Political groups

2004-2014: Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

National parties

2004-2014: Freie Demokratische Partei

Biography

Alexander Nuno Pickart Alvaro was born in Bonn, Germany. He is a German politician and was a Member of the European Parliament for the Free Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Alvaro worked in the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs throughout his mandate as MEP. He was a substitute for the Committee on Legal Affairs, a member of the Delegation for relations with Palestine and a substitute for the Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand. During his second mandate, he became Vice-President of the Committee on Budgets, member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, of the Special Committee on the Policy Challenges and Budgetary Resources for a Sustainable European Union after 2013, and of the Delegation for relations with Iran and Spokesman of the ALDE group for Home Affairs. Alvaro was a Vice-President of the Parliament from 2012 to 2014.

European Parliament's Vice-President Alexander Alvaro (right of centre) in the plenary debate "EU citizens' mobility and Member States' welfare system", October 2013 © European Union 2013 - European Parliament

Alvaro was also involved in many European dossiers and campaigns, initiating the Oneseat campaign with Swedish Minister for European affairs and ex-MEP Cecilia Malmström, dealing with the American Government on the Swift International EU-US Treaty and defending civil liberties on legislative projects such as ACTA.

He was founder and board member of EU40, an association of MEPs and EU officials under the age of 40 aimed at enhancing trans-partisan, generation-based EU policies.

For more information on his time as an MEP, click here. 

What's in the Archives

Alexander Alvaro’s archive is structured around two major activities: his parliamentary work and political activity.

Parliamentary activity

The document typologies are varied in this section and accurately reflect the work of the Member and his parliamentary assistant. In addition to compiling the legislative documents necessary for his work and often annotated, Alvaro kept internal committee documents, interinstitutional documents and extensive supporting documents. There are also documents associated with the ALDE Group, which he was a part of, but also many thoughts and opinions regarding his national political party, the Free Democratic Party, the German government and private interest groups.

Since the topics are important (Telecom package, data retention, fight against terrorism, etc.), documents are sorted by committee, then by subject matter and finally chronologically. There are several sub-series:
1.1    Work as a Member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
1.2    Work as a member of the Committee on Budgets
1.3    Work as a member of the Special Committee on Policy Challenges and Budgetary Resources for a Sustainable European Union after 2013
1.4    Work as substitute member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
1.5    Work as a member of the Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners
1.6    Activity as a Member

Political activity

This section contains documents associated with the political campaigns Alexander Alvaro was particularly involved with. The Oneseat Campaign occupies an important part of this series as Alexander Alvaro was President of the campaign. The fonds show that the European Parliament’s reform campaign, which has similar objectives, gradually took on greater importance. 

His political commitment to human rights is also reflected in documents associated with the organisation of an artistic exhibition and the nomination of a project to the Sakharov Prize. Finally, there is a large presence of documents related to his media image and relations with the press of which he was particularly concerned.

The document typologies consist mainly of press cuttings but also of consultative legislative documents, correspondence and documents from working groups. The articles written by Alexander Alvaro and his interviews in the press were extracted from the mass of press cuttings and highlighted in a separate file.

The fonds contain little information concerning Alexander Alvaro’s activities in the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, Delegation for relations with India and the Delegation for relations with Iran and his activities here are understood only through press cuttings linked to the issues raised by these delegations.

The documents resulting from his political activity are divided into eight thematic sub-series:
2.1    National political activity: Free Democratic Party, Germany
2.2    The Oneseat Campaign
2.3    Campaign for the reform of the European Parliament
2.4    Campaign for the Statute for Parliamentary Assistants
2.5    Transatlantic Policy Network
2.6    Political commitment to human rights
2.7    Media image and relations with the press