Eva Joly

Eva Joly 2012

Eva Joly (born December 5, 1943 in Grünerløkka , Oslo as Gro Eva Farseth ) is a lawyer and member of the European Parliament . She gained notoriety primarily in France and Norway , but also internationally through her fight against corruption . Born in Norway, she came to Paris as an au pair at the age of 18 . There she married the son of her host family, Pascal Joly (died 2001). Two children came from this marriage, the daughter Caroline (lawyer) and the son Julien (architect).

In the 2009 European elections on June 7th, 2009 she was elected as a French member of the European Parliament . She was a candidate for the French Green Alliance ( Europe Écologie ) with Daniel Cohn-Bendit in the constituency of Ile de France . In the European Parliament she became chair of the Committee on Development .

In the French presidential election in 2012 , she ran for the Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) party and received around two percent of the vote in the first ballot.

Background and career

After training as a secretary at the commercial high school in Oslo, she studied French as a minor at the University of Oslo . After her time as an au pair in Paris, she stayed in France and initially worked as a secretary to finance her law studies at night school. She married Pascal Joly, the son of her former host family, and took his family name. After her law exam at a university in Paris and her doctorate in public law , she first worked in the legal department of a hospital in France. She later became a prosecutor in Orléans and Évry . She worked for the French Ministry of Finance as a specialist in the state restructuring of companies threatened by bankruptcy . After a time as a judge at a provincial court, she was finally appointed chief investigating judge in the Ministry of Finance in the Palais de Justice in Paris in 1990 .

Then she returned to her native Norway . In Oslo, she worked as an advisor to the Ministry of Police and Justice in 2002 from the Minister of Justice Odd Einar Dørum . During this time she was sent to Iceland to investigate the bank failures.

Anti-Corruption Commission

Eva Joly was entrusted with the formation of an anti-corruption commission in Oslo in 2002 , which is a special commission charged with combating corruption , money laundering , white- collar crime and organized crime. The Commission's aim is also to promote international cooperation in the fight against corruption.

EU parliamentarian

From 2009 to 2014 Joly was appointed Chair of the Development Committee.

She is a member of the Conference of Committee Chairs and a delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. She is a deputy on the Budgetary Control Committee , the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Special Committee against Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering . She is also on the delegation for relations with the United States .

Elf-Aquitaine-Leuna

Despite intimidation, break-ins into her home and office, illegal wiretapping and death threats, Eva Joly uncovered the largest European corruption scandal in history while she was working as an examining magistrate . This went through the international press as the Elf Aquitaine smear money affair. At first, the investigating judge only noticed suspicious stock exchange transactions by the state-owned company Elf Aquitaine. These initial irregularities led to an investigation lasting several years between 1995 and 2002, at the end of which 37 defendants were handed over to the prosecutor. Among them were top politicians and managers. A total of 30 of the initially 37 accused from French and international top society were also convicted.

Former French Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Conseil Constitutionel of the French Constitutional Council, Roland Dumas , was one of the defendants. However, he was acquitted on appeal. Among others, the group's president, Loïk Le Floch-Prigent , and Alfred Sirven , the company's second man, were in the dock.

In total, the managers dumped € 300 million and bought important people in international politics.

Eva Joly's work has also made waves in Germany. Your investigations were taken up politically in Germany as the Leuna affair . However, the affair in Germany did not go beyond suspicions.

In her book In the Eye of the Cyclone , she describes how her investigations made her a victim of intimidation and death threats, and the reactions of the highest men in France to a woman who dares to ask awkward questions to those who are “free from punishment” Zone "as she calls it.

Quote from the preface: “In no other country do I welcome the translation of my book more than in Germany. Our investigations into the Leuna case showed that Elf paid more than 50 million marks to an intermediary who had contacts with the Federal Intelligence Service . But although the German judiciary has 'all the trump cards in hand' - nothing has happened. Not until today."

Claude Chabrol's film Secret State Affairs is inspired by the Elf Aquitaine case.

Criticism of Jean-Claude Juncker and Luxemburg

Eva Joly settles accounts with Jean-Claude Juncker and Luxemburg in her book “Le loup dans la bergerie” (“The wolf in the sheepfold”) . In it she writes: “Juncker is the incarnation of the betrayal carried out by those who rule us!” In it she describes Jean-Claude Juncker as a stubborn, selfish and almost devious puller and wolf in the sheepfold.