Lívia Járóka

File:Livia-Jaroka-Hungary-MIP-Europaparlament-by-Leila-Paul-3.jpg

Lívia Járóka

Lívia Járóka (born 6 October 1974 in Tata) is a Hungarian politician of part Romani ethnicity. She was a Member of the European Parliament, elected as part of the Fidesz list in 2004. Járóka was the second Romani (but the first Romani woman) ever elected to the European Parliament; the first was Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia from Spain, who served from 1994 to 1999.

Járóka grew up in Sopron, a town near Hungary's western border with Austria. Her father is ethnically Roma, her mother Hungarian. After getting an MA in sociology from the Central European University Warsaw campus on a scholarship from the Soros-funded Open Society Institute she went on to study anthropology in Britain, focusing on Romani issues and culture. In August 2003 she had a daughter and a son in 2007. In 2012 she finished her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University College of London.

Memberships

She is Chair of the Working Group of the European People's Party on Roma Inclusion and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. She is also a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Delegation for Relations with India. She is a substitute member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, as well as the Committee on Human Rights.

As of Sep 2014 she is no longer listed on the European Parliament site as an MEP.

Other memberships

• Roma Education Fund
• High Level Group of Roma Diplomacy Program
• European Roma Information Office
• Prior Board Member of Open Society Institute, Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program

Research activities

• September 2000-April 2002: Ethnographic field resech on assimilation tendencies of Roma in Hungary
• May 1998-May 2001: Sociological research among Roma students of Gandhi Gimnazium, Hungary

Awards

• Elected Young Global Leader in 2006 by the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum
• 2006 and 2013 Member of the European Parliament of the Year (MEP) award in the category of Justice and Fundamental Rights
• Awarded the Romanian Foreign Ministry's Excellency Award for the Social Integration of Minorities in 2010
• Awarded the Presidential Order of Merit of Hungary for her outstanding work during the Hungaria Presidency of the EU in 2011
• Won the St. Adalbert Award of the Hungarian Association of Christian Intellectuals in 2011
• Award of the "Fundación Secretariado Gitano" in 2012

External links

• Official Website
• Speech by Lívia Járóka at Second European Roma Summit
• University College London student profile