Elena Valenciano

Elena Valenciano MEP
Elena Valenciano in 2014
Chair of the European Parliament Human Rights Subcommittee
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 July 2014
Preceded by	Barbara Lochbihler
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office June 1999
Constituency	Spain
Personal details
Born	Elena Valenciano (1960-09-18) 18 September 1960 (age 56) Madrid, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Political party	Spain: Spanish Socialist Workers' Party  EU: Party of European Socialists
Spouse(s)	Javier de Udaeta
Children	Javier Nathalie
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam

María Elena Valenciano Martínez-Orozco (born 18 September 1960) is a Spanish politician of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, part of the Party of European Socialists.

Following the 1999 European elections, Valenciano became a Member of the European Parliament, where she served as Deputy Secretary-General and spokesperson of the Spanish Socialist Delegation. In addition, she was the Socialist Group coordinator in the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI).

Valenciano resigned from the European Parliament in 2008 when she was elected to the Spanish Congress of Deputies in the national elections, representing Madrid. As member of parliament, she served as the Socialist Party's spokesperson on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From 2012 to 2014, she was also the Socialists' deputy secretary general, under the leadership of Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.

In February 2014, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party chose Valenciano as its lead candidate for the European elections; at the time, PSOE was the second biggest Socialist party delegation in the European Parliament’s S&D Group, with 23 MEPs.

On 14 May 2014, Valenciano and her Conservative couterpart Miguel Arias Cañete were featured in Spanish television's first live debate between the country’s leading candidates for a European Parliament election. Valenciano was widely perceived to have beaten Arias in the debate, yet the PSOE returned just 14 MEPs to the Parliament, nine fewer than it had in 2009.