The Minister

Emma Bonino was born in Bra (CN) on 9 March 1948.
She earned a degree in Modern Languages and Literature from Milan’s Bocconi University in 1972.

National Political Career:

Elected for the first time to the Chamber of Deputies on the Radical Party ticket at the age of 28, was re-elected in 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1994 and 2006; appointed President of the Parliamentary group and Secretary to the President of the Chamber of Deputies; was Vice-Chair of the Senate during the 16th Legislature (2008-2013).

As a radical activist in the 1970s and 80s, sponsored a series of referendums, one of which introduced abortion legislation in Italy and one that opposed nuclear power plants in Italy.

Was appointed Minister for International Trade and European Policies in the second Prodi government in 2006.

European and International Political Career:

Founder and Secretary in 1978 of the association Food and Disarmament International, which launched the international campaign against world hunger based on the Nobel Laureate-issued Humanist Manifesto.

Was elected in 1979 to the European Parliament and re-elected in 1984,1999 and 2004. Lived in Cairo from 2002 and 2004 where she studied the Arabic language and managed the Arab press roundup for Radio Radicale.

From 1990 to 2002 was a promoter of international campaigns on behalf of ad hoc tribunals against war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the establishment of an international criminal court and a moratorium on the death penalty – a moratorium endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 2007; and is among the founders of NGOs “Nessuno Tocchi Caino” and “Non c’è Pace senza Giustizia”.

Was Transnational Radical Party President from 1991 to 1993 and Secretary from 1993 to 1994.

Was named European Commissioner Humanitarian Aid, Fisheries, Consumer Policy and Consumer Health Protection in 1994, the scope of which activity was extended to Food Safety in 1997.

Appointed  Italian government representative to the Intergovernmental Conferences of the Community of Democracies in Seoul in November 2002 and in Santiago del Chile in April 2005, and led the Italian Delegation to the Third Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies in April 2005

Headed European Union electoral observer missions to Ecuador in 2002 and Afghanistan in 2005; launched a campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) during the same period, which led to a UN resolution for a universal ban on the practise in December 2012.

Emma Bonino is a member of the International Crisis Group (ICG), the Board of the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE), the Board of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the International Affairs Institute (IAI) Steering Committee; she is also seated on the Independent Commission on Turkey (ICT) chaired by former Finnish Premier and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari

Emma Bonino has also been the recipient of numerous awards, some examples of which include the Prince of Asturias Award for international cooperation in 1998, the Award of the President of the Republic in 2003 for her commitment to promoting human and civil rights around the world, and the Atlantic Council Freedom Award in 2012. She has been a Commander in the French Legion of Honour since 2009.