Hannes Swoboda

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hannes Swoboda

Hannes Swoboda, more correctly Johannes Swoboda, (born November 10, 1946 in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg) is an Austrian social democratic politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1996. Within the Parliament, he represents the Austrian social democrats and is also vice-president and parliamentary manager of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament (http://www.socialistgroup.eu).

After studying law and economics at the University of Vienna, Swoboda worked in the Vienna Chamber of Labour (1971-86) and was director of the department for economics, health and housing policy. Swoboda also held a number of different functions within the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). From 1983, he was a member of the municipal council and member of the city council of Vienna. In 1988 he became municipal councillor responsible for urban development, planning, transport and external relations. Swoboda is a member of the federal party executive committee of the SPÖ and federal chairman responsible for education. He is also a member of the steering committee of "A Soul for Europe", an initiative that is building an international network based in Berlin.

In 2000 a letter in which Swoboda thanked the EU states for the sanctions against Austria brought him into the spotlight of public attention. This letter was used by Jörg Haider to attack Swoboda during the European Parliament election campaign in 2004.

Since 1997, Swoboda has been the vice-president of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with south-east Europe. Much of his parliamentary work is focused on the Balkans, the Middle East, Turkey and the Maghreb.

Hannes Swoboda enjoys painintg and photography in his spare time.

He is married to the former Austrain secretary of state for Europe and current general director of Siemans AG Austria, Brigitte Ederer.

Reports in the European Parliament, Rapporteur Hannes Swoboda

Report on Croatia's 2006 progress, Committee on Foreign Affairs, March 2007 Report on the proposal for a Council regulation on amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1080/2000 of 22 May 2000 on support for the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR) - Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, November 2003 Report on ecopoints for heavy goods vehicles in transit through Austria, Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, July 2001 Report on EU assistance to Turkey in the framework of the pre-accession strategy and an Accession Partnership, Committee on Foreign Affiars, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, February 2001 Report on licensing of railway undertakings (amendment of Directive 95/18/EC), allocation of capacity and levying of charges, Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, January 2001 Report on the Negotiation of a stabilisation and association agreement with the former Yugolsav Republic of Macedonia, Committee on Foreign Affiars, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, February 2000 Report on Licensing of railway undertakings (amendment of Directive 95/18/EC), allocation of capacity and levying of charges, Committee on Transport and Tourism, February 1999 Report on the future development of relations with Turkey (communication from the Commission to the Council), Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy, November 1998

Mail contact: hannes.swoboda@europarl.europa.eu hannes.swoboda@spoe.at