Jill Evans

Evans was born in Ystrad Rhondda, Glamorgan. She was educated at Bodringallt Infants and Junior schools, in Ystrad. Evans later attended Tonypandy Grammar School, the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she gained a BA, and the Polytechnic of Wales, Trefforest (now University of South Wales) where she earned an M.Phil. Her mother tongue is English: she speaks Welsh as a second language.

Evans worked as a Research Assistant at the former Polytechnic of Wales where she also gained her M.Phil. degree. She later worked as public affairs officer for the National Federation of Women's Institutes in Wales for six years with the late Rhiannon Bevan. She continues to be an associate member of Glamorgan WI. Following her first election to public office, she took up the post of Wales Organiser for CHILD - the infertility support network.

Evans was a political activist and community campaigner before being elected to public office. Her political credits include

• participation in August 1981 in the first leg of the march from Cardiff City Hall which led to Greenham Common,
• the campaign against the nuclear bomb-making factory in Llanisien, Cardiff,
• supported miners and their families during the 1984-1985 miners' strike; she was the first woman to go down Maerdy colliery,
• leading the successful closure of the infamous Nant Y Gwyddon landfill site in Gelli,
• active support of the Friction Dynamics workers in Caernarfon,
• supporting the Burberry workers in their 2006-2007 campaign to prevent the closure of their Treorchy factory; she secured the support of international Welsh baritone, Bryn Terfel and led the picketing of the flagship Burberry store in London.

Her party posts include national Chair of Plaid Cymru from 1994 to 1996. She is a long-standing supporter and member of the European Free Alliance (EFA), the pan-European grouping of Plaid Cymru's sister parties, which campaigns for independence for the historic nations of Europe and linguistic rights for minority languages.

She was elected to Rhondda Borough Council in 1992, Mid-Glamorgan County Council in 1993, and, following the abolition of these, to the Rhondda Cynon Taf Council in 1996. She was elected to the European Parliament at the 1999 elections, becoming the first Plaid Cymru MEP. Evans was re-elected at the 2004 elections, in June 2009 and again in the 2014 election. She stood for the Rhondda constituency in the National Assembly for Wales election, 2007 and came second with 6,660 votes (30.1%).

On 4 November 2011 she was fined £575 after refusing to pay her TV licence fee in protest over changes to the Welsh-language channel S4C.

In her first and second parliamentary mandates (1999-2004 and 2004-2009), Evans was vice president of the Women's Rights & Equal Opportunities Committee, a member of the Environment Committee and the Palestinian Delegation. During her second mandate, she was the President of EFA, and the first Vice-President of the Greens/EFA Group in the EP. Jill also deputised on the Delegation for Relations with the Palestine Legislative Council. She was also a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Delegation for relations with Iraq, and deputised on the Agriculture Committee.

Evans has been lead rapporteur steering the parliamentary legislative process - and negotiating with the Commission, the Council of Ministers and lobbyists - for two EU Directives; extending the Pet Travel Scheme, ('pet passports') (2001) and updating ROHS (restriction of hazardous substances) on electrical goods (2011).

In the 2014-2019 parliament, Evans is the Vice-President of the EFA Group, and is a member of the Committee on Culture and Education. She deputises on the Transport and Tourism Committee. She is a member of the Delegation for relations with Switzerland and Norway and to the EU-Iceland Joint Parliamentary Committee and the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee. She is Plaid Cymru spokesperson for European and International issues.