Hans-Gert Pöttering

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"Pottering" redirects here. For the software developer, see Lennart Poettering.

Hans-Gert Pöttering
Bernhard Vogel
Succeeded byNorbert Lammert
Personal details
Born (1945-09-15) 15 September 1945 (age 79)
Graduate Institute of International Studies
Columbia University
ProfessionLawyer
WebsiteOfficial website

Hans-Gert Pöttering (born 15 September 1945) is a German lawyer, historian and conservative politician (

CDU, European People's Party), who served as President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009 and as Chairman of the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation
from 2010 to 2017.

He served as a

European People's Party-European Democrats 1999–2007. When he stepped down in 2014 he was the European Parliament's longest-serving member. As president of the European Parliament, he proposed the creation of the House of European History museum in Brussels.[citation needed
]

Early life and education

Pöttering never got to know his father who was

Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at Columbia University in New York. He took his first state exam in jurisprudence in 1973, earned a PhD in political science and history in 1974 with a dissertation on West German defence policy in the 1950s and 1960s and took his second state exam in jurisprudence in 1976, fully qualifying as an attorney.[citation needed
]

Political career

Member of the European Parliament, 1979–2014

Pöttering was a member of the European Parliament from 1979 until 2014. By the end of this period, he was the only member of the European Parliament to have served continuously since the first elections.

From 1984 to 1994, Pöttering was chairman of the

EPP-ED Group, the results of which became the official EPP position for the Treaty of Amsterdam
.

In 1994, Pöttering became Vice-President of the EPP, and from 1999 to 2007, he was the Chairman of the

CDU in the 2004 and the 2009 European elections
.

Together with Volker Hassemer, he is a member of the advisory board of the pro-European initiative "A Soul for Europe". He was a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.[1]

President of the European Parliament, 2007–2009

Pöttering with President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso at the EPP Congress in Warsaw, 29 April 2009

As part of a deal with the socialist group, it was agreed that he would succeed

Josep Borrell Fontelles as President of the European Parliament in the second part of the 2004–2009 term, which he did on 16 January 2007. He was elected with 450 of 689 valid votes, and defeated Italian Green Monica Frassoni, Danish Eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde and French Communist Francis Wurtz
.

As President of the European Parliament, he initiated the House of European History project. He made reference to the House in his inaugural speech in 2007.[2] For many years, he has been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the House of European History in Brussels.

Later career

On 4 December 2009, Pöttering was elected Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 1 January 2010; he was succeeded by Norbert Lammert in 2018.

When the EPP membership of Hungarian party

Herman van Rompuy and Wolfgang Schüssel – to a group of high-level experts who were mandated to monitor Fidesz's compliance with EPP values.[3][4]

Political positions

Pöttering is known as an enthusiastic

European Constitution
.

In February 2020, Pöttering joined around fifty former European prime ministers and foreign ministers in signing an open letter published by British newspaper

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, saying it would create an apartheid-like situation in occupied Palestinian territory.[5]

Recognition

National honours

Foreign honours

Awards

Honorary degrees

Other activities

Personal life

Pöttering lives in Bad Iburg, Germany. He is Roman Catholic, divorced and has two sons.[11]

Works

  • Adenauers Sicherheitspolitik 1955–1963. Ein Beitrag zum deutsch-amerikanischen Verhältnis, Droste Verlag 1975,
    ISBN 3-7700-0412-4
  • Europas Vereinigte Staaten, Editio Interfrom 2000,
    ISBN 3-7201-5237-5
    , with Ludger Kühnhardt
  • Weltpartner Europäische Union, Edition Interfrom 2001,
    ISBN 3-7201-5252-9
    , with Ludger Kühnhardt
  • Kontinent Europa. Kern, Übergänge, Grenzen, Edition Interfrom 2002,
    ISBN 3-7201-5276-6
    , zusammen mit Ludger Kühnhardt
  • Von der Vision zur Wirklichkeit. Auf dem Weg zur Einigung Europas, Bouvier 2004,
    ISBN 3-416-03053-2
  • United for the Better: My European Way, John Harper Publishing 2016,
    ISBN 978-09-934549-67

References

  1. ^ "About Us – Reconciliation of European Histories Group". Reconciliation of European Histories Group. 21 April 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Conceptual Basis for a House of European History" (PDF). Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. ^ Maïa de La Baume and Lili Bayer (20 March 2019), EPP plans to strip Hungary’s Fidesz of membership rights: document Politico Europe.
  4. ^ FIDESZ membership suspended after EPP Political Assembly European People's Party (EPP), press release of 20 March 2019.
  5. ^ Grave concern about US plan to resolve Israel-Palestine conflict The Guardian, 27 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering". Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (in German). 16 December 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  7. ^ "Tunisia Weekly Update: Essid Presents Ten Measures to Fight Unemployment; Belhaj Resigns as President's Chief of Staff". POMED. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  8. ^ Board of Trustees[permanent dead link] Friends of Europe.
  9. ^ Advisory Board Archived 23 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine Reimagine Europa.
  10. ^ Executive Board Archived 3 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.
  11. ^ "EPP Group in the European Parliament". Eppgroup.eu. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
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Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the
European People's Party-European Democrats

1999–2007 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by President of the European Parliament
2007–2009 		Succeeded by