Vladimír Bilčík
MEP
Member of the European Parliament
for Slovakia
Assumed office
2 July 2019
Parliamentary groupEuropean People´s Party
Personal details
Born (1975-05-27) 27 May 1975
Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Political partyDemocrats (since 2019)
Children2
EducationSwarthmore College (BA)
St Antony's College, Oxford (MPhil)
Comenius University (DPhil)
WebsiteOfficial website
NicknameMr. Serbia

Vladimír Bilčík (born 27 May 1975)[1] is a Slovak university lecturer and politician of the Slovak party Democrats. He has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019.[2][3]

For the European Parliament elections in 2019,[4] Bilčík ran as the leader of the TOGETHER - Civic Democracy party, as part of a coalition with Progressive Slovakia. He got 26,202 preferential votes in total.

Early life and education

Bilčík was born in Bratislava and studied at the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, Swarthmore College and St Antony's College, Oxford, before receiving a doctorate in political theory from Comenius University in 2007.

Early career

Prior entering the European Parliament, Bilčík worked as a university lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Philosophy of Comenius University in Bratislava. Furthermore, he worked as the Head of the Research Program European Union in the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA) for almost 20 years. Bilčík was regularly publishing about the issues concerning reformation and external relations of the European Union. He was providing expert comments on European politics and the progress and consequences of Brexit in the Slovak Republic and abroad.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present

Vladimír Bilčík in the European Parliament

In the European Parliament, Bilčík is a member of the Group of the European People's Party (EPP), the parliament's biggest group.

Bilčík has been a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO), where he serves as his parliamentary group's coordinator; the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), within which he engages in the protection of the rule of law, the fight against misinformation, and the hybrid threats; and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), where he serves as the Parliament's rapporteur for relations with Serbia.[5] He is part of the Democracy, Rule of Law & Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group.[6] In 2020, he also joined the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union,[7] where he is now working as a rapporteur on a report that will strengthen transparency and integrity of the European Parliament. He is also part of the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware,[8] where he serves as the shadow rapporteur for the final report investigating the misuse of spyware within the European Union. Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe.[9]

In addition to his committee assignments, Bilčík chairs the Parliament's delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and the Association Parliamentary Committee.

In 2021, Bilčík negotiated a parliamentary resolution calling for the murderers of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia to be brought to justice.[10]

As the EPP shadow rapporteur he will be working on the European Media Freedom Act - an important piece of legislation which aims to protect media pluralism and independence in the EU.[11]

Since 2023, Bilčík has been part of the Centre for European Policy Studies/Heinrich Böll Foundation High-Level Group on Bolstering EU Democracy, chaired by Kalypso Nicolaïdis.[12]

Publications

  • The European Union Today: trends and relevance for the Slovak Republic / Vladimír Bilčík, Martin Bruncko - editors. - 2., supplemented edition. - Bratislava ; Bratislava: Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Institute for Public Affairs, 2003. - 198 p. - ISBN 80-7165-396-9.

References

  1. ↑ "Home | Vladimír BILČÍK | MEPs | European Parliament".
  2. ↑ "Key dates ahead". European Parliament. 20 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. ↑ "Key dates ahead". BBC News. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  4. ↑ https://www.etrend.sk/ekonomika/novi-europoslanci-ps-a-spolu-maju-styroch-smer-troch-kotlebovci-dvoch.html.
  5. ↑ Tony Barber (June 17, 2020), Serbia’s path to EU strewn with missteps and some members’ doubts Financial Times.
  6. ↑ Democracy, Rule of Law & Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group, 2019–2024 European Parliament.
  7. ↑ Members of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union European Parliament, press release of July 9, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Členovia výboru | Domovská stránka | PEGA | Výbory | Európsky parlament". www.europarl.europa.eu (in Slovak). Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  9. ↑ Members of the delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe European Parliament.
  10. ↑ Martin Banks (April 29. 2021), MEPs call for killers of Daphne Caruana Galizia to be brought to justice The Parliament Magazine.
  11. ↑ Teraz.sk (7 February 2023). "V.Bilčík bude tieňovým spravodajcom pre európsky zákon o slobode médií". TERAZ.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  12. ↑ CEPS-SWP High-Level Group on bolstering EU Democracy Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), press release of 1 May 2023.
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