijboer Henk Nijboer (born 31 March 1983) is a Dutch politician. As a member of the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid) he has been an MP since 20 September 2012. Previously he was a member of the provincial parliament of the province of Groningen ...

, MP of the Dutch House of Representatives, an own-initiative bill for a Dutch

Digital services tax Digital goods are software programs, music, videos or other electronic files that users download exclusively from the Internet. Some digital goods are free, others are available for a fee. The taxation of digital goods and/or services, sometimes ref ...

. The proposal hasn't yet been discussed in Parliament. In addition to his committee assignments, Tang has served as vice-chair on the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee (2014-2019) and as member of the delegation for relations with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(since 2019). In May 2019 Tang was re-elected to the European Parliament. The Labour Party obtained, with

Frans Timmermans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplo ...

as top party candidate, six of the 26 Dutch seats in Parliament. Tang became again a member of the

, but also substitute member of the

European Parliament 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. ...

. Since his re-election, he also became a member of the European Internet Forum and the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption. After being re-elected, Tang told a Dutch newspaper he wants to focus this mandate on taxation, sustainable finance and data (protection). In 2020, he also joined the Subcommittee on Tax Matters. In the first months of the new mandate, Tang became shadow rapporteur on behalf of the S&D on the EU Taxonomy-proposal, which is part of the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance.

Political positions

Prior to being elected, Tang argued in March 2014 that top EU officials should not earn more than ten times the wage of the lowest paid EU employees. He also argued that the EU was impeding the economic growth of Europe, and argued for stricter supervision on banks in the EU and for reforms in the sector.

References

External links

*
Paul Tang
at the website of the Labour Party

at the website of the European Parliament {{DEFAULTSORT:Tang, Paul 1967 births Labour Party (Netherlands) MEPs Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Living people Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) MEPs for the Netherlands 2014–2019 Politicians from Haarlem University of Amsterdam alumni MEPs for the Netherlands 2019–2024 Tilburg University faculty People from Alkmaar