Svenja Schulze
MdB
Official portrait, 2013
Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development
Assumed office
8 December 2021
ChancellorOlaf Scholz
Preceded byGerd Müller
Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
In office
14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021
ChancellorAngela Merkel
Preceded byBarbara Hendricks
Succeeded bySteffi Lemke
Minister for the Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office
15 July 2010 – 27 June 2017
Minister-PresidentHannelore Kraft
Preceded byAndreas Pinkwart (Innovation, Science, Research and Technology)
Succeeded byAndreas Pinkwart (Economics, Innovation, Digitization, and Energy)
General Secretary of the SPD North Rhine-Westphalia
In office
June 2017 – March 2018
Preceded byAndré Stinka
Succeeded byNadja Lüders
Member of the German Bundestag
for North Rhine-Westphalia
Assumed office
26 October 2021
Preceded bymulti-member district
Member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia
In office
22 October 2004 – 16 March 2018
Preceded byFrank Baranowski
Succeeded byInge Blask
Constituency
In office
3 June 1997 – 1 June 2000
Preceded byStefan Frechen
ConstituencySocial Democratic List
Personal details
Born (1968-09-29) 29 September 1968
Düsseldorf, West Germany
Political partySocial Democratic Party
Alma materRuhr-Universität Bochum

Svenja Schulze (born 29 September 1968) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She serves as Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz. Schulze has been serving as member of the German Bundestag since 2021, representing North Rhine-Westphalia.

Schulze served as the Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the fourth coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. From 15 July 2010 to 30 June 2017, she was Minister for Innovation, Science and Research in the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia.[1]

Early life and career

Schulze was born in Düsseldorf and grew up in the Weckhoven district of Neuss.[2] She completed her school-leaving exam in 1988 at the Gymnasium Norf in Neuss. She then studied German Studies and Political Science at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, which she completed in 1996 with the academic degree of Magistra Artium. As part of her studies, she also completed an internship at Alice-Salomon-Berufskolleg, a vocational school in Bochum.

After graduating, Schulze worked as a freelancer in the advertising and PR industry.[1] From 2000, she worked as a management consultant specializing in the public sector, including at Mummert & Partner, BBDO and Booz & Company.

Political career

Career in state politics

Schulze joined the SPD in 1988[3] and served as highschool students’ county spokesperson for North Rhine-Westphalia from 1988 to 1989, then as a member of the Socialist College Association and chair of the AStA at the University of Bochum. From 1993 to 1997, Schulze was North Rhine-Westphalia's regional leader of Jusos.

From 1996 to 2002 and again from 2006 to 2018, Schulze served on the leadership of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia.[1]

From 3 June 1997 to 1 June 2000 and again from 22 October 2004, Schulze was a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.[1] She last moved in for Frank Baranowski, who had been elected Lead Mayor of Gelsenkirchen. In the 2005 and 2010 elections she was again elected to the state parliament.[1] From 2005 until 2010, she served as her parliamentary group's spokesperson on environmental policy and consumer protection.[4][5]

In 2007, Schulze took over the chairmanship of the SPD sub-district Münster from Christoph Strässer and held it until 21 May 2011.

After 2010 state elections, Minister-President Hannelore Kraft appointed Schulze as State Minister of Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Cabinet Kraft I). With the abolition of tuition fees in North Rhine-Westphalia, Schulze launched one of the government's major political projects. During her term, the so-called "nuclear sphere affair" regarding the AVR reactor in Jülich occurred. At the election on 13 May 2012, she won the direct mandate in the Münster II constituency and was directly elected to the state legislature with 40.1 percent. On 21 June 2012, she was appointed again as State Minister of Innovation, Science and Research in the Cabinet Kraft II.

From 2017 until 2018, Schulze served as Secretary General of the SPD North Rhine-Westphalia, in this capacity supporting interim chairman Michael Groschek.[6] On 8 December 2017, she was elected to the SPD national board, under the leadership of chairwoman Andrea Nahles.[7] On the following day she was also elected to the SPD Presidium.[8]

Federal Minister of the Environment, 2018–2021

In the negotiations to form a fourth coalition government under Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Schulze was part of the working group on education policy, led by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Stefan Müller and Hubertus Heil. On 9 March 2018, she was nominated by the party executive committee of the SPD as Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the new government.[9] When Germany held the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2020, she chaired the meetings of its Environment Council.[10]

After SPD chairwoman Andrea Nahles resigned in 2019, Schulze declined to join the race to succeed her;[11] instead Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans became the party's co-chairs.

During her time in office, Schulze helped implement the Merkel government's 2019 agreement on the introduction of a carbon price for key sectors such as transport and a €54 billion spending package to encourage companies and households to reduce their carbon emissions.[12] She later oversaw the introduction of 2021 legislation under which farmers in Germany would have to gradually reduce their use of glyphosate and stop using it completely from 2024 in order to preserve clean habitats for insects.[13] Later that year, she led the government's efforts to raise Germany's target for reducing carbon emissions by 2030 from 55 per cent to 65 per cent and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, five years earlier than initially planned.[14][15]

In October 2020, Schulze announced that she would run for a parliamentary seat in the 2021 federal elections.[16] In the elections, she stood in Münster but came in third place. She was elected on the state list.

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the elections, Schulze was part of her party's delegation in the working group on climate protection and energy policy, co-chaired by Matthias Miersch, Oliver Krischer and Lukas Köhler.[17]

At the COP26 climate summit in 2021, Schulze said that "nuclear power cannot be a solution in the climate crisis." At the time, Germany was engaging in a nuclear phaseout while experiencing an energy crisis and heavily relying on coal and natural gas for power generation.[18]

Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, 2021–present

After the SPD won the 2021 election, Olaf Scholz succeeded Merkel as Chancellor and named Schulze as Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, while, under the terms of the traffic light coalition agreement, Steffi Lemke of the Greens took Schulze's old job as Environment Minister. Schulze took office in her new role on 8 December 2021.[19] Along with Hubertus Heil, she is currently the longest-serving cabinet member.[20]

In her capacity as minister, Schulze chaired the meetings of the Group of Seven (G7) development ministers when Germany held the group's rotating presidency in 2022.[21] In April 2022, she also co-hosted a donor conference which helped raise $4.8 billion in funding pledges for the vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX.[22] In response to the 2022 food crises, she led G7 efforts to establish the Global Alliance for Food Security, jointly convened with the World Bank.[23]

In September 2022, Schulze made available an additional 200 million euros ($199.02 million) to fund Ukraine’s aid programs for those internally displaced as a result of Russia’s invasion.[24]

In October 2023, Schulze joined the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron.[25][26]

Other activities

International organizations

Corporate boards

  • KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (since 2018)[28]
  • NRW.BANK, Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board (2017–2018)

Non-profit organizations

Political positions

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Schulze opposed a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19. In a 2021 interview with RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, she argued that "as a former science minister, I see patent protection as the basis for successful research and development" and that "the manufacturing process for modern vaccines is so technically demanding and complex that suspending it would not help at all."[31]

Personal life

Schulze has been married to Italian-born trade unionist Andrea Arcais since 2011.[32] The couple live in Münster.[33] Schulze is a vegetarian.[5]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Svenja Schulze.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Abgeordnete Svenja Schulze, landtag.nrw.de
  2. ↑ Eine Ministerin aus Weckhoven Rheinische Post, 28 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Kristian Frigelj (March 9, 2018), Neue Umweltministerin Schulze: Ein alter Skandal haftet Nahles’ Juso-Freundin noch an Die Welt.
  4. ↑ Saskia Hassink (March 10, 2018), Svenja Schulze – die Unbekannte aus Münster Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.
  5. 1 2 Nora Marie Zaremba (October 18, 2018), Bundesministerin für Umwelt: Svenja Schulze sucht ihr Profil Der Tagesspiegel.
  6. ↑ NRW: SPD wählt Michael Groschek zum Landesparteichef, Die Zeit
  7. ↑ Wahlergebnisse Parteivorstand 2017, SPD.de
  8. ↑ BeisitzerInnen des SPD-Präsidiums gewählt, SPD.de
  9. ↑ Unser Team, SPD.de
  10. ↑ Kate Abnett (20 September 2020), Eastern states sceptical of deeper greenhouse gas cuts at EU talks Reuters.
  11. ↑ Parteivorsitz Svenja Schulze will nicht für SPD-Vorsitz kandidieren Handelsblatt.
  12. ↑ Tobias Buck (20 September 2019), Germany unveils sweeping measures to fight climate change Financial Times.
  13. ↑ Maria Sheahan (February 10, 2021), German cabinet approves legislation to ban glyphosate from 2024 Reuters.
  14. ↑ Guy Chazan (May 5, 2021), Germany sets ambitious new carbon emissions target Financial Times.
  15. ↑ Philip Oltermann and Fiona Harvey (May 6, 2021), Germany to bring forward climate goals after constitutional court ruling The Guardian.
  16. ↑ Dirk Anger (1 October 2020), SPD-Bewerberin: Svenja Schulze will bei der Bundestagswahl 2021 kandidieren Westfälische Nachrichten.
  17. ↑ Ampel-Koalition: Das sind die Verhandlungsteams von SPD, Grünen und FDP Deutschlandfunk, October 27, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Arguing for nuclear power in Germany". POLITICO. 19 November 2021.
  19. ↑ Posaner, Joshua (8 December 2021). "Meet Germany's new government". Politico. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  20. ↑ List of federal ministers by seniority Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community.
  21. ↑ Andrew Green (18 May 2022), 'Critical' meetings of G-7 development and health ministers kick off Devex.
  22. ↑ Mrinalika Roy and Emma Farge (8 April 2022) Vaccine group Gavi secures $4.8 billion in funding pledges for COVAX Reuters.
  23. ↑ JOINT STATEMENT: G7 Presidency, World Bank Group Establish Global Alliance for Food Security to Catalyze Response to Food Crisis World Bank, press release of 19 May 2022.
  24. ↑ Riham Alkousaa (4 September 2022), Germany pledges $199 mln in aid for displaced people in Ukraine - minister Reuters.
  25. ↑ Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke (9 October 2023), Germany, France hold unprecedented cabinet retreat to oil creaky EU motor Reuters.
  26. ↑ Erste deutsch-französische Kabinettsklausur: Zukunftsfragen und Weltpolitik diskutiert Cabinet of Germany, press release of 10 October 2023.
  27. ↑ Members Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee.
  28. ↑ Board of Supervisory Directors and its Committees KfW.
  29. ↑ Bernd Westphal und Anke Rehlinger koordinieren neu konstituierten Politischen Beirat des SPD-Wirtschaftsforums Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, press release of 1 July 2020.
  30. ↑ Members of the Program Committee ZDF.
  31. ↑ Tim Szent-Ivanyi (29 December 2021), Entwicklungsministerin Schulze: „Die Impfdosen müssen weltweit in die Oberarme“ RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland.
  32. ↑ Hochzeit: SPD-Chefin Svenja Schulze heiratet in Münster ihren Lebensgefährten Westfälische Nachrichten, 10 April 2011.
  33. ↑ Klaus Baumeister (9 March 2018), Umweltministerin Svenja Schulze: Mit großer Freude von Münster nach Berlin Westfälische Nachrichten.
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