Juozas OLEKAS is a Member of the European Parliament, elected in 2019. In the European Parliament he joined the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and currently is a Head of the Lithuanian delegation. Mr. Olekas participates in the work of the Agriculture and Rural Development, the Foreign Affairs Committees and in the work of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. He was the shadow rapporteur for the AGRI committee opinion on new genomic techniques.
From 1996 till 2019 Mr. Juozas Olekas was a member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, where he was a representative of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. Previously to that, he was the Minister of Health (1990-1992 and 2003-2004) and the Minister of Defense (2006-2008 and 2012-2016).
He is a medical doctor (surgeon) by profession.