Outgoing Left Alliance chair Li Andersson has been nominated for a weighty post in the European Parliament.
Last month, she was elected to the legislature with the biggest vote tally of any Finnish MEP candidate ever. Now the former education minister is set to become chair of the 55-member Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), a rare honour for a first-term MEP.
The announcement came after the parliamentary blocs negotiated on Monday evening over which groups will chair key committees, with employment being allotted to the Left.
The Left group has agreed that Andersson will chair the committee, a source inside the group confirmed to Yle’s Swedish-language service.
Andersson is to be formally named to the post during the committee’s first meeting on 22 July.
Powerful committee
The EMPL has a powerful role in oversight of living and working conditions for nearly 450 million Europeans.
According to the European Parliament website, the committee is responsible for employment and all aspects of social policy including working conditions, social security, social inclusion and protection, workers' rights, labour market discrimination, workplace health and safety as well as the free movement of workers and pensioners, the European Social Fund and vocational training policy.
The Left is one of the 720-seat parliament's smallest groups, with just 46 seats. It includes parties such as Germany’s Die Linke, Ireland’s Sinn Fein and Independents 4 Change, Spain’s Podemus and the Portuguese Communist Party.
Andersson, 37, gathered nearly 250,000 votes in the EU election in early June. Her party was the election's second-biggest winner with 17.3 percent support, behind PM Petteri Orpo's NCP at 24.8 percent.
In addition to Andersson, two other Left MEPs were elected: former transport minister Merja Kyllönen and deputy chair and ex-education minister Jussi Saramo, who had been seen as a potential successor as party leader.
Andersson has announced that she will step down as Left Alliance leader this autumn, with her successor to be elected at an extraordinary party conference. No date has yet been announced for that meeting.
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