Viviane Reding

Viviane Adélaïde Reding (born 27 April 1951) is a Luxembourgish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Luxembourg.

She is a member of the Christian Social People's Party, part of the European People's Party.

Reding started her political career in 1979 as a Member of the Luxembourg Parliament and held the following positions:

From 1981 to 1999, she was Communal conciliator of the city of Esch, in which she was President of the Cultural Affairs Committee from 1992 to 1999.

From 1986 to 1998, she was President of the Luxembourg Union of Journalists.

From 1988 to 1993, she was national president of the Christian-Social Women and from 1995 to 1999 and president of the Christian Social People's Party.

Reding served as the leader of Luxembourg's EPP delegation in the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999 and she was a Member of the group's Bureau.

Within the European Parliament, she held positions as chairwoman of the Committee on Petitions for 3 years, and vice-chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs for 2 years each.

She previously served as European Commissioner for Education and Culture from 1999 to 2004, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media from 2004 to 2010 and European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship from 2010 to 2014.

Before starting a professional career as a journalist for the leading newspaper in Luxembourg, the Luxemburger Wort, she obtained a doctorate in human sciences at the Sorbonne.

From 1999 to 2004, Reding was appointed Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth, Media and Sport.

In her first term as European Commissioner Viviane Reding pushed through the Erasmus Mundus expanding the co-operation between universities and university students of the European Union and the rest of the world.

Among other achievements she has also played a key role in strengthening the Culture 2000 programme and the EU MEDIA programme.

Reding also promoted the use of the 112, the Single European Emergency Number following the European Union Directive 2002/22/EC.

Reding also proposed that major European telecom companies be forced to separate their network and service operations to promote competition in the market.

The companies, including France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, would still own their networks but the separate management structure would be obliged to treat other operators on an equal basis in offering access to the network.

This is opposed to separate ideas to force a full break-up of such companies.

In 2004 Reding became Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

While serving in the European Commission under President Barroso, Reding found a relatively popular policy in lowering roaming charges of mobile phones when travelling within the European Union, stating: "For years, mobile roaming charges have remained unjustifiably high. We are therefore tackling one the last borders within Europe's internal market".

On 7 April 2006 the commission launched the new ".eu" TLD for websites for EU companies and citizens wishing to have a non-national European internet address.

Her legislation to cap roaming charges was approved by the Parliament in April 2007.

This has proven popular with 2.5 million being registered by April 2007.

It is now the seventh most popular TLD worldwide, and third in Europe (after .de and .uk).

In an unsuccessful bid to centralize regulatory oversight, Reding proposed in 2007 that the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) be folded into a new European Electronic Communications Market Authority (EECMA).

In 2008 the European Parliament voted to pass the "Telecoms Package", which would render the entire market a region into one market, making it easier to sell internet and phone services in EU, with the goal of making the telecom prices cheaper for customers in European Union.

Among the many amendments to the proposal, amendment 138 was voted in favour with 574 votes for, and 73 against.

This particular amendment requires any termination of internet subscription to be heard in front of a judge.

On 27 November 2009, she was elevated in the "Barroso II Commission" to vice-president responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship.

She is also an advisor for the transatlantic think-tank European Horizons.

In June 2009, Reding was elected Member of the European Parliament, heading the list of the Christian Social People's Party.

Reding is known as an advocate for an open Internet, resisting attempts in 2010 by her colleague, Swedish EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, to block access to websites.

On 9 February 2010, Reding was confirmed in her third term as European Commissioner becoming vice-president and commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship.

She was also given responsibility for the commission's Directorate-General for Communication.

In May 2010, Reding succeeded in having the original Directorate for Justice, Freedom and Security split in two, with the resulting Directorate-General for Justice – responsible for civil and criminal justice, fundamental rights, and citizenship – subsequently being added to her portfolio.

Upon taking office she put in place a truly EU Justice policy launching a series of groundbreaking proposals in the field of civil, commercial and criminal justice in line with the ambitions set by the Treaty of Lisbon to establish a European area of justice.

This included proposals to strengthen the rights of people in criminal proceedings, both as accused and as victims.

Many of these proposals are becoming European law and consequently improving the rights of citizens across the European Union.

She has also initiated a series of proposals aimed at making justice contribute for growth enabling both businesses and consumers to benefit fully from their rights in the European single market.

In 2012 she disputed with EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht 2012 over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

She favoured that amendment leading to the defeat of three-strikes policies such as those promoted by France's Hadopi law.