Maria Berger is an Austrian politician

Politics of Austria

The Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a Federal Chancellor as the head of government, and a Federal President as head of state. Executive power is exercised by the governments, both local and federal...

 and currently Judge at the European Court of Justice

European Court of Justice

The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...

. She was a member of the European Parliament and a Minister of Justice.

Berger is a member of the European Parliament since 1996, interrupted by her tenure as Austrian Justice Minister (2007 2008). She is also the leader of the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party of Austria

The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...

 delegation which is part of the Party of European Socialists

Party of European Socialists

The Party of European Socialists is a European political party led by Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The PES comprises social-democratic national-level political parties primarily from Member state of the European Union, as well as other nations of the European continent. The...

, and sited on the European Parliament

European Parliament

The 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...

's Committee on Legal Affairs
She was also a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an organisation of South Asian nations, founded in December 1985 by Ziaur Rahman and dedicated to economic, technological, social, and cultural development emphasising collective self-reliance. Its seven founding members are Bangladesh,...

, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

In January 2007 she was appointed as Justice Minister in the government

Gusenbauer cabinet

The government of Alfred Gusenbauer was sworn in on January 11, 2007 and left office on December 2, 2008....

 of Alfred Gusenbauer

Alfred Gusenbauer

Alfred Gusenbauer is an Austrian career politician who until 2008 spent his entire professional life as an employee of the Social Democratic Party of Austria or as a parliamentary representative. He headed the SPÖ from 2000 to 2008, and served as Chancellor of Austria from January 2007 to...

 as Chancellor of Austria

Chancellor of Austria

The Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Austria. Its deputy is the Vice-Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The Federal Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful political position in Austrian politics.-Appointment:The...

. After leaving office in December 2008 she returned to serve in the European Parliament till July 2009. Since October 2009 she is a member of the European Court of Justice.

Career

• Doctor of Law, Innsbruck University (1979)
• University assistant (1979–1984)
• Official at the Federal Ministry of Science and Research (1984–1988)
• Head of the European Integration Department of the Federal Chancellor's Office (1989–1993)
• Directorship post in the EFTA Surveillance Authority in Brussels
  Brussels
  Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
  
   (1993–1994)
• Vice-President of the University of Krems (1995–1996)
• Federal Chairman of the Young Generation in the SPÖ (1984–1987)
• Member of the Land party committee of the SPÖ in Upper Austria (since 2004)
• Member of the European Parliament (1996–2007, 2008- )
• Honorary medal of the International Mauthausen Committee, National Order of the Republic of Lithuania
  Lithuania
  Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
  
  
• Minister of Justice (2007–2008)

External links

• European Parliament biography
• Declaration of financial interests
  Declaration of financial interests
  Declarations of financial interests are a means of making conflict of interestsof people in public office known and to reduce them by making them public.- European Parliament :...
  
   (in German; PDF
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
   file)