Member of the European Parliament, 2000–2003 In her first term as
Member of the European Parliament from 6 January 2000 to 1 October 2003, Van Brempt served on the
Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport (2000–2002) and the
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (2002–2003).
Role in Belgian politics On 1 October 2003, Van Brempt resigned from the European Parliament to become State Secretary for Labor organization and Welfare in the working place in the
second Belgian federal government headed by
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. During the
regional elections of 2004, Van Brempt was elected to the
Flemish Parliament and she became Minister for Mobility, Social Economy and Equal Opportunities in the
Flemish government. Since 2001, Van Brempt is a member of the city council of
Antwerp.
Member of the European Parliament, 2009–present In the
2009 European elections, Van Brempt was elected as
Member of the European Parliament in the Socialist fraction. She was re-elected in the
2014 elections. From 2009 until 2019, Van Brempt served on the
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. In this capacity, she was a member of the European Parliament's delegation of observers to the
2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Lima and the
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Paris. In 2016, Van Brempt was made chair of the
Volkswagen emissions scandal inquiry into whether the EU should have acted more quickly to address the issue; she was elected in an unopposed race. She has been a member of the
Committee on International Trade (since 2019), the Parliament's delegation to the
Conference on the Future of Europe (since 2021) and the Special Committee on the
COVID-19 pandemic (since 2022). In addition to her committee assignments, Van Brempt has served on the parliament's delegations for relations with
Iran (2009–2014) and
Canada (2014–2019) and to the
ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (since 2019). She is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Western Sahara, the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals; the European Parliament Intergroup on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights; and the MEP Heart Group, a group of parliamentarians who have an interest in promoting measures that will help reduce the burden of
cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Within the
Socialists and Democrats group, Van Brempt served as vice-chairwoman under the leadership of successive chairmen
Gianni Pittella (2014–2018) and
Udo Bullmann (2018–2019). In this capacity, she was responsible for sustainable development, environment, industry and transport. In March 2018, she lost out against Bullmann in the group's internal vote on a new leader; Bullmann received 86 votes, while Van Brempt got 61 votes. In April 2022 Van Brempt was elected as chair of the Parliament's Special Committee on COVID-19. ==Other activities==