Sandra Kalniete | |
|---|---|
 Kalniete in 2024 | |
| Member of the European Parliament forLatvia | |
| Assumed office 14 July 2009 | |
| European Commissioner forAgriculture andFisheries | |
| In office 1 May 2004 – 11 November 2004 | |
| President | Romano Prodi |
| Preceded by | Franz Fischler |
| Succeeded by | Mariann Fischer Boel(Agriculture and Rural Development) Joe Borg(Fisheries and Maritime Affairs) |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 7 November 2002 – 9 March 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Einars Repše |
| Preceded by | Indulis Bērziņš |
| Succeeded by | Rihards Pīks |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-12-22)22 December 1952 (age 72) |
| Political party |
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| Alma mater | |
| Website | kalniete |
Kalniete discussing the European Union Fisheries Fund and rural development Recorded 15 July 2004 | |
Sandra Kalniete (born 22 December 1952) is a Latvian politician, author and diplomat. She served asMinister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia from 2002 to 2004 and asEuropean Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries in 2004. Since 2009, she has served asMember of the European Parliament (MEP) for theEuropean People's Party.
She is currently[when?] a member of theCommittee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and a substitute member of theCommittee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI).Additionally she is a member on the Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a substitute member on the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and on the Delegation to theEuronest Parliamentary Assembly.[1]
After her reelection in 2014, she became Vice-Chair of theGroup of the European People's Party in the European Parliament.
Kalniete is also the chairperson of theReconciliation of European Histories Group, an all-party group in the European Parliament involved in promoting thePrague Process. The group includes 40 MEPs from across the political spectrum including theEuropean People's Party, theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats, theGreens, and theProgressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.[2]
She has previously served asAmbassador to theUnited Nations (1993–97),France (1997–2000) andUNESCO (2000–02). Beside her native Latvian language, she is also fluent in English, French and Russian.[citation needed]
Kalniete was born inTogur [ru], in Russia's SiberianTomsk Oblast, where her family had beendeported by theSoviet secret police during the country'soccupation of the Baltic states, for use asslave labour. Her mother Ligita Kalniete (née Dreifelde, 1926-2006) was first deported together with her mother and fatherin 1941, after which Ligita returned in 1948, before being deported again in 1949 as part ofOperation Priboi. Her father Aivars Kalnietis (born 1931) was deported together with his mother in 1949 as well.[3] Kalniete would remain in Russia until returning to Latvia at the age of five, when the family was allowed to return in 1957.[4]
She studied art at theLatvian Academy of Art from 1977 to 1981 and worked as an art historian, publishing a book,Latvian Textile Art, in 1989.[citation needed]
She entered politics in 1988, during Latvia's independence movement, and was a deputy chairwoman and one of the founders ofPopular Front of Latvia, the main pro-independence political organization. Kalniete graduated from the Department of Art History and Art Theory at theArt Academy of Latvia (1981), the Institute for International Studies at theUniversity of Leeds (1992), The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies — nowGeneva Graduate Institute — (1995), and has a Master of Arts from the Art Academy of Latvia (1996). The Geneva Graduate Institute later dedicated to her a place in itsHall of Inspiring Stories.
After Latvia declared independence, Kalniete worked in Latvia'sMinistry of Foreign Affairs and served as Latvia's ambassador to the UN (from 1993 to 1997), France (from 1997 to 2000) andUNESCO (from 2000 to 2002).[3]
Kalniete became Foreign Minister of Latvia in November 2002 and served in this position until in 2004 when she was appointed the first Latvian Commissioner of the European Union in charge of Agriculture and Fisheries.[5]
She was not re-nominated as Latvia's EU Commissioner.[6][7][8]
At the beginning of 2006, Kalniete joined theNew Era Party. In October 2006, she was elected to the Latvian parliament. She was the2007 candidate of the New Era Party for the post of Latvian president, before withdrawing in favor ofAivars Endziņš on 24 May 2007.
Between 2006 and 2007, Kalniete served as member of theAmato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting theTreaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as theTreaty of Lisbon following its rejection byFrench andDutch voters.
In 2008, Kalniete announced she was leaving the New Era Party. She joined the newly foundedCivic Union and became the party's leader. In the2009 European Parliament election she was elected as aMember of the European Parliament and reelected in the2014 European Parliament election in Latvia.[9] She put herself forward as a potential candidate to succeedAndris Bērziņš asPresident of Latvia after his decision to step down in 2015.[10]
She was reelected as aMember of the European Parliament and in the2019 European Parliament election in Latvia.
She was mentioned as a possible candidate for the2023 Latvian presidential election.
She was reelected once again as aMember of the European Parliament and in the2024 European Parliament election in Latvia.
Kalniete is involved in many human rights causes pertaining tototalitarian crimes. She is the chair of theReconciliation of European Histories Group, an all-party group in the European Parliament aimed at coming to terms with thetotalitarian past in many countries of Europe.
In 2004, she argued that "behind the Iron Curtain the Soviet regime continued to commit genocide against the peoples of Eastern Europe and, indeed, against its own people [...] the two totalitarian regimes—Nazism and Communism—were equally criminal." She elaborated on this in 2006 when she came up with death counts for the two regimes, pointing out that the Soviet Union killed around 94.5 million people.[11]
She is an author of four books:
The French translation ofWith Dancing Shoes in Siberian Snows published in 2003 byEditions des Syrtes asEn escarpins dans les neiges de Sibérie was nominated for theDocumentary Book of the Month for December by the readers ofElle magazine.[12] Since its publishing it has been translated into more than ten languages.
The bookAr balles kurpēm Sibīrijas sniegos, Riga, Latvia: Atēna, 2001 (ISBN 9984-635-78-3) has been translated into several languages:
Hungarian: Báli cipőben Szibériába, Transl. Béla Jávorszky, Magyar Napló Kiadó, Budapest,2021, ISBN 978-963-541-041-5
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 2002–2004 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Latvian European Commissioner 2004 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | European Commissioner forAgriculture andFisheries 2004 Served alongside:Franz Fischler | Succeeded by |
| Succeeded byas European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs | ||
| Party political offices | ||
| New office | Leader of theCivic Union 2008–2011 | Position abolished |
  Currentmembers of the European Parliament fromLatvia (2019–2024) | |
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| List of members of theEuropean People's Party group (2019–2024) | |
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