• 1994–1999 : Federal Secretary and Spokesperson of
Ecolo (with
Jacky Morael and
Dany Josse, then
Jacky Morael and
Jean-Luc Roland)
Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, 1999–2003 Between 1999 and 2003, Durant served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility and Transport in the
Belgian federal government,
Guy Verhofstadt's
first government. In 2003, Durant and her party colleague
Olivier Deleuze resigned from Verhofstadt's government one week before the
national elections and after a clash over the issue of night flights from
Brussels Airport.
Member of the Senate, 2003–2011 Durant was a member of the
Senate between 2003 and 2011. As a Senator, she served on Committees for Foreign Affairs, Social Affairs and participated in many elections observation missions (
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Egypt,
Tunisia) (2003-2009). From 2004, Durnat also served as Federal Secretary and Spokesperson of
Ecolo, this time with
Jean-Michel Javaux and
Claude Brouir but also as a replacement for
Evelyne Huytebroeck who became minister in the
Government of the Brussels-Capital Region.
Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2014 Durant became a
Member of the European Parliament in the
2009 European elections. She served as
Vice President of the European Parliament under the leadership of president
Martin Schulz between 2009 and 2014. In addition, she was a member of the
Committee on Budgets, the delegation for relations with
Iran and the delegation to the
ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In 2012, she also served on a cross-party working group which presented new rules for what gifts MEPs might accept. On 15 September 2010 Durant supported the new initiative
Spinelli Group in the
European Parliament, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters include
Jacques Delors,
Daniel Cohn-Bendit,
Guy Verhofstadt,
Andrew Duff and
Elmar Brok. , Prime Minister
Mia Mottley and Durant. In December 2013, Durant led a European Parliament delegation – including
Tarja Cronberg,
Cornelia Ernst Marietje Schaake and
Josef Weidenholzer – visiting Tehran where members met parliament speaker
Ali Larijani and his brother,
Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of the judiciary's high council on human rights; human rights lawyer
Nasrin Sotoudeh; and filmmaker
Jafar Panahi.
Career at UNCTAD, 2017–2022 In June 2017,
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, in consultation with
Mukhisa Kituyi, decided to appoint Durant as Deputy Secretary-General of the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Durant succeeded
Joakim Reiter. On 16 February 2021, Durant replaced
Mukhisa Kituyi at the head of the organisation, becoming acting Secretary-General 2022. ==Other activities==