Karlo Ressler

Karlo Ressler (born 26 December 1989) is a Croatian politician who is a Member of the European Parliament since 2019.

Early life and education

Ressler graduated with honors from the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb. He completed his senior year at the University of Sheffield, England, participating in Erasmus Programme. At the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Germany, he is completing his doctorate degree on human trafficking in Southeast Europe.

After graduation in 2014, Ressler started working as an assistant at Zagreb University's Faculty of Law.

Political career

Ressler is a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) since 2009. From 2013 to 2016, he was an assistant to Andrej Plenković, a member of the European Parliament at the time. When the HDZ won the 2016 parliamentary election, he was appointed as an advisor for legal and political issues to Prime Minister Plenković.

Ressler led the HDZ's list for the European Parliament election in May 2019. The HDZ won 4 seats and the highest number of votes with 22.7 percent, while Ressler won the highest number of preferential votes on the HDZ's list; 52,309 total votes (21.71 percent) which was the fourth-best overall score.

In 2017, Ressler led the Working group on the new Statute of the HDZ. Currently, he is a member of the HDZ's Statute Commission and Vice-President of the Party's Judicial Committee. He coordinated the creation of the HDZ's Program "Croatia for Generations" for the 2019 European Parliament elections.

Ressler is the Vice-President of the Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP) for the second term.

Within the Ninth European Parliament, Ressler serves on the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). In addition to his committee assignments, he is part of the parliament’s delegation for relations with China. He is also a member of the European Internet Forum and of the URBAN Intergroup.