Sandra Kalniete is Latvian politician, diplomat, writer and independence movement leader. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2009.
At present, she is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, where she has been appointed as the main rapporteur on Russia, as well as in the International Trade Committee and the Culture and Education Committee as a substitute. She has been confirmed as the Vice-Chair of the new The European Parliament’s special committee on the European Democracy Shield.
Sandra is the Head of the Latvian Delegation in the European People’s Party Group, which has been the largest in the European Parliament since 1999. She was also the Latvian Foreign Minister from November 2002 to March 2004. Her ambassadorial responsibilities included her postings in France, United Nations in Geneva, and UNESCO, among others.
Her book Song to Kill a Giant: Latvian Revolution and the Soviet Empire’s Fall published in 200, is a memoir which tells the story of strategy and tactics and of the difficult choices and compromises which led to the success of people’s movements of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Her most famous work is With Dancing Shoes in Siberian Snows, a book about the deportation of her family to Siberia during the Stalin era and her family’s efforts to return to their home country. It has been translated into 10 languages since its publication in 2001.
She studied Art and Art History in Latvia while also completing her courses in International Relations from Leeds, and Geneva.
