About Mairead

“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.

Mairead is a member of the Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee and the Constitutional Affairs Committee. An agricultural economist, her work focuses on the future shape of agriculture and rural development policies, global development policy, the environment, public health, and food safety and security.

She is Vice-Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee.

Mairead was lead negotiator for the EPP Group, the largest political grouping in the Parliament, on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (Pillar I).

She works on issues impacting on the sustainability of the food supply chain, including unfair trading practices. She was voted MEP of the Year for Agriculture.

She is co-chair of the Parliament’s MEP Heart Group, focused on tackling heart disease through information, awareness, diet and physical activity.

Mairead was lead negotiator for the EPP on the revision of the Medical Devices Regulation.

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.