Eva Joly is a
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
-born
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
magistrate («Juge d'instruction»)In an inquisitorial system of law the examining magistrate or investigating magistrate is a judge who carries out investigations into cases and arranges prosecutions....
and
politicianA politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
for the French Green Party.
Early life
Born in
GrünerløkkaGrünerløkka is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. Grünerløkka became part of the city of Oslo in 1858.Grünerløkka was named after Friedrich Grüner who bought a mill in the area from king Christian V of Denmark in 1672 . During the 19th century, Grünerløkka became a working class area...
,
OsloOslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, she moved to
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at 20 to work as an
au pairAn au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use...
. There, against the will of the parents, she married the son of the family that employed her, Pascal Joly (now deceased) and adopted her middle name 'Eva' as it was easier to pronounce in French.
Career
Working as a secretary, she took her legal education at night school and became a magistrate when she was 38. Joly specialised in financial affairs, and in 1990 she joined the High Court of Paris as an investigating judge.
Here she quickly made a mark with her tireless crusade against
corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, in particular taking on, among others, former minister
Bernard TapieBernard Tapie is a French businessman, politician and occasional actor, singer, and TV host. He was Ministre de la Ville in the government of Pierre Bérégovoy, a businessman specializing in recovery for bankrupted companies, among which Adidas is the most famous ; and owner of sports teams...
and the bank
Crédit LyonnaisCrédit Lyonnais is a historic French bank. In the early 1990s it was the largest French bank, majority state-owned at that point. Crédit Lyonnais was the subject of poor management during that period which almost led to its bankruptcy in 1993...
. Her most famous case, however, was that of France’s leading oil company –
Elf AquitaineElf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003...
. In the face of death threats, she carried on the case to uncover several cases of fraud.
In 2002 she was asked by the Norwegian Minister of Justice, Mr Odd Einar Dörum, to accept a three-year position as a special advisor on corruption. The Anti-Corruption and Money Laundring project was a cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and Police, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway. The project worked on issues related to financial crimes and organized crime, with a special focus on strong international cooperations. A collaboration with the Ministry of Finance was also important, in addition to strengthening connections to the private sector. The project has among other things led to a
Norwegian focus on corruption in foreign affairs. During the three-year period Eva Joly also initiated the
Paris Declaration Against Corruption in 2003.
In 2002,
Reader's DigestReader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
named her European of the Year. The 2006 French film
L'Ivresse du pouvoir (English title "Comedy of Power") is loosely based on Eva Joly.
As of March 10, 2009, Joly is employed as a special adviser by the Icelandic government to investigate the possibility that
white-collar crimeWithin the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...
may have played a part in the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis. Eva enjoys enormous widespread popularity of the majority of the Icelandic public and has become an icon in the battle against possible frauds by the banking elite.
On 10 June 2009, she was a guest at a popular talk show in Iceland - and implied that she would quit being an advisor to the Icelandic government if they did not do more to help the investigation.
On 7 June 2009, Joly was elected as a French member of the
European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
on the
Ile de FranceÎle-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....
"
Europe ÉcologieEurope Écologie was a French electoral coalition created for the 2009 European elections composed of The Greens and other ecologists and regionalists....
" list, on which she was 2nd to
Daniel Cohn-BenditDaniel Marc Cohn-Bendit is a Franco-German politician, active in both countries. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and he was also known during that time as Dany le Rouge...
. She is chair of the
Committee on DevelopmentThe Committee on Development is a standing committee of the European Parliament responsible for promoting, implementing and monitoring the development and cooperation policy of the European Union, notably talks with developing countries; aid to developing countries; and promotion of democratic...
.
In 2011, Joly was competing in the primaries of
Europe ÉcologieEurope Écologie was a French electoral coalition created for the 2009 European elections composed of The Greens and other ecologists and regionalists....
-
Les Verts' is the name of various green political parties in French-speaking countries such as:official name:*Les Verts in France;*Les Verts in Luxembourg ;*Les Verts in Benin;*Les Verts in Mauritius;...
against
Nicolas HulotNicolas Hulot is the founder and president of the Fondation Nicolas-Hulot, an environmental group first created in 1990....
, Stephane L'Hommme and Henri Stoll to represent the merged parties at the
president of France in the election of 2012The 2012 French presidential election is the next presidential election, to be held on 22 April and 6 May 2012, the latter being used for a run-off if necessary...
. She was elected in the second round of voting against Hulot, with 58% of votes .
Published works
- Notre affaire à tous, 2000
- Korrupsjonsjeger: Fra Grünerløkka til Palais de Justice, 2001
- Est-ce dans ce monde-là que nous voulons vivre?, 2003
- May 9, 2001 op-ed in Le Monde, signed with Renaud van Ruymbeke
Renaud van Ruymbeke is a French investigative magistrate, well known for specializing in political and financial corruption cases, who investigated on the French-Taiwan frigates Affair, which has been related to the Clearstream scandal, and on the Urba affair.- Bibliography :*Renaud van Ruymbeke,...
, Bernard BertossaBernard Bertossa was Geneva's public prosecutor from 1990 to 2002. He signed the 1996 Appel de Genève against international money laundering and other financial criminal activities...
and other European magistrates or attorney generals, titled "The black boxes of financial globalization", about the ClearstreamClearstream Banking S.A. is the clearing and settlement division of Deutsche Börse, based in Luxembourg and Frankfurt. Clearstream was created in January 2000 through the merger of Cedel International and Deutsche Börse Clearing...
scandal (Clearstream has been qualified as a "bank of banks" and accused of being a major platform of global money laundering and tax evasion)
Affiliations
Joly sits on the advisory board of the
WashingtonWashington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
-based think-tank
Global Financial IntegrityGlobal Financial Integrity is a non-profit, research and advocacy organization located in Washington, DC. GFI advocates and conducts research on national and multilateral policies, safeguards, and agreements aimed at curtailing illicit financial flows and enhancing global development and security...
.
External links
Eva Joly's Biography