Monica Frassoni

In addition to meeting with faculty and students during the week, she will give a public lecture Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. in Hartness Pavilion. Her talk, "Europolitics and the Environment," is open to the public.

Frassoni's visit to Furman is sponsored by the Richard W. Riley Institute of Government, Politics and Public Leadership and made possible by The German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Frassoni represents Belgium in the European Parliament, an organization which promotes the interests of the 375 million citizens of the European Union (EU) and defends their rights at EU level. The Parliament has substantial legislative, budgetary and supervisory powers. Its 626 members are elected in the 15 EU member states for a five-year term.

She is also co-president of the The Greens/European Free Alliance, the fourth largest political group in the European Parliament. The group's interest includes campaigning against nuclear energy and arguing for the enlargement of the European Union to central and eastern Europe.

The 39-year-old Frassoni was born in Mexico and grew up in Italy. She graduated from the University of Florence with a degree in political science and, in 1983, became actively involved in the European Federalist Movement. Four years later, she was elected European General Secretary of the European Organisation of Young Federalists and moved to Brussels, Belgium.

Beginning in 1990, she worked for the Greens/European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament as an adviser on institutional issues, internal rules and immunity. She concentrated on fighting for a democratic constitution of the EU by championing the cause of European citizenship and fundamental rights. She was elected to the European Parliament in 1999.

For more information, contact Furman's Riley Institute at 864-294-3327.

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