Alan Donnelly

Alan Donnelly

Alan Donnelly was first elected to the European Parliament in 1989, representing the constituency of Tyne and Wear, reelected to a second term in 1994 and finally elected to represent the North East of England in 1999. Until his retirement from the European Parliament in January 2000 he was Leader of the Labour Party in Europe, a post he held for two years.

He has specialised in economic, monetary and industrial affairs throughout his parliamentary career, authoring many specialist reports on EMU, Information Technology and also Maritime policy. For five years he was the Parliaments spokesperson on the automobile industry.

For seven years, Alan Donnelly chaired the European Parliament's Committee for Relations with the United States Congress and was actively involved in creating the Transatlantic Business Dialogue. In this context, he organised and chaired the Transatlantic Automobile Industry Forum on international regulatory harmonisation in Washington DC.

He led the European Parliamentary Delegation to the special G7 summit on the development of the global information society, sharing the platform with the US Vice-President, Al Gore. He is a founding member of the London School of Economics Observatory on the Information Society.

Following the last round of world trade talks, the European Film Producers and the American Motion Picture Association appointed him as the Chairman of the Transatlantic Audio-visual Round Table, a body established to help resolve the issues not dealt with during the formal trade talks.

For three years, he Chaired Northern Informatics, an agency charged with expanding the use of information technology in all aspects of the life of the North East of England. Under his Chairmanship, Northern Informatics was chosen to pilot the first Regional Electronic Economy Project in the UK - launched by the Prime Minister in May 1999.

Following his retirement from the European Parliament in February 2000, Alan Donnelly became the Executive Chairman of his own Company, Sovereign Strategy, Which has grown into a respected global Public Affairs Company. Alan is a member of the CIPR.

Following his retirement the British Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, issued the following statement:

"Alan Donnelly has been an outstanding member of Labour's team in Europe since he was elected 11 years ago. In this time he has served the people of the North East well and has consistently excelled, gaining positions on key committees within the European Parliament as well as playing a full part in the Labour Party back home in the UK.

His support for me and for the modernising cause whether it is on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee, within the EPLP or the Party of European Socialists, has been much appreciated. In the last two years, Alan has gained the support and respect of his peers as the Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party where he has presided over a process of change and reform and ensured that our Labour MEPs are a group of which we can be proud.

His talent and drive will be missed by us all and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours."

Alan will be joined by his partner, Abdulaziz Almutairi, Director of KOC.