Former MEP – vice-President of the European Parliament
Former Vice-Chairman Committee on Budget
ALDE
Germany
26/05/1975
www.alexander-alvaro.eu
Alexander Alvaro MEP is of German and Portuguese descent and grew up in Australia and Germany. After training as a banker, he studied law at the Universities of Bremen, Mannheim, Lausanne and Düsseldorf.
As a jurist and one of the youngest Members of the European Parliament, Alexander Alvaro was Vice-Chair of the Committee on Budgets and member of the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. He was also a member of the Delegation for relations with Iran and the Delegation for relations with India. He is on the board of the Forum of Federations and governor of the European Internet Foundation.
His main focus has always been the delicate balance between security and civil liberties in order to build a secure Europe for future generations, which guarantees citizens their civil rights. He believes that this will be one of the biggest challenges for European policy making in the coming years. His vision of Europe is founded on the common values of peace and freedom, further uniting Europe in the spirit of liberal ideals.

Alexander Alvaro is co-author of the book ‘The Situation of Fundamental and Human Rights in the EU’ (Die Situation der Grund- und Menschenrechte innerhalb der EU).

The idea for a network of young MEPs was born back in 2004 during a conversation between then young MEPs Cecilia Malmström, Nick Clegg, Michiel van Hulten, Lousewies van der Laan, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Just a little later the idea was consequently picked up and realised by Alexander Stubb, Alexander Alvaro, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Carl Haglund. All these young MEPs moved on to become European Commissioner, British Deputy PM, founder of VoteWatch and the European Council on Foreign Relations, Head of the D66 and chief of Cabinet to Presidency of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Danish PM, Finnish PM, VP of the European Parliament, Dutch Defence Minister of the Netherlands and Finnish Defence Minister, respectively.