Indrek Tarand

Indrek Tarand (born 3 February 1964) is an Estonian politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Estonia.

He is an independent politician, but a member of the European Green Party.

Tarand has served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Estonia and as the Secretary General of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tarand is the eldest son of politician Andres Tarand.

His mother Mari Tarand, was a well-known linguist and radio journalist and the elder sister of Juhan Viiding.

His younger brother is journalist Kaarel Tarand.

His paternal grandfather was Estonian cultural figure, philologist and poet Helmut Tarand.

His maternal grandparents were poet, author and literary critic Paul Viiding and translator Linda Viiding.

His first cousins include historian Juhan Kreem, musician Jaagup Kreem, and poet Elo Viiding.

He studied history at the University of Tartu, as well as the University of Bologna, Italy.

As a student during the Soviet occupation, he was expelled in his first year for lighting candles with his fellow Estonian patriots on the grave of Julius Kuperjanov, an Estonian military commander.

Tarand was forced to the Soviet military service and after that he finished the university in 1991.

In 2005, Tarand caused a scandal at a soccer game by wearing a shirt that bore the names of some former Communist Party members, including Estonian president Arnold Rüütel and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip with the words Kommarid ahju! ("Commies to the oven!") This was one of the reasons that caused defense minister Jaak Jõerüüt to resign.

In 2006, Tarand participated as a celebrity contestant on the first season of Tantsud tähtedega, an Estonian version of Dancing with the Stars.

His professional dancing partner was Kaisa Oja.

He is also a freelance journalist hosting programmes in radio and television, including the Estonian version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.

He also held the post of the Director of the Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum.

However, shortly after taking the MEP seat, Tarand relinquished his directorship.

As a reserve officer, Tarand holds the rank of second lieutenant (nooremleitnant).

For the elections for the European Parliament (EP) in June 2009 he stood as an independent candidate and received 102.460 votes (25.81%) in Estonia, which placed him on a surprising second rank after the Estonian Centre Party (KE, Eesti Keskerakond) with 103.506 votes (26.07%).

He joined the political group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/ALE).

During this legislature 2009-2014 he became member (either as full member or as substitute member) of the following committees and delegations:

In the 65 speeches of his first legislature (2009-2014), he was mostly covering issues linked to European External Action Service, United Nations, WTO, international treaties and conventions, human rights, refugees, arms trade, neighbourhood policy, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Southern Caucasus, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Syria, South Sudan, Mali, US and NSA surveillance programme, Arctic, Iceland, Italy, Swiss quota, EU budget, climate, energy security and strategy for Europe, IT, Single Seat for the EP, European Citizens’ Initiative.

He was rapporteur of the following report and opinion:

He was as well shadow rapporteur of the following reports and opinions:

His surprising success in 2009 tempted fifteen other individuals to follow his example and to stand as independent candidate for the elections for the European Parliament in May 2014.

Indrek Tarand stood again as an independent candidate, got more votes than all the other independent candidates together and was with 43.369 votes (13.2%) reelected.

In 2010, together with the other MEPs Guy Verhofstadt, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Sylvie Goulard and Isabelle Durant, Andrew Duff and Jo Leinen, he became member of the Spinelli Group, in order to inject a federalist momentum into the political decisions and policies of the EU.

The aim is to be a network of citizens, politicians, academics and writers who are convinced it is time for Europe to move forward.

In 2011, Tarand ran in the indirect presidential election of Estonia against Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

His candidacy was supported by the Centre Party, while the other three parliamentary parties backed Ilves.

Tarand received 25 votes in the Riigikogu against Ilves's 73.

http://ep2014.vvk.ee/voting-results-en.html He stayed member of the political group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.

For his second legislature he became member (either as full member or as substitute member) of the following committees and delegations:

He was rapporteur of the following opinions:

He was as well shadow rapporteur of the following reports and opinions:

For his first 16 speeches in the ongoing legislature 2014–2019, he focused on issues as EU budget, Horizon 2020, new Commission President, EU Summit, Paris climate agreement, anti-terrorism measures, EU Internal Security Strategy, situation in Ukraine and state of play of EU-Russia relations, closing down of Memorial (Sakharov Prize 2009) in Russia, human rights in Uzbekistan, situation in Libya, humanitarian situation in South Sudan.