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Malin Björk

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Malin Björk
Malin Björk in 2019
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
1 July 2014
ConstituencySweden
Personal details
Born
Malin Anna Björk

(1972-05-22) 22 May 1972 (age 52)
Gothenburg, Sweden
Political party Swedish
Left Party
 EU
European United Left–Nordic Green Left
Children2
Websiteeu.vansterpartiet.se

Malin Anna Björk (born 22 May 1972) is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) of the Swedish Left Party and The Left (GUE/NGL). She is a full member of the parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and a substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).

She is the European Parliament's rapporteur on the EU resettlement framework. In October 2017, her proposal to resettle around 240 000 refugees per year in the EU member states was approved in the LIBE committee.

Together with her colleague Eleonora Forenza, she is the author of a report on gender and trade, which calls for a more gender sensitive EU trade policy. The report was adopted in the FEMM Committee and the Committee on International Trade in January 2018.

Björk worked for several years for the European Women's Lobby in Brussels. In 2009, she took up a job as a political advisor in the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality for the Committee's GUE/NGL coordinator Eva-Britt Svensson.[1]

She was the Left Party's top candidate in the 2014 European Parliament election after she narrowly won a fight for the position against incumbent MEP Mikael Gustavsson.[2] She was elected as the sole member for the party.

As a feminist, during the election campaign she focused on feminist issues as well as anti-racism, LGBT rights, protection of welfare and workers' rights, and opposition to austerity policies.[1] She seeks stronger measures against social dumping, including overturning the principle of the ruling in the case Laval Un Partneri Ltd v Svenska Byggnadsarbetareforbundet,[3] which held that the right to strike is limited if it disproportionately affected the right to establish or provide business in the EU. She opposes the proposal to create a Transatlantic Free Trade Area.[2]

In April 2014, Björk refused to buckle her seat belt on board in a Swedish plane after she became aware that the plane would transport an asylum seeker from Iran who was about to get deported. As a result, the man was transferred to another place.[4] He was later granted a permanent residency permit in Sweden.

She lives in Brussels with her partner and their two children.[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Vänsterpartiet skakar om EU-listan (in Swedish) Dagens Nyhetar. 12 January 2014
  2. ^ a b Malin Björk (V) Europaportalen.se. (Archived at Webcitation.org.)
  3. ^ Malin Björk, Vänsterpartiet (in Swedish) Sveriges Radio. 12 April 2014
  4. ^ a b Kalle Wannerskog (10 April 2014) Flygpassagerare stoppade avvisning (in Swedish) Sveriges Radio.