Elvira Kovács

Elvira Kovács (Serbian Cyrillic: Елвира Ковач, romanized: Elvira Kovač; born 18 July 1982) is a Serbian politician from the country's Hungarian community. She has served in the National Assembly of Serbia since 2007 as a member of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (Vajdasági Magyar Szövetség, VMSZ).

The native form of this personal name is Kovács Elvira. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Elvira Kovács
Kovács Elvira
Vice President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
Assumed office
22 October 2020
Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
Assumed office
18 July 2007
Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Assumed office
24 January 2022
Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Assumed office
23 May 2014
Substitute Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
In office
12 January 2013 – 23 May 2014
In office
30 September 2007 – 1 October 2012
Personal details
Born (1982-07-18) 18 July 1982
Zrenjanin, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
Political partyAlliance of Vojvodina Hungarians
EducationFaculty of Economics
Alma materUniversity of Novi Sad (Subotica)

Early life and career

Kovács was born in Zrenjanin, in what was then the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. She graduated from faculty of economics at the Subotica campus of the University of Novi Sad in 2006 and worked for the health and social policy secretariat in the executive council of Vojvodina until July 2007.[1]

Politician

Kovács joined the VMSZ in 2000, became a regional trainer for the National Democratic Institute in 2005, and joined the presidency of the VMSZ's youth forum in 2006.[2]

Koštunica and Cvetković administrations (2007–12)

Kovács received the 224th position on the VMSZ's electoral list in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election.[3] The list won three seats. She was not initially included in the party's delegation but was awarded a mandate on 18 July 2007 as a replacement for Andrea Galgó Ferenci, who had resigned.[4] (From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order. Kovács's specific position on the list had no formal bearing on whether or when she received a mandate.)[5] She served in opposition to Vojislav Koštunica's administration over the next year. In her first term, she was a member of the committee for culture and information.[6]

For the 2008 parliamentary election, Kovács received the fourth position on the electoral list of the Hungarian Coalition, a multi-party alliance led by the VMSZ.[7] The coalition won four seats, all of which were assigned to VMSZ members, and she was chosen for a second term in the assembly. The For a European Serbia alliance formed a coalition government with the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) after the election, and the VMSZ provided crucial support to the administration in parliament. Kovács was for this term a member of the committee on labour, veterans' affairs, and social affairs; a member of the committee on development and international economic relations; a member of a working group on the rights of the child; a deputy member of the committee on agriculture, the committee on petitions and proposals, and the committee for local self-government; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Croatia, Germany, Italy, and Slovakia.[8]

Kovács also led the Hungarian Coalition's electoral list in Zrenjanin for the 2008 Serbian local elections, which were held concurrently with the national assembly vote.[9] The list won two mandates, and she did not take a seat in the city assembly.[10][11][12]

Dačić and Vučić administrations (2012–2017)

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that all mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order. Kovács received the third position on the VMSZ's list in the 2012 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list won five mandates.[13] The Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska napredna stranks, SNS) won the election and afterward formed a new coalition government with the SPS and other parties; the VMSZ declined an offer to join the government and served in opposition, at least nominally, for the next two years.[14] Kovács was a member of the committee on the rights of the child and the committee on human and minority rights and gender equality; a deputy member of the committee on finance, budget, and control of public spending; and a member of the friendship groups with Germany and Slovakia.[15] She was also, for a time, a member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), before being succeeded by fellow party member Zoltán Pék.[16]

She again received the third position on the VMSZ list in the 2014 parliamentary election and was elected to a fourth term when the list won six seats.[17] The party began supporting Serbia's SNS-led administration in the assembly after this election. In this parliament, Kovács was deputy chair of the European integration committee, a member of the human rights committee and the committee on the rights of the child, and a deputy member of the health and family committee and the committee on labour, social affairs, social inclusion, and poverty reduction. She continued her membership in the friendship groups with Germany and Slovakia.[18]

Kovács was promoted to second place on the VMSZ list for the 2016 parliamentary election and was re-elected even as the party fell to four seats overall.[19] She continued as deputy chair of the European integration committee and also remained a member of the committees on human rights and the rights of the child and the friendship groups with Germany and Slovakia. In addition, she was deputy chair of a European Union–Serbia stabilization and association committee, a deputy member of the committee on constitutional and legislative issues, a member of the working group for the political empowerment of persons with disabilities, and a member of the working group for national minority rights.[20]

Brnabić administration (2017–present)

The VMSZ led a successful drive to increase its voter turnout in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election and won a record nine seats. Kovács, who once again appeared in the second list position, was elected to a sixth term.[21] On 22 October 2020, she was chosen as a vice-president (i.e., deputy speaker) of the assembly.[22] She was also promoted to chair of the European integration committee, remained deputy chair of the stabilization and association committee, served on the foreign affairs committee and the committee on the rights of the child, was the leader of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with Denmark, and once again remained a member of the friendship groups with Germany and Slovakia.[23]

She again appeared in the second position on the VMSZ's list in the 2022 parliamentary election and was elected to a seventh term as the party fell back to five seats.[24] She was subsequently chosen for another term as an assembly vice-president. Kovács is also chair of the European integration committee, a member of the foreign affairs committee, the committee on the rights of the child, and the European Union–Serbia stabilization and association committee, and the friendship groups with Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and Sweden.[25]

Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Kovács served as a substitute member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from October 2007 to October 2012 and again from January 2013 to May 2014. She was promoted to full membership on 23 May 2014 and has served in this role since that time. She sits with the parliamentary group of the European People's Party and has been a vice-chair of the group on three occasions.

Kovács was chair of the PACE committee on equality and non-discrimination from 2018 to 2020 and remains a full member of the committee. She chaired the sub-committee on gender equality from January to December 2020 and now chairs the sub-committee on the rights of minorities. She is also a member of the committee on honouring the obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe.[26] In May 2017, she affirmed that Serbia was still working toward its strategic goal of membership in the European Union.[27]

On 24 January 2022, Kovács was named as a vice-president of the PACE assembly.[28]

References
  1. ELVIRA KOVAČ – POTPREDSEDNIK SVM Archived 2016-04-11 at the Wayback Machine, Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, accessed 13 October 2017.
  2. ELVIRA KOVAČ – POTPREDSEDNIK SVM Archived 2016-04-11 at the Wayback Machine, Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, accessed 13 October 2017.
  3. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (8 Савез војвођанских Мађара - Јожеф Каса), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 26 October 2021.
  4. Информације о одржаним седницама 2007. године (18. јул 2007. године), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 27 October 2021.
  5. Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017.
  6. ДЕТАЉИ О НАРОДНОМ ПОСЛАНИКУ: КОВАЧ, ЕЛВИРА, Archived 2008-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 May 2022.
  7. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (7 МАЂАРСКА КОАЛИЦИЈА - ИШТВАН ПАСТОР), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 26 October 2021.
  8. ELVIRA KOVÁCS (ЕЛВИРА КОВАЧ), Archived 2012-04-20 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 May 2022.
  9. Službeni List (Grada Zrenjanina), Volume 17 Number 11 (26 April 2008), p. 145.
  10. Službeni List (Grada Zrenjanina), Volume 17 Number 14 (12 May 2008), p. 153.
  11. Službeni List (Grada Zrenjanina), Volume 17 Number 18 (3 June 2008), p. 181.
  12. For the 2008 local elections, all mandates were assigned to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. See Law on Local Elections (2007), Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 129/2007); made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 29 May 2021. Kovács did not automatically receive a mandate by virtue of leading the list.
  13. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (9 VAJDASАGI MAGYAR SZОVETSЕG - PАSZTOR ISTVАN - САВЕЗ ВОЈВОЂАНСКИХ МАЂАРА-ИШТВАН ПАСТОР), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 27 October 2021.
  14. "New Serbian government expected to open door to ethnic minorities," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 6 July 2012 (Source: Vecernje novosti website, Belgrade, in Serbian 1 Jul 12).
  15. ELVIRA KOVÁCS (ЕЛВИРА КОВАЧ), Archived 2013-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 May 2022.
  16. Delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (31 May 2012 legislature), National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 23 November 2021.
  17. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (5 Vajdasagi Magyar Szovetseg - Pasztor Istvan - Савез војвођанских Мађара - Иштван Пастор), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 27 October 2021.
  18. ELVIRA KOVÁCS (ЕЛВИРА КОВАЧ), Archived 2016-01-20 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 May 2022.
  19. Избори за народне посланике 2016. године – Изборне листе (6 Vajdasági Magyar Szövetség-Pásztor István - Савез војвођанских Мађара-Иштван Пастор), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 27 October 2021.
  20. ELVIRA KOVÁCS (ELVIRA KOVAČ), Archived 2019-11-08 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 31 May 2022.
  21. ИЗБОРИ ЗА НАРОДНЕ ПОСЛАНИКЕ НАРОДНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, 21. ЈУН 2020. ГОДИНЕ – Изборне листе (4 Vajdasági Magyar Szövetség-Pásztor István – Савез војвођанских Мађара – Иштван Пастор), Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 27 October 2021.
  22. Multi-party National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (1991-2021), National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 27 October 2021.
  23. ELVIRA KOVÁCS (ELVIRA KOVAČ), Archived 2022-05-16 at the Wayback Machine, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 31 May 2022.
  24. "Ko su kandidati Saveza vojvođanskih Mađara-Vajdasági Magyar Szövetség za poslanike", Danas, 18 February 2022, accessed 28 May 2022.
  25. ELVIRA KOVÁCS, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 5 January 2023.
  26. Elvira KOVÁCS, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, accessed 13 October 2017.
  27. "Kovač: Članstvo u EU strateški cilj Srbije", Novosti (Source: Tanjug), 23 May 2017, accessed 13 October 2017.
  28. "Elvira Kovač izabrana za potpredsednicu Parlamentarne skupštine Saveta Evrope", Danas, 27 January 2022, accessed 29 May 2022.
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