“As Vice-President of the European Parliament, my work is about making the local European and the European local.”
Mairead McGuinness is the First Vice-President of the European Parliament and represents the Midlands-North-West constituency in Ireland.
As First Vice-President, she oversees relations with national parliaments, in particular with the EU affairs committees of Member State parliaments.
She has responsibility for the Parliament’s dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations on EU policies and legislative proposals.
She is also Vice-President with responsibility for North America.
Mairead is a member of the Parliament’s Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and Constitutional Affairs.
As an influential member of the Agriculture Committee since 2004, she has worked on CAP reform and has defended the position of farmers in the food supply chain – most recently in achieving new EU legislation to tackle Unfair Trading Practices.
She was a lead negotiator for the EPP Group on medical devices legislation, guaranteeing increased standards in patient safety and encouraging industry to innovate.
A Member of the Parliament’s Committee for overseeing the Brexit process (AFCO), Mairead has strongly defended EU interests with regular media appearances. She is chair of the Parliament’s working group on the administrative consequences of Brexit.
Mairead chaired the Parliament’s investigation into the collapse of the Equitable Life assurance company which identified issues around weak financial regulation.
Prior to becoming an MEP she was a well-known journalist, broadcaster and commentator.
Mairead was elected First Vice-President of the European Parliament in January 2017 and was re-elected to the post in July 2019. She has been a Vice-President of the Parliament since July 2014.