JILL EVANS MEP, PLAID CYMRU THE PARTY OF WALES 

Jillian Evans [jievans(AT)europarl.eu.int]

Jill Evans was born in the Rhondda in 1959 where she still lives. Jill attended University in Aberystwyth and then worked as a Research Assistant at the former Polytechnic of Wales where she gained her M.Phil. Degree.

She worked for the National Federation of Women's Institutes in Wales for six years before taking up a post as Wales Regional Organiser for CHILD - The National Infertility Support Network.

Jill Evans was a councillor for six years - on the former Rhondda Borough and Mid Glamorgan County Councils and then Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council.

She was elected as Plaid Cymru's Alternate Member of the Committee of the Regions in 1993 and served for four years, and was also the party's representative on the European Free Alliance, working with Plaid Cymru's sister parties throughout the continent.

Jill Evans was Chair of Plaid Cymru 1994-96.

In June 1999 Jill Evans was the lead candidate in the European elections when she and fellow candidate Eurig Wyn were elected as the first MEP’s in Plaid Cymru’s history. This was a historic victory which saw Plaid Cymru - the Party of Wales come within 13,000 votes of overtaking Labour and become the largest party in Wales.
 
Jill Evans is now the leader of the Plaid Cymru European Parliamentary Party.  Plaid Cymru - the Party of Wales is a member of the Green / European Free Alliance Group - the fourth largest group in the Parliament.

She is Vice-President of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, and is a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. She deputises on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, and is a member of the EU-Lithuania Joint Parliamentary Committee and the Temporary Committee on human genetics and other new technologies of modern medicine.