Marco Cappato

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Marco Cappato.

Marco Cappato (b. May 25, 1971 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian politician. He is a member of the European Parliament since May 8, 2006, when he took up a seat vacated after the 2006 Italian general election. He represents the Lista Emma Bonino within the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group.

[edit] Career

Born in Milan, he has a bachelors degree in economics from the Bocconi University in Italy. He was the general advisor of the "Movement of the Pannella Club" from 1994 to 1995, he was than appointed national secretary of the Movement and of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party.

After a brief experience in the field of management and human resources at the Galbani de Melzo Institute, he started to collaborate with the radical group within the European Parliament in 1995. In 1996 he was appointed treasurer of the CORA (Radical Antiprohibitionist coordinator). In 1997 and 1998 he was the Transnational Radical Party representative before the United Nations in New York, where he became particularly involved in the campaign for the implementation of the International Criminal Court. From February 1999 to July 2001 he was Coordinator to the "Radical Comity for the liberal revolution of the United States of Europe". From June 1999 to July 2004 he's been a European parliamentarian within the Lista Bonino.

He has been the "drafts man" of the Directive on "privacy with regard to electronic communication".

Due to his efforts in countering the generalized control proposals in the field of electronic communications (he is mostly known for his report on privacy in electronic communication) he was awarded European of the Year, by the weekly newspaper "the European Voice". This choice was justified by the following statement: "for his leadership in the campaign for the protection of privacy, in particular in respect of the preservation of the protection of the citizens personal data in the very moment where the United States have undertaken a war against terrorism."

Cappato however conceded the 5000Ä award to the Luca Coscioni Association for the freedom of scientific research. Furthermore his was nominated for the "Politician of the Year" award - for his actions aiming at countering the European monitoring laws- by the American magazine "Wired". In December 2001 he was arrested in Manchester for a non-violent action of civil disobedience in connection with the British laws that condemn the possession of drugs for personal use.

From March to November 2002 he was the president of the Transnational Radical Party board. Since October 2002 he's been the coordinator of the Parliamentarians for Antiprohibitionist Action (PAA), this very group has so far received the support of about 200 Parliamentarians from all around the world.

Secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association for Freedom of Research since January 2004. Co-ordinator of the electoral and referendum initiatives of the radical and radical-liberal area for the 2004 European elections.