Pavel Telička (born 21 August 1965) is a Czech lobbyist, politician and

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) from the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. He previously served as European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection from May 2004 to November 2004. He was a member of

ANO 2011 ANO (), registered as ANO 2011, is a right-wing populist political party in the Czech Republic, led by businessman Andrej Babiš, who served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. Formed in 2011, the party finished second i ...

, part of the

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; , ADLE) was a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and the European Democratic Party. ALDE had political ...

, until 2017 when he quit amid disagreements with leader

Andrej Babiš Andrej Babiš (; born 2 September 1954) is a Czech businessman and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, prime minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. He previously served as the Finance Minister of the Cze ...

. He served as a

Vice President of the European Parliament There are fourteen vice-presidents of the European Parliament who sit in for the president in presiding over the plenary of the European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and ...

from January 2017 until 2019.

Early life

Telička was born in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in 1965, the son of a communist diplomat. As a young man, he was a member of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

. He graduated from the Faculty of Law,

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

, in 1986, and began working at the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. In the following years, he held various positions in the ministry, including as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in the Czech Mission to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. From 1998 onwards, he served as chief negotiator for the

accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union The largest enlargement of the European Union (EU), in terms of number of states and population, took place on 1 May 2004. The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries (sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries): Cyprus, ...

European Union

In February 2004, the Czech government nominated Miloš Kužvart, the former Czech Environment Minister, as a candidate for the EU commissioner. Kužvart, however, stepped down after his first visit as a candidate to Brussels, and Telička was drafted in to replace him. When the Czech Republic entered the EU on 1 May 2004, Telička became a commissioner in the

Prodi Commission The Prodi Commission was the European Commission in office between 1999 and 2004. The administration was led by former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. History The commission took office on 16 September 1999 following the scandal and subs ...

, sharing the portfolio of Health and Consumer Protection with

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

. He held this post only until November 2004, and did not continue in the following

Barroso Commission The Barroso Commission was the European Commission in office from 22 November 2004 until 31 October 2014. Its President of the European Commission, president was José Durão Barroso, who presided over 27 other commissioners (one from Member sta ...

due to a Czech government crisis in summer 2004. He was succeeded as the Czech Republic's commissioner by

Vladimír Špidla Vladimír Špidla (; born 22 April 1951) is a Czech politician who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from July 2002 to August 2004 and as European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities from Novemb ...

, the former Prime Minister who resigned during the crisis. In December 2004, Telička co-founded BXL Consulting with offices in Prague and Brussels, providing consultancy in EU affairs. As of 2014, the company is no longer active. In 2013, he supported

, led by

, in the Czech parliament elections; he was the party's candidate in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

. Since his election in July 2014, he was a vice-chair of the

until the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

. In June 2019, he was elected the first leader of the HLAS party. He was also elected president of the

Czech Rugby Union The Czech Rugby Union () is the governing body for rugby union in the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1926 and became affiliated to the International Rugby Board in 1988 while still the governing body for Czechoslovakia. It organises the two le ...

in November 2009.

References

External links

A Biography in English. Archived.
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Telicka, Pavel 1965 births Living people Politicians from Washington, D.C. Czech diplomats Czech European commissioners MEPs for the Czech Republic 2014–2019 ANO (political party) MEPs Charles University alumni