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Diana Wallis MEP
Diana Wallis was elected to the European Parliament in June 1999. Although she stood as a candidate for the 1989 European elections in North-east Essex, Diana's roots in Yorkshire politics began in 1994 when she became a councillor on Humberside County Council and was then elected as Deputy Leader of the East Riding Unitary Council in 1995.
Born in 1954 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, Diana qualified as a solicitor in 1983, specialising in European commercial litigation. Her law studies took her to Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, which added to her interest in European issues and only heightened her desire to enter European politics. She is fluent in French and German.
In December 2001 Diana was elected Leader of the 11-strong Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Party (LDEPP). This in turn is the largest delegation in the 53-strong European Liberal Democrats Group (ELDR), which allows LDEPP a significant role in the formulation of party policy.
Diana has been elected to a number of high-profile positions in her capacity as an MEP. As the ELDR Spokesperson on the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee, Diana is intrinsically involved in all aspects of her Committee's work and has authored a number of Committee reports including VAT on e-commerce, a proposal for a European on-line network for alternative dispute systems, greater access to justice for consumers/businesses in the area of civil claims. Recently she was chosen as the Rapporteur for the so-called Rome II proposals to deal with the law applicable to non-contractual obligations, such as cross-border disputes.
She has always had an interest in the Nordic Region and as 1st Vice-President of the EP Delegation to Iceland, Norway & Switzerland, Diana is able to pursue this. She is also a member of EEA Joint Parliamentary Committee. She meets regularly with her counterparts from the national parliaments of these countries. Diana is the author (along with Stewart Arnold and Ben Idris Jones) of the book 'Forgotten Enlargement: Future EU Relations with Iceland, Switzerland and Norway'. She represents the EP in meetings of the Nordic Council and the Standing Committee of Arctic Parliamentarians, where parliamentarians from Canada, Europe, Russia and the USA discuss such sensitive subjects as the environment & regional security matters.
Whilst a councillor in Yorkshire Diana always took an interest in regional policy matters and became a member of the Regional Assembly Leader's Group. Since her election to the European Parliament, Diana is now a Substitute Member of the Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism Committee. She is an active member of the Campaign for Yorkshire and spoke at the Third Constitutional Convention held in Leeds on 1 February 2003 to discuss continuing areas of consensus and ways forward in creating a directly elected regional government in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Published & promoted by Richard Good on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, Land of Green Ginger, Hull, HU1 2EA
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