Martin Hojsík | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Vice-President of the European Parliament | |
| Assumed office 18 October 2023[1] Serving with See list | |
| President | Roberta Metsola |
| Preceded by | Michal Šimečka |
| Member of the European Parliament forSlovakia | |
| Assumed office 2 July 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1977-01-27)27 January 1977 (age 48) Bratislava, Czechoslovakia |
| Political party | Progressive Slovakia |
| Alma mater | Comenius University |
Martin Hojsík (born 27 January 1977) is a Slovak environmental activist and politician elected as aMember of the European Parliament in2019.[2] In addition to his committee assignments, Hojsík is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals[3] and a member of the political groupRenew Europe. He is also a vice chairman of the political partyProgressive Slovakia and their expert onenvironmental issues andsustainability.
In 2020, Hojsík appeared in the chart of American political opinion magazinePolitico "20 MEPs to watch in 2020"[4] and in the series of articles "Changemakers", where he was named as one of the MEPs, who will be the main leaders of positive changes in the fight against pesticides.[5]
He was the Chief Program Officer (CPO) and Executive Board member of the international charityFOUR PAWS. In the past, he worked on global campaigns forActionAid International andGreenpeace International to change corporate behavior and public policies, and on communication campaigns for Greenpeace national offices[6]
He studied genetics at theFaculty of Natural Science atComenius University in Bratislava and has been an environmental and social movement activist since 1993.[7]
Hojsík was born on 27 January 1977[8] inBratislava, where he also grew up.[9] He attended the Grammar School Vazovova. After graduation, he studied atComenius University. During his career as an environmental expert, he has worked and lived in several countries, such as theNetherlands,South Africa,Thailand, andAustria.
In addition toSlovak, he speaks four other languages -Czech,Russian,English andGerman.[6]
From 1995 to 2001, he studied genetics at the Faculty of Natural Science at Comenius University in Bratislava.[10] In hismaster's thesis, he focused on the importance of selected chemomutagens fordedifferentiation, callogenesis,organogenesis andgene expression in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). He holds a certificate fromSchumacher College with a focus onleadership andteamwork.[6]
Hojsík has dedicated much of his life toGreenpeace, an international non-profit organization forenvironmental protection. He worked there for almost two decades, from 1995 to 2013. First, from 1995 to 1997, he held the position of an external project manager for energy efficiency at Greenpeace Czechoslovakia, where he was in charge of media communication, logistics and coordination of volunteers. After 2001, he worked for Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, where, among other things, he organized anti-toxin campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe and helped establish Greenpeace's regional headquarters inPoland andHungary.[11] Hojsík also worked on environmental policy issues, the implementation of theAarhus Convention and the pollution of theDanube river.[12]
From 2005 to 2009, he worked as an activist for Greenpeace International, dealing with cases such as illegal exports of electrical waste toAsia (China,India,Pakistan) andAfrica (Ghana,Nigeria), as well as budget planning, management and training of volunteers.[13] From 2009 to January 2013, he was in charge of managing the water management project for Greenpeace International based in theNetherlands. In this position, he created the multi-year strategy for the Greenpeace Detox campaign. In 2011 and 2012, he ran the Greenpeace Shop Window. He also worked at Greenpeace International as a campaign consultant and led training in this area.
From 2013 to 2015, he worked atActionAid International, based inJohannesburg. He developed and managed the Tax Power Multi Country Campaign, which was focused on promoting change in tax laws in developing countries. He coordinated communication with civic initiatives, trade unions, policy makers, and international institutions.[6]
Since 2015, he has been the Chief Programme officer and executive board member ofFOUR PAWS, an animal rights organization that seeks to eliminate mistreatment of animals andanimal cruelty. During his days in FOUR PAWS, Hojsík was responsible for the organization and implementation of program related strategies, projects, campaigns and their respective monitoring, evaluation and controlling. For example, he launched a campaign to help bears, which included the establishment of shelters for bears, which are often kept in inappropriate conditions despite the laws.[14]
Martin Hojsík has become politically involved in 2000 as a member of Small Grants committee at SlovakMinistry of Environment. In the years 2002 - 2006, he was a member of Advisory Committee to the Environment Committee ofSlovak Parliament. As a member of National convent ofSR onEU, in 2004 he coordinated a campaign aimed at toxic chemicals. In the years 2003 - 2004, as held a position of a member of National Coordination Committee of Initial assistance to the Slovak Republic to meet its obligations under theStockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).[15] In 2015, he was a member of state delegation at the 3rdUN Conference on Financing for Development.
In 2016, he joined the board of OZProgressive Slovakia, and since 2018, he has been a member of the political movement of the same name. In 2019, he ran for theEuropean Parliament as a coalition candidate of the non-parliamentary movement Progressive Slovakia (PS) and the party ofCivic Democracy (SPOLU)[16] In 2020, he also joined the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport.[17]
In 2021, Hojsík drafted a non-binding motion calling for a pan-European strategy to addresssoil conservation. This led to the passage of a 2025 law in the European Parliament setting a goal of healthy soil by 2050, obliging member countries to monitor their soils and address issues ofsoil contamination.[18]
  Currentmembers of the European Parliament fromSlovakia (2019–2024) | |
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| List of members ofRenew Europe (2019–2024) | |
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| Austria | |
| Belgium | |
| Bulgaria | |
| Croatia | |
| Czech Republic | |
| Denmark | |
| Estonia | |
| Finland | |
| France | |
| Germany | |
| Greece | |
| Hungary | |
| Ireland | |
| Italy | |
| Latvia | |
| Lithuania | |
| Luxembourg | |
| Netherlands | |
| Poland | |
| Romania | |
| Slovakia | |
| Slovenia | |
| Spain | |
| Sweden | |