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

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

La République En Marche ! Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a l ...

(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 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 ...

since 2014.

Political career

Career in national politics

Durand was elected spokesperson for

Europe Ecology – The Greens Europe Ecology – The Greens (french: Europe Écologie Les Verts , EELV ) is a centre-left to left-wing green political party in France. The party is a member of the European Green Party. The party was formed on 13 November 2010 from the merge ...

(EELV) at the party's 2011 congress in

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) 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 department. With ...

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

'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 2012 ...

, 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 the Treaties of the European Union and the Parliament's rules of procedure. It is currently chaired by Antonio Tajan ...

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 i ...

. 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 committee of the European Parliament. with 30 permanent members. It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesirable developments within EU institutio ...

(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 committee of the European Parliament. Work of the committee The committee is responsible for: * coordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of th ...

(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 ( 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 ...

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 96 ...

.` 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 130 Members 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 Parlia ...

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 (EU), by creating a network of citizens, think tanks, NGOs, academics, writers and politicians who support the idea o ...

. 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 retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fis ...

and

Emma Bonino Emma Bonino (born 9 March 1948) is an Italian politician. A senator for Rome, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Previously, she was a Member of the European Parliament and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. She serve ...

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 Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

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