Joseph Daul

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Daul (born 13 April 1947 in Strasbourg) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the East of France. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement; part of the European People's Party–European Democrats group. On 9 January 2007 he was elected Chair of the EPP-ED group, replacing Hans-Gert Pöttering, who was elected as the new President of the European Parliament.

Daul had previously come to prominence as Chair of European Parliament's powerful Committee on Agriculture, a position he was elected to on 23 July 2004. He has been Mayor of Pfettisheim (Bas-Rhin) since 1989, and is an Officer of the Agricultural Order of Merit, Knight of the National Order of Merit and Knight of the Légion d'honneur.

In addition to French he speaks Alsatian, his native language, and is fluent in German.

Joseph Daul was under investigation for misuse of public funds in France. He was part of an inquiry into the diversion of €16 million (£10.6 million) of agricultural money in the 1990s that has also ensnared three former agriculture ministers. The eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) unearthed the allegations on January 11, 2007.

Mr Daul had been head of the National Breeding Confederation, the beef producers' union, between 1993 and 1998. He was placed under investigation in 2004 for allegedly diverting money to finance the farmers' union, the FNSEA, and to pay his own staff. He was not accused of benefiting personally but of "complicity and concealment of the abuse of public funds".^[1] On August 8, 2007, the court has however asked that all charges against him be dropped, stating that the cases made against him did not require legal punishement.^[2]