page_title: Marcel Kolaja
section_title: 2019 European election
hierarchical_section_title: Marcel Kolaja / Political career / 2019 European election
caption_attribution_description: English: Czech politicians Marcel Kolaja (right) and Markéta Gregorová (left) on 13 April 2019
context_page_description: Marcel Kolaja is a Czech software engineer, activist and a Czech Pirate Party politician who serves as a Member of the European Parliament and a Vice-President of the European Parliament since the 2019 election. He is a member of the Greens–European Free Alliance parliamentary group along with three other European Pirate Party MEPs.
  His political agenda focuses on technological competitiveness of the EU on the world market, corporate lobbying in the EU and corporate tax avoidance, digital rights, censorship, environmental protection and consumer protection. As an activist he has also promoted free software and copyright reform.
context_section_description: Kolaja was the party's leading candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election in the Czech Republic and was elected MEP along with Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa. His political agenda focuses on digital rights and prevention of increasing Internet censorship; environmental protection such as fossil fuel phase-out and minimizing waste pollution; consumer protection, addressing technological competitiveness of the EU on the world market and limiting corporate lobbying in the EU. Among his priorities is also addressing tax avoidance by multinational corporations that offshore profits via tax havens.
  In June, Kolaja joined the Greens–European Free Alliance political group of the European Parliament along with three other European Pirate Party MEPs.
  On 3 July, he was elected one of fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. Kolaja also serves as a vice-chair of the parliamentary Working Group on ICT Innovation Strategy, as a member of the Bureau of the European Parliament and the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
caption: Kolaja and Markéta Gregorová during the campaign for the 2019 European election
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