Petr Ježek

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Petr Ježek MEP
Member of the European Parliament
In office 1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019
Constituency	Czech Republic
Personal details
Born	(1965-03-28) 28 March 1965 (age 56) Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Political party	Czech: ANO 2011 (2014-2017) (since 2019)  European Union: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Alma mater	University of Economics, Prague

Petr Ježek (born 28 March 1965) is a former Czech politician and diplomat. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the period 2014 - 2019.

He chaired a Parliamentary Committee and an External Delegation and ranked 20th (out of 751) in the list of the most influential MEPs according to the Vote Watch Europe independent analysis.^[1]

Studies[]

Petr Ježek studied Economics of International Trade at the University of Economics, Prague, completing his education in 1987.

Diplomacy[]

From 1989 he worked in a number of diplomatic and public service roles within the Czech government, related mainly to the Czech Republic's accession to the EU.

In 1992 he was a volunteer at the EU Monitor Mission in the war conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1993 he was posted to the Czech Embassy in Copenhagen to cover the Danish EU Council Presidency dealing also with the block's Eastern enlargement.

Upon his return to Prague he participated in establishment of the EU Department at the Foreign Ministry and as head of its unit and later European Correspondent he took part in deepening of the structural political dialogue between EU and its CEE associated countries.

In the period of key negotiations and decisions on launching talks on EU enlargement and shaping EU future, between 1996 and 1999, he worked at the Czech Mission to the EU in Brussels as Political Counsellor, then Head of Political Department and Deputy Ambassador.

In 1999-2001 he was back in Prague at the Foreign Office as Director of the Department for Political Relations with EU and then at the expanded Department for Western Europe and EU where bilateral and EU relations were dealt with. In 2001 he was appointed Director-General of the European Integration Section which was the centre and coordinating body for European affairs in the Czech Republic. It was in charge of EU accession preparations, negotiations and also of the government communication campaign before the referendum on EU membership. He was also Deputy to the State Secretary for European Affairs and Deputy Chair of the key inter-ministerial Committee for European Integration.

Office of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic[]

In 2003-2004 he worked at the Office of the Czech Government as (politically independent civil servant) Director of the Prime Minister's Departments and Offices for Vladimír Špidla.

Private Sector[]

From 2005 to 2013 he was a partner in BXL Consulting which he co-established - a successful private company dealing with European affairs and representing multinationals, other foreign and Czech companies but also the Cuban opposition, for example.

Politics[]

In 2013 he and his former ministry colleague, partner in the firm and also the first Czech EU Commissioner Pavel Telička started to support the ANO protest political movement which wanted to change the miserable state of Czech politics. In those days the ANO movement polled around 1%.

Their firm was dissolved in order to avoid possible conflict of interests and in 2014 they wrote the ANO manifesto and led the ANO candidacy list for the European Parliament elections which ANO won despite a very low turnout.

When in January 2018 ANO supported the candidacy of Miloš Zeman for the Czech President, Petr Ježek announced that he terminated his cooperation with the ANO movement, which became by far the strongest political subject in the Czech Republic, as he increasingly disapproved what he saw as the significant change of course and behaviour of ANO.

In February 2019, shortly before EP elections he co-established Hlas (Voice) movement and was number two on its candidate list. The movement gained 2,38% of votes and although it was the most out of parties not represented in the Czech Parliament it was below the necessary threshold to gain seats in the European Parliament.

Member of the European Parliament[]

In 2014 Petr Ježek and his three colleagues joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament. He worked in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) where he was also ALDE Deputy Coordinator, in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and in another five committees including the Special Committee on Terrorism (he was also ALDE rapporteur for the anti-terrorist directive).

He was one of two rapporteurs for the Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion, created after Panama Papers revelations. Later he was elected chair of the Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance (TAX3).^[2] He chaired its meetings including 34 public hearings with ministers, commissioners, experts, financial institutions directors and other representatives, company representatives including Google, Facebook, Nike and McDonald's, and other participants. He also presided over meetings of coordinators of EP political groups which decided the programme of the committee activities. He led the committee missions (to US, Isle of Man, Latvia, Estonia and Denmark).

For five years he chaired the EP Delegation for Relations with Japan.^[3] In this capacity he chaired the Inter-parliamentary EU-Japan Committee and led talks of the EP Delegation with Japanese lawmakers, Members of the Government and representatives of industry and trade and civil society. He chaired regular meetings of the EP Delegation.

Petr Ježek was Parliament's rapporteur for two reports (one of which was legislative) and ALDE rapporteur for 30 reports (24 of which were legislative). As Parliament rapporteur he worked and negotiated 13 opinions. As ALDE rapporteur he dealt with 39 opinions. He took part, as Parliament or ALDE rapporteur, in 75 final negotiations between EU institutions on final texts of regulations or directives (so-called trialogues) he worked on.

He attended 99.71% of EP Plenary roll-call votes which was 7th highest participation in the EP.^[4]

He was the only MEP who chaired a committee and an external delegation at the same time.

He ranked 20th (out of 751) in the list of the most influential MEPs according to the Vote Watch Europe independent analysis.

European and world media frequently reported about his activities and in some years there were hundreds of articles, including an interview for Le Monde^[5] or quotations in The New York Times.

His EP mandate ended at the beginning of July 2019.

In 2020 he was decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for his contribution to strengthening relations between Japan and EU and promoting inter-parliamentary exchanges between Japan and EU.[1]

Parliamentary service[]

• Chair of the Delegation for relations with Japan
• Chair of the Special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance
• Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
• Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
• Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect
• Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect (TAXE 2)
• Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion
• Special Committee on Terrorism
• Conference of Committee Chairs
• Conference of Delegation Chairs
• Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

References[]