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Jillian Evans MEP

Member of the European Parliament
for Wales
Incumbent
Assumed office 
10 June 1999
Born 8 May 1959 (1959-05-08) (age 50)
Ystrad Rhondda, Glamorgan
Nationality Welsh
Political party Plaid Cymru
Alma mater University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Glamorgan University
Website http://www.jillevans.net/

Jill Evans (born 8 May 1959 in Ystrad Rhondda, Glamorgan) is Plaid Cymru Member of the European Parliament for Wales and First Vice President of The Greens–European Free Alliance group - the fourth largest in the European Parliament. She is also Vice President of Plaid Cymru and chair of CND Cymru.

In June 1999 Evans and fellow candidate Eurig Wyn were elected as the first MEPs in Plaid Cymru's history. She was re-elected to the European Parliament in 2009. She is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Delegation for relations with Iraq. She deputises on the Agriculture Committee. She is also Plaid Cymru spokesperson for European and International issues.

Contents

Background

She was educated at Bodringallt Infants' and Junior schools, Ystrad, where her head-teacher was John Haydn Davies, conductor of Treorci Male Voice Choir. Jill then attended Tonypandy Grammar School, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where she gained a BA and the Polytechnic of Wales, Trefforest (now Glamorgan University) where she earned an M.Phil. She speaks both Welsh and English, having learned the former as a second language in Tonypandy GS being taught by Penri Jones, now a Gwynedd county councillor. In her spare time, Jill enjoys organic gardening and Jigsaw puzzles.

Professional career

Jill Evans worked as a Research Assistant at the former Polytechnic of Wales where she also gained her M.Phil. degree. She later worked for the National Federation of Women's Institutes in Wales for six years with the late Rhiannon Bevan. Jill continues to be an associate member of Glamorgan WI. Following her first election to public office, she took up the post of Wales Organiser for CHILD - the infertility support network.

Political career

Jill Evans has long been a political activist and community campaigner before being elected to public office. Her political credits include

  • participation in August 1981 in the first leg of the march from Cardiff City Hall which led to Greenham Common,
  • the campaign against the nuclear bomb-making factory in Llanisien, Cardiff,
  • support for miners and their families during the 1984-1985 miners strike; Jill was the first (and only?) woman to go down Maerdy colliery,
  • leading the successful closure of the infamous Nant y Gwyddon landfill site in Gelli,
  • active support of the Friction Dynamics workers in Caernarfon,
  • supporting the Burberry workers in their 2006-2007 campaign to prevent the closure of their Treorchy factory; she secured the support of international Welsh baritone, Bryn Terfel and led the picketing of the flagship Burberry store in London.

Her party posts include national Chair of Plaid Cymru from 1994 to 1996.

Jill Evans is a long-standing supporter and member of the European Free Alliance (EFA), the pan-European grouping of Plaid Cymru's sister parties which campaigns for independence for the historic nations of Europe and linguistic rights for minority languages.

Jill was elected to Rhondda Borough Council in 1992, Mid-Glamorgan County Council in 1993 and, following their abolition, to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council in 1996.

She was elected to the European Parliament at the 1999 elections, becoming the first Plaid Cymru MEP. Evans was re-elected at the 2004 elections and again in June 2009. She stood for the Rhondda constituency in the National Assembly for Wales election, 2007 and came second with votes.

In her first parliamentary term, Jill Evans was vice president of the Women's Rights & Equal Opportunities Committee, a member of the Environment Committee and the Palestinian Delegation. She is currently the President of the European Free Alliance (EFA) group of MEPs and First Vice President of the Green/EFA Group in the European Parliament. Her main political interests are the environment and international affairs.

She has also showed interest in Wales participating as a lone country in the Eurovision Song Contest. Though this action has not been taken as yet.

References

External links

Media

Offices held

European Parliament
Preceded by
(new constituency)		 Member of European Parliament for Wales
1999–present		 Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
John Dixon		 Chair of Plaid Cymru
1994–1996		 Succeeded by
Marc Phillips
previous ←   Members of the European Parliament 2004–2009   → following
Category · European Union
previous ←   Members of the European Parliament 2009–2014
Category · European Union







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