Isabelle Durant
Isabelle A. J. Durant ( born September 4, 1954 in Brussels ) is a Belgian francophone politician of the "green " party Ecolo. Since 2009 she is a member of the European Parliament.
Life
Durant has a degree in Political Economy and Social Sciences. She worked in Brussels as a neighborhood manager and one of the founders of the first ecologically -minded parties in Europe. Since 1994 she has been present in the management bodies of Ecolo.
From 1999 to 2003 she was Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister in the first government of Belgium with green investment, the Cabinet I by Guy Verhofstadt. As a green traffic Minister Isabelle Durant changed the importance of road safety completely in favor of the rights and safety of pedestrians and cyclists. The number of traffic accidents decreased by 12 percent. Initial criticism of it met the required Bußgeldkatalog did not prevent the vote was won over: In the Chamber of Deputies no one voted against.
Isabelle Durant in 2000 surprised friend and foe with the proposal to abolish the night flights. She wanted the residents to guarantee the night. Protest of the local operators of the airports led to a crisis with Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Because of the rigid attitude of the Parti Socialiste in this matter, Isabelle Durant left in May 2003, the federal government together with her comrades Olivier Deleuze.
On the occasion of the Clearstream affair, in which the German Börse AG was involved, she developed in 2004 together with the Socialist Senator Jean Cornil a legislative initiative to study and combat tax evasion.
Currently, Isabelle Durant, a member of the Belgian Senate and the Federation Secretariat of Ecolo.
She was a candidate for the office of mayor in Schaerbeek in the municipal elections in October 2006.
In the European elections in 2009 Durant was elected as an MP in the European Parliament. In September 2010, she was involved in the founding of the Spinelli Group, which campaigns for the European federalism.
Political functions
Durant is a member of the Green Party and Vice President of the EU Parliament. In the following committees and delegations she is a member: Bureau of the European Parliament, Committee on Budgets, Delegation for relations with Israel, Delegation for relations with Iran ] ], and in the Delegation to the ACP -EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.