Heidi Hautala

 ( 1955 Births ) 

In addition to her committee assignment, Hautala served as co-chair of the Working group on Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, and Development in the European Parliament. She was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Western Sahara, Members European Parliament Intergroup on Western Sahara. several international delegations and the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals. Members European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

In 2016, Hautala was appointed by Erik Solheim, the Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee, to serve on the High Level Panel on the Future of the Development Assistance Committee under the leadership of Mary Robinson. High Level Panel on the Future of the Development Assistance Committee Development Assistance Committee. On development, Hautala has proposed that sexual and reproductive health and rights and a gender action plan be core elements of the development policy in light of the Sustainable Development Goals. She has opposed using development policy mechanisms as a basis for military intervention under EU umbrella, denouncing a weak legal basis for the move.

On trade, Hautala has proposed to curb the global trade of illegal timber to prevent deforestation, asked the European Commission to introduce legislation to establish human rights due diligence requirements for multinational EU companies to respect human rights and prevent incidents such as Rana Plaza. and presented a shadow EU Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct, to increase business accountability and responsibility, avoid that globalisation produce a race to the bottom and stop which deliver profits from human rights violations, such as an estimated $150 billion a year from forced labour.

In October 2017, Hautala was appointed as the Vice President of the European Parliament until summer 2019, becoming the third Finn to hold the position. Heidi Hautala valittiin europarlamentin varapuhemieheksi Yle. In this capacity, she was also a member of the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG), which oversees the Parliament’s election observation missions.

Results of her parliamentary activity include several reports of which she was in charge as rapporteur and which have been approved by a very large majority, including:

• a regulation to establish a fund of over 300 M€, within the 2021-27 budget of the European Union, for "the further development of a European area of justice based on the rule of law, including independence and impartiality of the judiciary, on mutual recognition, mutual trust and judicial cooperation, thereby also strengthening democracy rule of law and fundamental rights";
• a non-legislative resolution recommending that any trade agreement with Vietnam avoid encouraging environmental damage such as deforestation (connected to the export of illegal timber from illegal logging);
• a resolution on the management of in developing countries containing a number of recommendations on Forest and land governance, Responsible supply chains and financing, Policy coherence for development, Forest criminality, trade issues;
• the 2014 report on monitoring the application of EU law;
• several reports on cases of requested parliamentary immunity and on the accession of states to the Child Abduction Convention.

In March 2019, Hautala won another lawsuit for transparency, case T-329/17 Hautala and others v EFSA: the General Court annulled «the decision of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) of 14 March 2017, in so far as EFSA refused access to the parts "material, experimental conditions and methods" and "results and discussion" of 12 carcinogenicity studies on the active substance glyphosate». The lawsuit was filed in 2017, following a long controversy around the glyphosate re-authorisation process and the so-called Monsanto Papers, after which EFSA refused to release a number of documents including 75 unpublished studies because «disclosure of the other parts of the studies could undermine the commercial interests of their owners». The court established «that the protection of those commercial interests may not be invoked to preclude the disclosure of that information» by EU institutions, as the public interest prevails.

For the then upcoming Finnish semester, Hautala in 2019 proposed the promotion of health and well-being as an overall objective under which to work on matters such as global warming, air pollution and energy efficiency of buildings.

Hautala was ranked as one of the 15 most influential MEPs in the 2014-19 legislature by VoteWatch, as measured by the positions held, the number of reports and opinions and the votes won, weighed by perceived importance and normalized by average influence of their country.