European Commissioner

Responsible for Consumer Policy, the European Community Humanitarian Office (Echo) and Fisheries.

Born in Bra (Cuneo), on 9 March 1948.

In 1972, she obtained a degree in foreign languages and literature from the Bocconi University of Milan.

1975

She founded the CISA (Centro Informazione, Sterilizzazione e Aborto) to provide women with medical assistance.

1976

Elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies; reelected at every subsequent election (1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1994). She has held such offices as that of chairman of the parliamentary group of the Radical Party and member of the Bureau of the Parliament.

1978

Prime mover of a referendum against nuclear energy, which resulted in the blocking of the civil nuclear power in Italy.

1979

Elected to the European Parliament; reelected in 1984.

1981

Founder member and then secretary of "Food and Disarmament International" an organization that promoted the "Nobel Prize Winners' Manifesto" aimed at securing the necessary laws and budgets from parliaments to save millions of people suffering from hunger and underdevelopment.

1987

She promoted international human, civil and political rights campaigns in the countries of Eastern Europe, in particular for the application of the Helsinki Treaty to "refusniks".

1991

She actively supported an anti-prohibition and harm-reduction policy on drugs, again through parliamentary, referendum and civil disobedience campaigns.

1991-93

Chairman of the transnational and cross-party Radical Party.

1993-94

Elected Secretary of the Party. In this capacity, she was active, in particular in asserting the need for international criminal justice, and promoting parliamentary and public campaigns for the setting-up of an ad-hoc tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, a Permanent Criminal Court and a moratorium on capital executions, as well as the fight against AIDS and other pandemics. She has been campaigning for a total ban on the production of land mines and submitted a motion for this purpose, which was adopted by the Italian Chamber of Deputies in December 1994.