Mrs. Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Member of the European Parliament and Founder of the Women in Parliaments Global Forum (WIP) joined and actively took part during every sessions of the Crans Montana African Women's Forum !
This dynamic and enterprising woman has been described with several titles. She is a Politician, European Patriot, Entrepreneur, Public Affairs Specialist, Moderator, Political and Current Affairs Television Programme Presenter, Feminist.
The last but not the least crowns her titles and her initiative to found such a noble foundation as the Women in Parliament Global Forum and this surely makes her a true global inspiration.
The Women in Parliaments Global Forum is an international foundation established with the purpose of advancing society by building a network between Women in Parliaments ‘WIP‘.
Silvana Koch-Mehrin has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2004. From 2004 to 2011 she was Chairwoman of the German liberal delegation of the European Parliament and from 2004-2009, she was Deputy Leader of ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe). From 2009 to 2011 she held the position of European Parliament Vice President. Her parliamentary work focuses on trade policy and gender equality.
In her work at the parliament, she hosted and co-hosted several discussions and contributed to the enactment of gender equality laws and decision like the recent decision by the committees on Legal Affairs (JURI) and on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) to back the proposal by the European Commission for a directive on improving the gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges – which decisions is a step further towards to imposition of a 40% quota by 2020 for all stock exchange listed companies. She was equally a co-host at the EU Gender Equality Index launched by the European Institute for Gender Equality.