Esther de Lange


Esther de Lange is a Dutch politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2007. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal, part of the European People's Party, she was elected as CDA Leader in the European Parliament during a party conference on 2 November 2013 in Leeuwarden.

Political career

After having been voted Member of the European Parliament in the 2014 European elections, De Lange was elected one of the vice presidents of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, responsible for the relations with national legislatures.
De Lange is a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and of the Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy. De Lange is also member of the delegations for the EU relations with the United States and Russia.
Previously, she was a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety ; the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development ; and the Committee on Budgetary Control. Besides that, De Lange was a member of the delegation for relations with India, and she is also Vice-Chair of the Delegation for the relations with Iraq. In addition to her committee assignments, she chairs the MEP Water Group and is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals as well as the MEPs Against Cancer group.
In her parliamentary work, De Lange mostly focused on agriculture, food safety, and sustainability. Under the 2009-2014 mandate, she has been actively involved in the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy. De Lange has been acting as rapporteur on the dossier of food labeling and nutrition for special use in the European Parliament. In 2013, De Lange acted as the European Parliament's rapporteur on the issue of food fraud in the EU.
Within the centre-right European People's Party Group group, De Lange is one of the deputies of chairman Manfred Weber.

Political positions

De Lange has been outspoken critic of right-wing populist movements in the EU. For example, she has repeatedly and publicly indicated frustration at Hungary's Fidesz party, which is part of the EPP.