Marju Lauristin

Early life and education

Lauristin is the daughter of the communist politicians Johannes Lauristin and Olga Lauristin, two leading politicians in the Communist Party of Estonia. She graduated from the Tartu State University (now Tartu University) in 1966 with a degree in Journalism and Sociology of Mass Communication.

In 1976, Lauristin completed her PhD studies in Journalism at Moscow University. Her thesis was focused on content analysis of newspaper texts.

Since 2003, Lauristin has been a professor of Social communication at Tartu University.

Political career

Together with Edgar Savisaar, in 1988 Lauristin established Rahvarinne, the first large-scale independence movement in Estonia since the country's incorporation into the USSR. In 1990 she was deputy speaker of the Estonian parliament. From 1992 to 1994 she was the minister of Social Affairs of Estonia (Estonian Social Democratic Party/'Moderates').

Member of the Estonian Parliament, 1992–2014

Following the 1992 elections, Lauristin served as a member of the Riigikogu, elected as a member of the People's Party Moderates (Estonian: Rahvaerakond Mõõdukad).

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present

Lauristin became a Member of the European Parliament in the 2014 European elections. She has since been serving on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. She later joined the Parliament's special committees created to investigate the Luxleaks scandal in 2015 into the Panama Papers scandal in 2016, respectively.

Within her parliamentary group, Lauristin served as vice-chairwoman under the leadership of Gianni Pittella from 2014 until 2016.

On the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Lauristin serves as the Parliament’s rapporteur in the ePrivacy Regulation. In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the Parliament’s delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee.