Joseph Leinen is a German politician who served as a member of the European Parliament from 1999 until 2019. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. He got a law degree in Germany in 1972 and two years later, a Certificate of Advanced European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
Leinen was elected Member of the European Parliament without interruption from 1999 until 2019. He was a member of the political group called Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. He was also a member of national party Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Germany), Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China, Conference of Delegation Chairs, Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety and Committee on Constitutional Affairs. He was a Chair of Delegation for relations with the The people's Republic of China between 2014 and 2019. He became a Chair of Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in 2009. Before it, he was a Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
He was also a substitute to Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.