Manfred Weber
Weber in May 2023
President of the European People's Party
Assumed office
1 June 2022
Preceded byDonald Tusk
Leader of the European People's Party in the European Parliament
Assumed office
4 June 2014
PresidentDonald Tusk
Himself
Preceded byJoseph Daul
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
Assumed office
13 June 2004
Personal details
Born (1972-07-14) 14 July 1972
Niederhatzkofen, West Germany
Political partyChristian Social Union
EducationMunich University of Applied Sciences

Manfred Weber (born 14 July 1972) is a German politician who has served as President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014. He has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany since 2004. He is a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), part of the European People's Party.

In the 2003 Bavarian state elections, Weber became the state's youngest parliamentarian at the age of 29.[1] Currently heading the European People's Party Group, he was the youngest group leader in the Parliament at the time of his appointment in 2014, as well as the youngest-ever group leader of the EPP.[1] Weber is known as a moderate politician and power broker in EU politics.[2]

On 5 September 2018, Weber declared his intention to run for the position of President of the European Commission[3] and was elected as the Spitzenkandidat of the EPP on 8 November.[4] On 26 May 2019 Weber's European People's Party won the most seats in the European Parliament, thus making Weber the lead candidate to become the next President of the European Commission.[5][6] It was announced on 28 May that the new European Commission President would be picked at an EU summit in June; Weber was not nominated, with Ursula von der Leyen selected instead.[7]

Education and early career

  • 1996: engineer, Munich Higher Technical Institute (now Munich University of Applied Sciences)
  • 1996–2014: Founded own consultancy firm (self-employed)
  • 2002–2004: Member of the Bavarian Parliament (Other)[8]

Political career

Career in state politics

From 2002-2014, Weber was a member of the Kelheim District Council. From 2002 until 2004, he served as Member of the Landtag of Bavaria.[9]

In 2003, Weber succeeded Markus Söder as chairman of the Junge Union in Bavaria; he served in that position until 2007. In this capacity, he also joined the CSU executive board. In 2008, he succeeded Erwin Huber as chairman of the CSU of Lower Bavaria, one of the party's ten districts.[10]

Member of the European Parliament, 2004–present

Weber served on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs from 2004 until 2012 and on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs from 2012 until 2014. During that time, he was a substitute for the Committee on Regional Development, a member of the Delegation for relations with India, a substitute for the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community and a substitute on the Subcommittee on Human Rights. As rapporteur, he negotiated in 2008 for the European Parliament Directive on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (Return Directive), the first Directive in the field of home affairs to be adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure.[11]

After his reelection in 2009 Weber became vice-chairman of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament under the leadership of chairman Joseph Daul. In that capacity, he was responsible for setting the political strategy and the policy in the area of Justice and Home affairs.[10]

Weber has been chairing the EPP group since 2014. He has since been a member of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, first under the leadership of Martin Schulz (2014–2017) and later Antonio Tajani (since 2017). Between 2014 and 2016, Weber was a member of the now defunct G5 group along with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Vice President Frans Timmermans, Socialist group leader Gianni Pittella and Martin Schulz, then President of the European Parliament.[12] In early 2017, Weber established the so-called G6, a group of parliamentary leaders including Pittella as well as Guy Verhofstadt of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), Syed Kamall of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Ska Keller of the Greens, and Gabi Zimmer of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left.[12]

Unsuccessful candidacy for President of the European Commission

In September 2018, Weber announced his candidacy (Spitzenkandidat) for the post of the President of the European Commission for the 2019 European election.[13] (Under the unofficial Spitzenkandidat system, the leader of the European party that commands the largest coalition in the European Parliament subsequent to an election to the European Parliament is likely to become the European Commission president.[5][6])

Weber's European People's Party won a plurality of seats in the European Parliament in May 2019, thus making him the lead candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission unless the Spitzenkandidat system was abandoned.[5] On 28 May, leaders of EU governments tasked European Council President Donald Tusk with leading the negotiations with members of the European Parliament and national leaders to pick a new European Commission President at an EU summit in late June 2019.[7] Tusk hinted that Weber was the "lead candidate."[7] This did not materialise with Ursula von der Leyen, a fellow member of the European People's Party, being appointed president.

In 2022, Weber become president of the EPP.[14]

In 2023, he was invited by Mateusz Morawiecki for an election debate before the same year's election due to controversies related with Donald Tusk.

Role in national politics

In 2015, Bavaria's Minister President Horst Seehofer nominated Weber as one of his deputies in the office of CSU chairman, making him part of the party's leadership. In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on European policy, led by Peter Altmaier, Alexander Dobrindt and Achim Post. Merkel and her government also have backed Weber's bid to become President of the European Commission.[15]

Political positions

European integration

On 7 June 2014, Weber dismissed demands by British Prime Minister David Cameron to put the brakes on European integration.[16] Weber stated that "The EU is based on an ever closer union of European peoples. That is set out in the treaties. It is not negotiable for us... We cannot sell the soul of Europe... if we grant every national parliament a veto right, Europe would come to a standstill."[16] However, he supports Cameron's demand that Britain, as a non-euro country, should be empowered to influence eurozone policy decisions. Also, he told The Guardian in early 2015 that the United Kingdom's drive to freeze welfare payments for EU immigrants was justified and set an example for the rest of the union.[17]

In early 2017, Weber held that if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) insisted on debt relief for Greece, it should no longer participate in the bailout, thereby breaking ranks with his political party's official line that the program would end if the IMF pulled out.[18]

Commenting on the UK's vote to leave the European Union, Weber said, "The British people decided to leave this union, so they will not be so comfortable, so safe, not so economically strong. That's why we will say that it really is a very negative day."[19]

In 2018, Weber placed a petition to grant free Interrail tickets to all EU citizens on their 18th birthday. These tickets would allow free travel within all of the EU for one month. Motivating reasons mentioned by Weber: "It is about bringing people together. We must arrange for young people to be thrilled by Europe again." However, the idea would have cost the EU taxpayer subsidies of 2.3 billion euros every year, hence the proposal did not find much support.[20]

Conflicts over Hungary

In July 2013, when the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) issued the Tavares Report criticizing the erosion of fundamental rights in Hungary, Weber dismissed it as a politically motivated attack on the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán by leftist parties.[21] However, in September 2018 he approved the Sargentini report voting to trigger Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union procedure against the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.[22] Nevertheless, as head of the group, he failed in preventing a split in the European People's Party group: 115 of its deputies voted in favour of the move, while 57 voted against, with 28 abstentions and 20 stayed away from voting.[23]

In the run-up of the 2019 European Parliament election, Weber could not stop Orbán from his poster campaign targeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker [24] and billionaire George Soros.[25] Eventually, on 20 March 2019, the EPP suspended the membership of Orban's party Fidesz.[26] When Fidesz withdrew from the EPP-Group under threat of expulsion in March 2021, Weber declared it a "sad day" for the EPP and thanked Fidesz members for their past contributions.[27]

Relations with Russia

In a 2016 letter to Sigmar Gabriel, German economy minister, and Miguel Arias Cañete, EU energy commissioner, Weber criticized the proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, in that it would undermine the EU's foreign and security goals by increasing dependence on Gazprom, Russia's gas export monopoly. Rather than new supplies across the Baltic, Weber called upon the commission to accelerate its efforts to import more gas across Turkey from the Caspian Sea, and even potentially Iran and Iraq.[28]

In response to the arrest and detention of Alexey Navalny in early 2021, Weber demanded that the EU cut financial transactions from President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.[29]

Gay conversion therapies

In March 2018, Weber voted against initiatives prohibiting gay conversion therapies, unlike the majority of the European People Party's MEPs.[30]

Doñana National Park conflict

In April 2023, the Regional Government of Andalusia, led by the conservative People's Party on the one hand and far-right Vox on the other hand, proposed a law to legalise to date illegal extraction of water for irrigation in the Doñana National Park, home to one of Europe's largest wetlands and UNESCO World Heritage, threatened by drought.[31] The European Commission warned that this would constitute "a flagrant violation of the provisions of the judgment of the Court of Justice".[32] Weber disagreed on this stance, accusing the von der Leyen Commission of playing "party politics" and campaigning against the regional Government of Andalucía and in favour of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.[33]

Incumbent European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius contradicted Weber pointing out, that "Doñana is important for Spain & the EU".[32] Observers interpret the clash between the von der Leyen Commission and Weber - both are conservatives - as a new attempt by Weber to position himself for the presidency of the European Commission in the upcoming 2024 elections.[34]

Other activities

References

  1. 1 2 Toby Vogel (20 November 2014), Manfred Weber – calm conciliator European Voice.
  2. ↑ Laurens Cerulus (6 January 2018), Manfred Weber apologizes for 'final solution' comment Politico Europe.
  3. ↑ de la Baume, Maia; Gray, Andrew (5 September 2018). "Manfred Weber announces run to lead center right in European election". Politico. Archived from the original on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  4. ↑ Herszenhorn, David M.; de la Baume, Maia (8 November 2018). "Europe's conservatives nominate Manfred Weber for EU top job". Politico. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "Who's winning the race to be the next European Commission president?". 27 May 2019.
  6. 1 2 "EU center-right claims European Commission presidency | the Japan Times". Archived from the original on 27 May 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 "EU leaders task Tusk to find commission chief by June". EUobserver.
  8. ↑ "Manfred Weber". MEPs European Parliament. 14 July 1972. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  9. ↑ Curriculum vitae Manfred Weber Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  10. 1 2 Career in the CSU Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  11. ↑ Return Directive of the EU Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  12. 1 2 Maïa de La Baume (14 February 2017), Germany's Weber wants a 'G6' to push out the populists Politico Europe.
  13. ↑ "German conservative Weber announces run for top EU post". The Seattle Times. 5 September 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  14. ↑ Weber elected new EPP leader Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  15. ↑ Mallet, Victor; Chazan, Guy; Hall, Ben (27 May 2019). "Article". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022.
  16. 1 2 "New head of European conservatives dismisses Cameron's EU demands". Reuters. 7 June 2014 – via uk.reuters.com.
  17. ↑ Ian Traynor (5 January 2016), EU reform: senior German politicians move to support David Cameron The Guardian.
  18. ↑ Michelle Martin (26 February 2017), No debt relief for Greece, Germany's deputy finance minister says Reuters.
  19. ↑ Angela Merkel rejects one of Theresa May's key Brexit demands The Guardian
  20. ↑ Proposal for free Interrail pass for all Europeans on their 18th birthday Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  21. ↑ R. Daniel Kelemen (18 June 2015), EPP loves Orbán Politico Europe.
  22. ↑ "EP triggers sanctions procedure, Hungary calls 'fraud'". EUobserver.
  23. ↑ "Votation of EPP-MEPs to trigger Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union procedure against Hungary" (PDF). www.greens-efa.eu. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  24. ↑ Juncker: Hungary's ruling Fidesz doesn't belong in EPP Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  25. ↑ "Orbán's campaign against George Soros". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  26. ↑ Fidesz membership in EPP suspended but remains in the EPP-group Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  27. ↑ Stevis-Gridneff, Matina; Novak, Benjamin (3 March 2021). "Hungary's Ruling Party Breaks With Conservative E.U. Allies". The New York Times.
  28. ↑ Christian Oliver (1 May 2016), Top German MEP joins foes of controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline Financial Times.
  29. ↑ Michael Nienaber (24 January 2021), EU should punish Putin for Navalny arrest by cutting money flows – Germany's Weber Reuters.
  30. ↑ "Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2016 – VoteWatch Europe". votewatch.eu. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  31. ↑ Dispute over Doñana park Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  32. 1 2 Manfred Weber blasted the Commission for its handling of the Doñana wetlands Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  33. ↑ New EPP chief irks Madrid, contradicts von der Leyen Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  34. ↑ About Manfred Weber (in Spanish) Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  35. ↑ Board of Trustees European Academy of Bavaria.
  36. ↑ Board of Trustees Institute for European Politics (IEP).
  37. ↑ Members Central Committee of German Catholics.
  38. ↑ Friends of Braunau in Rohr Abbey (in German) Retrieved 17 May 2023.

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