13 Facts About Nicole Fontaine

Nicole Fontaine was a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament for the Ile-de-France from 1984 until 2002 and from 2004 until 2009.

Nicole Fontaine was a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, part of the European People's Party.

Nicole Fontaine was a lawyer and a member of the bar of the department of Hauts-de-Seine.

Nicole Fontaine was closely involved in discussions concerning and often the driving force behind the legislative and statutory changes which, over a period of two decades, shaped the legal framework which provides for balanced relations between the State and the private establishments linked by contract to the public education service.

Nicole Fontaine was a member of the Conseil superior de l'Education nationale from 1975 to 1981 and a member of its standing committee from 1978 to 1981.

Nicole Fontaine entered politics late in her career to become a Member of the European Parliament in the 1984 elections, in the wake of the major demonstration in Paris in favour of private education which ultimately led to a settlement based on the principle of freedom of education.

Nicole Fontaine worked primarily as a member of three parliamentary committees: the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights, the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.

In January 1994 Nicole Fontaine was appointed by her political group, the European People's Party, to sit as a permanent member on the Conciliation Committee established by the Maastricht Treaty; the role of that committee is to settle disputes outstanding at the end of legislative procedures involving the European Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

Nicole Fontaine was the only French permanent member of the committee.

Nicole Fontaine was chairman of the European Parliament delegation to the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union, which is the forum for cooperation between the national parliaments and the European Parliament.

At the national level, Nicole Fontaine served as vice president of the UDF and, as an ex-officio member, of the UDF's Executive Committee and Political Bureau.

Nicole Fontaine served as France's industrial minister between 2002 and 2004 in the government of President Jacques Chirac.

In 2007, Nicole Fontaine led an unsuccessful campaign to press for French to be designated the European Union's benchmark legal language.