Diana Wallis

In 2007, Diana Wallis became the first British female of any political persuasion in twenty years to be elected to the post of Vice President of the European Parliament, as well as being the first British Liberal Democrat to do so. After the change into the sixth legislative term in 2009, the Parliament's plenary re-elected her to the position for a second term.

As a member of Parliament's Bureau, comprising the President, Vice-Presidents and Quaestors, her portfolio focused on transparency and access to documents (meaning under the Parliament's internal rules that she signed off on appeals for access to the Parliament's documents under Regulation 1049/2001), the Arctic and high north, Question Time (jointly with another Vice-President) and the Academy of European Law based in Trier (Germany). Her further duties as Vice-President included chairing the plenary sessions of the European Parliament and replacing the Parliament's President in international fora (Arctic and high north)[10] or at official events. Wallis notably led the call for an official day to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide of 1995 and attended the commemoration in Potocari, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on behalf of the European Parliament.[11]

As Vice-President for transparency, she led the Parliament's lengthy negotiations with the European Commission led in 2011 to the first Transparency Register for interest representatives seeking to influence decision-making of the EU institutions (commonly referred to as lobbyists), together with a Code of Conduct.[12] The Transparency Register has grown to include a very large number of registered entities and individuals (over 10,000 in total)[13] and is managed jointly by the European Parliament's and the European Commission's services. Furthermore, she opened up the directly-elected Parliament's archives from the time of its first President (1979), Simone Veil, in her presence in Paris on 23 March 2008.[14]

As Vice-President she took part in two key working groups whose aim it was to reform, on the one hand the functioning of the Parliament's plenary,[15] and on the other hand, the Parliament more generally.

As a Member of the ALDE European-level political group in the European Parliament, Wallis was leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament 2000–2004, and then from June 2006 to January 2007.[16]

During her membership of more than ten years in the JURI and IMCO committees, Wallis led work on behalf of her political group ("coordinator"), and was responsible as rapporteur for a number of pieces of legislation passing through the Parliament, including the "Brussels I" and "Rome II" Regulations which are two key pillars of the European Union's private international law, the Regulation on Trade in Seal Products, the Regulation establishing the law applicable to maintenance obligations. She was also rapporteur on a number of non-legislative issues including the role of national judges in the EU's legal system,[17] e-commerce, e-publishing, collective redress, e-Justice, judicial training, mediation, consumer law, and European contract law.[18]

Wallis was also a full member of the Petitions Committee where she regularly authored reports on the application of EU law across the Member States and the European Commission's role in monitoring these common rules.[18] As Rapporteur to the Committee of Inquiry into the Equitable Life affair, she is author of a report which was approved by a large majority in the Parliament and which made a number of recommendations prior to the economic and financial crisis of 2008, including the "further strengthening of prudential supervisory and regulatory standards throughout the Union", in order to avoid such a situation recurring in the future.[19]

Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, Wallis played a key role as co-rapporteur[20] in the setting-up of the European Citizen's Initiative, which allows a minimum of 1 million citizens from a significant number of Member States to request a legislative initiative from the European Commission.

Until 2007, she was chair of the delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee and remained a full member of that Committee during the remainder of her parliamentary career.

Throughout her time as an MEP, Wallis has authored 28 full reports excluding purely technical ones, and 16 opinions, asked 40 written and oral questions of the Commission and Council (during Parliament's 2004–2009 term). She successfully piloted two written declarations until their adoption by the Parliament – one in 2007 on the European Emergency Number 1-1-2 (which achieved 530 MEP signatures, which is the record so far), and one in 2008 on Emergency cooperation in recovering missing children.[21]

On 30 November 2011 Wallis announced[22] her intention to stand for the position of President of the European Parliament as an independent candidate on the basis of nomination by 40 MEPs from different political groups.[23] Other candidates were Martin Schulz and Nirj Deva. Martin Schulz was elected on 17 January 2012, as anticipated, and pursuant to the agreement between certain political groups, with Wallis obtaining 141 votes.

On 19 January 2012, two days after failing to become the Parliament president, Wallis announced her resignation, which took effect from 31 January 2012. Wallis had been due to be succeeded by her husband Stewart Arnold who was also employed by her as a Parliamentary Assistant,[24] who had been second on the list of Liberal Democrat candidates for the seat in the 2009 election, but he declined the appointment and eventually went on to found the Yorkshire Party with Richard Carter.[25] Rebecca Taylor, who was third on the list, was appointed instead.[26]

Wallis has a particular interest in issues of direct democracy and in 2001 she co-founded the Initiatives and Referendums Institute - Europe (IRI-Europe) whose aim it is to assist modern direct democracy across the globe. In March 2006, she hosted an IRI-Europe conference in Brussels to discuss different approaches across Europe towards the issue of direct democracy and in particular the campaign for introducing a citizens' initiative at the European level. She is a board member of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe. This is a thinktank which has a particular interest in all issues relating to direct democracy.

Before and after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, she played an active role in shaping and implementing the European Citizen's Initiative.[27]

Wallis meeting Commission President Barroso (2009)

Diana Wallis has been a vocal proponent of increasing the share of women in decision-making roles. In the run-up to the appointment of the second Barroso Commission in 2009, she co-launched a campaign "send2women" with the aim of securing at least two women among the top positions in the EU institutions which were rotating that year, and the ambition to increase female representation in the EU institutions overall.[28] In this framework she met Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso in a bid to increase gender equality within the College of Commissioners.

Diana Wallis's many activities in the legal field include the following:

• On 6 September 2013, Wallis was elected President of the European Law Institute, an independent non-profit organisation established to initiate, conduct and facilitate research, make recommendations and provide practical guidance in the field of European legal development with a goal of enhancing the European legal integration.[3] She was re-elected in 2015 for a second term, which lasted until 2017.
• since 2012, Trustee of the Academy of European Law, Trier (ERA, Trier) which provides training to legal practitioners throughout Europe.
• member of the board of directors of the International Mediation Institute.
• from 2017, member of the board of trustees of BIICL.[29]
• Senior lecturer at the Law School at the University of Hull[30] (her local University where she previously taught part-time in the 1990s developing a module on Comparative Law for joint law and language undergraduates).
• Honorary associate of the Centre for Socio-legal Studies at the University of Oxford.[31]
• since 2012, Member of the UK Law Society's EU Committee.
• Since 2015, Commercial Mediator Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) accredited Mediator and a Member of the Charter Institute of Arbitrators;
• Since 2012, Independent arbitrator and chair of Joint Committee on Non-Print Legal Deposit Post created pursuant to Non-Print Legal Deposit Regulations 2013

From 2002 to 2009, Wallis was the President of the UK Institute of Translation & Interpreting.

Diana Wallis speaks fluent French and German and some Icelandic.

Wallis is a Member of the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) Advisory Board

She completed the London Marathon on 26 April 2009 in a time of 5 hours 22 minutes, running in aid of the World Endometriosis Research Foundation.[32][33]