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Helga Stevens

Helga Stevens
Helga Stevens - English part- Citizens’ Corner debate on EU policies for asylum seekers and immigrants (18866622828).jpg
Vice-Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists
Flemish Delegation
Assumed office
1 July 2014
Chairman Syed Kamall
Serving alongside Ryszard Legutko
Raffaele Fitto
Roberts Zīle
Hans-Olaf Henkel
Geoffrey Van Orden
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
1 July 2014
(Community) Senator
In office
5 July 2007 (2007-07-05) – 6 June 2009
In office
7 June 2009 – 6 May 2010
In office
13 July 2010 – 24 May 2014
Member of the Flemish Parliament
In office
13 June 2004 – 6 June 2009
In office
7 June 2009 – 24 May 2014
Personal details
Born (1968-08-09) 9 August 1968 (age 48)
Sint-Truiden, Belgium
Nationality Belgian
Political party Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie
Residence Sint-Amandsberg
Website www.helgastevens.be

Helga Stevens (born 9 August 1968) is a Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and member of the European Parliament since 2014. She is well-known for her work fighting for the rights of people with disabilities.

Born deaf, she went to a special school for deaf people in Hasselt, but later switched to a mainstream school in Sint-Truiden. After spending a year in St. Louis, Missouri, she studied law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Then she went back to the United States and obtained a master's degree at the Law School of the University of California in Berkeley in 1993–94.

In 1996, she started working for the European Union of the Deaf (EUD) and was active in the Federation of Flemish Deaf Organisations.

Stevens became politically active and was for the first time candidate in 1999 for the Belgian Senate on the People's Union list (10th place). She was again candidate for Senate in 2003 on the New Flemish Alliance list (3rd place).

She was elected as a Member of the Flemish Parliament in 2004 and as a member of the Senate in 2007. She was reelected for the Flemish Parliament in 2009 and as a member of the Senate in 2010.

In May 2014, Stevens was elected Member of the European Parliament. In November 2014, she was elected vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. In addition to her committee assignments, Stevens serves as president of the European Parliament’s Disabilities Intergroup.


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