Marco Cappato

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Member of the European Parliament
Marco Cappato MEP

Incumbent
Assumed office June 14, 2004
Constituency	North-East

Born	25 May 1971 (1971-05-25) (age 37) Milan, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Lista Emma Bonino

Marco Cappato (b. May 25, 1971 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian politician. He has been a member of the European Parliament since May 8, 2006, when he took up a seat vacated after the 2006 Italian general election. He represents the Lista Emma Bonino within the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group.

[edit] Career

Born in Milan, he has a degree in economics from the Bocconi University in Italy. He was the general advisor of the "Movement of the Pannella Club" from 1994 to 1995, when he was appointed national secretary of the Movement and of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party.

After a brief experience in the field of management and human resources at the Galbani de Melzo Institute, he started to collaborate with the radical group within the European Parliament in 1995. In 1996 he was appointed treasurer of the CORA (Radical Antiprohibitionist coordinator). In 1997 and 1998 he was the Transnational Radical Party representative at the United Nations in New York, where he became particularly involved in the campaign for the implementation of the International Criminal Court. From February 1999 to July 2001 he was Coordinator to the "Radical Committee for the liberal revolution of the United States of Europe". From June 1999 to July 2004 he was an MEP representing the Lista Bonino.

He was the European Parliament "rapporteur" on the Directive on "privacy with regard to electronic communication".

Due to his efforts in countering the generalized control proposals in the field of electronic communications (he is mostly known for his report on privacy in electronic communications) he was awarded the European of the Year title by the weekly newspaper "European Voice". The citation stated that the award was "for his leadership in the campaign for the protection of privacy, in particular in respect of the preservation of the protection of the citizens personal data in the very moment where the United States have undertaken a war against terrorism." Cappato however donated the 5,000 euro award to the Luca Coscioni Association for the freedom of scientific research.

Furthermore he was nominated for the "Politician of the Year" award - for his campaigning against European monitoring laws- by the American magazine "Wired". In December 2001 he was arrested in Manchester for a non-violent action of civil disobedience in connection with the British laws against possession of drugs for personal use.

From March to November 2002 he was the president of the Transnational Radical Party board. Since October 2002 he has been the coordinator of the Parliamentarians for Antiprohibitionist Action (PAA) a group which has received the support of about 200 parliamentarians from all around the world.

Secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association for Freedom of Research since January 2004. Co-ordinator of the electoral and referendum initiatives of the radical and radical-liberal area for the 2004 European elections.