Franc Bogovič

Franc Bogovič graduated from the Agronomy College at the University in Maribor in 1984, thus becoming an Agricultural Engineer. He was employed as an agricultural extension expert and head of the Cooperation Department in Agrokombinat Krško. He later established a family commerce business, which he successfully managed for 8 years. He became a leader in his local community Koprivnica in 1986. From 1998 to 2011, he was elected mayor of the Municipality of Krško four consecutive times (in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010). During his thirteen-year term of office, he played a significant role in improving the relationships of the municipality as well as the state toward the Krško Nuclear Plant, and establishing a permanent nuclear waste repository. From 2004 he was also the vice president of the Association of European municipalities with nuclear facilities, GMF (Group of European Municipalities with Nuclear Facilities). He was elected member of the National Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia two consecutive times (in the fifth and sixth terms of office, in 2008 and 2011). He was the Minister for agriculture and environment in the tenth Government of the Republic of Slovenia, from 10 February 2012 to 25 February 2013.

He was elected member of the European Parliament on 25 May 2014 and again on 26 May 2019. He represents the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) in the European People’s Party (EPP) Political Group in the European Parliament.

In the first mandate in the European Parliament, his work was most marked by his initiative for Smart Villages and the Alliance for Youth project.

In his current term in the European Parliament, Bogovič is focusing on farming and food security, at the forefront of which are the softening and improvement of the EU regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides (SUR), ensuring the competitiveness of European and Slovenian industry, economy, and the energy sectors, where he as the rapporteur of the Committee for industry, research and energy (ITRE) prepared a report on Small Modular Reactors (SMR). He advocates for the Union’s strategic autonomy in the energy sector with further investments in nuclear energy. As a rapporteur of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI), he prepared an opinion on the Critical Materials Regulation with an emphasis on the EU’s strategic, coordinated, and global actions, aimed at securing and improving access to critical and strategic raw materials for Europe, without which the green and digital transformation will not be successful.

He was elected President of the Slovenian People’s Party at the electoral Congress at Brdo pri Kranju on 2 March 2013. From 2009 to 2013, he was the vice president of the SLS. He started engaging in politics as a young man during the political spring in Slovenia, and is one of the founders and creators of the Slovenian Farmers Association, the first democratic political party in Slovenia after World War II and the predecessor of the Slovenian People’s Party.

He speaks English and Serbo-Croatian. His favourite leisure activity is to attend the family apple orchard at his farm. He is married and the father of a daughter and two sons, and the grandfather of four grandchildren.