Petras Auštrevičius

Petras Auštrevičius is European Parliament's standing rapporteur for Belarus (since 2019).

Since 2019 Mr Auštrevičius acts as a coordinator for the Renew Europe group in the EP Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) and is a substitute member for the EP Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN). He is a chairman of the Working Group on Companion Animals at the EP's Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

In 2015, news media reported that Auštrevičius was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country.

In the 2014 European elections, Auštrevičius was elected as a member of European Parliament. At the European Parliament he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and is chairing the delegation for relations with Afghanistan for his second term already.

He was appointed as vice-president of the ALDE (Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) political faction for the period 2014–2017. Auštrevičius was acting as a coordinator for ALDE in the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI). In addition to these positions, he was a substitute member for each the Committee on Regional Development (REGI), Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion (PANA), the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, and the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. Petras Auštrevičius was European Parliament's standing rapporteur on Moldova.

In December 2014, Auštrevičius founded the EU Informal Group "Friends of European Ukraine" in the European Parliament. He is the current co-chair that represents the European Parliament, and chairs together with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze and Ostap Semerak on the side of the Ukraine. Is a member of the board of the public organization 'Union of European Federalists in Lithuania'.

Regarding his political affiliation, Auštrevičius was a member of the Liberal and Centre Union of Lithuania. However, in 2006, he co-founded the Liberals Movement of Lithuania, and from 2006 to 2008, served as its chairman.

In 2005, he co-founded and served as a president of a discussion Europos Klubas (English: European Club) at Seimas, founded Vilnius University Alumni Society of the Faculty of Economics.

In 2004, Auštrevičius became a Deputy Chancellor of the Government for European Union Affairs.

During a span of ten years (2004-2014), Auštrevičius was a member of Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament), where he served three terms until his election to the European Parliament in 2014.

In 2000, he was appointed as an Ambassador at Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Afterwards, in 2001, Auštrevičius worked as a Chief Negotiator for Lithuania's Membership of the European Union.

From 2000 to 2003, he held the position of Director General at European Committee under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, later serving as a lecturer at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University from 2003 to 2004.

Following this placement, he worked as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Policy. Auštrevičius then became the Director General for the European Committee under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania in 1998, after which he acted as Chancellor in the Office of the Government from 1999 to 2000.

From 1991 to 1992, Auštrevičius worked as a Senior Specialist and was the First Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Lithuania). He was subsequently appointed as the Head of the Nordic States Division for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he served from 1992 to 1993. In 1993, Auštrevičius became a Chargé d'Affaires ad Interim of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Finland, a position he held until 1994. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Lithuania's Ambassador to Finland, and at the age of 31, became the youngest ambassador in Lithuanian history.

In 1981, Auštrevičius graduated from Vilnius Secondary School No. 39. Afterwards, he continued his studies at Vilnius University in the Faculty of Economics, where he received a degree in Economics in 1986. He then worked as a Junior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics, located at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, from 1988 to 1991. From 1992 to 1993, Auštrevičius pursued a diplomat-training program at the Hoover Institution at the Stanford University in California.

Petras Auštrevičius (born 16 May 1963) is a Lithuanian liberal politician, diplomat, civil society activist, former member of Seimas, and since 2014, a member of the European Parliament.