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Günter Verheugen | |
|---|---|
 Verheugen in 2007 | |
| European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry | |
| In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010 | |
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Ján Figeľ Olli Rehn(Enterprise andInformation Society) |
| Succeeded by | Antonio Tajani(Industry and Entrepreneurship) |
| European Commissioner for Enlargement | |
| In office 13 September 1999 – 11 November 2004 Serving with Janez Potočnik | |
| President | Romano Prodi |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Olli Rehn |
| Member of the Bundestag | |
| In office 1983–1999 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1944-04-28)28 April 1944 (age 81) |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party(1982–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Free Democratic Party(Before 1982) |
| Alma mater | University of Cologne University of Bonn |
Günter Verheugen (German pronunciation:[ˈɡʏntɐfɛɐˈhɔʏɡn̩]; born 28 April 1944) is a German politician who served asEuropean Commissioner for Enlargement from 1999 to 2004, and then asEuropean Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry from 2004 to 2010. He was also one of five vice presidents of the 27-memberBarroso Commission (Barroso I). After his retirement, he is now honorary Professor at theEuropean University Viadrina inFrankfurt (Oder).
Born atBad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Verheugen studied history, sociology and political science at theUniversity of Cologne and at theUniversity of Bonn.
Verheugen was Secretary General of theFree Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) from 1978 to 1982, under the leadership of the party's chairmanHans-Dietrich Genscher. He left the FDP with many left liberal party members in 1982, because the FDP left the government of ChancellorHelmut Schmidt. In the same year, he joined theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
In the1983 Western German elections, Verheugen became a member of the GermanBundestag. He was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1998. In the early 1980s, Verheugen mapped out a principled policy towards South Africa'sapartheid regime, embarrassing many of Germany's major companies, includingMercedes-Benz andDeutsche Bank, by exposing their efforts to get round international sanctions in a book published in 1986.[1]
From 1994 to 1997, Verheugen was deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of the group's chairmanRudolf Scharping. In addition to his parliamentary work, he chaired the Broadcasting Council ofDeutsche Welle from 1994 until 1998.
Ahead of the1994 elections, Scharping included Verheugen in hisshadow cabinet for the party's campaign to unseat incumbentHelmut Kohl as Chancellor.[2] WithinGerhard Schröder's campaign team for the1998 federal elections, he served as his external affairs advisor and accompanied him on his trips to Washington and Warsaw.[3]
In thefirst cabinet ofChancellorGerhard Schröder, Verheugen briefly served as Minister of State in theFederal Foreign Office under MinisterJoschka Fischer. During Germany'spresidency of the Council of the European Union in 1999, he led the negotiations on theAgenda 2000 package of EU policy reforms. Shortly after, he was in talks to be nominated as Germany's candidate for the European Union's newly createdHigh Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy; the post eventually went toJavier Solana.[4] In 1999, he left parliament and became EUcommissioner for Enlargement of the European Union.
Nominated by the German government ofChancellorGerhard Schröder, Verheugen first served in theEuropean Commission asEuropean Commissioner for Enlargement in theProdi Commission, presiding over the accession of ten new member states in 2004. He continued in the followingBarroso Commission as Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, also being promoted to one of the fivevice presidents.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of theÉlysée Treaty in 2003, theEU Commissioners of Germany and France, Verheugen andPascal Lamy, jointly presented the so-called Lamy-Verheugen Plan that proposed a factualunification of France and Germany in some important areas – including unified armed forces, combined embassies and a shared seat at theUnited Nations Security Council.
As a Commissioner, Verheugen stated a desire to cutred tape, especially in order to make it more favourable toSMEs. He also highlights research and innovation as "twin keys to future competitiveness". He outlines his priorities as; better regulation, a modern industrial policy, SMEs and innovation. In order to promote competitiveness, he laid down three policies derived from the treaties; "Competitiveness and improvement of the business environment (Art. 157). Completing and managing theInternal Market for products (Art. 28 and 95) and Innovation and research framework programmes (Title XVIII)."[5]
Verheugen was heavily involved in work on theREACH regulation and ensuring its compatibility with theLisbon Strategy.[6] He sees a common patent in the Union implemented by 2012 which he sees as important as patent application for the 24 million SMEs in Europe are on average 11 times higher than in the United States.[7]
In response to the refusal of countries to sign theKyoto protocol, such as the United States and Australia, Verheugen askedPresident Barroso to look into whether the EU could implement taxes on products imported from those countries not takinglow-carbon policies on board (Border Tax Adjustments).[8]
In October 2006, Verheugen accused European Union officials of being impossible to control, statinginter alia the purported impossibility of firing Directors-General (the highest grade in the EU civil servants structure). However, Article 50 of the EU's Staff Regulations empowers the commission to do precisely that. Formercivil servantDerk Jan Eppink described Verheugen's position in the following terms:
Verheugen is worried about mandarins having too much power because he's really not in charge. If you've been in a job for eight years and you're still not in charge, you have a problem. Verheugen is a foreign policy man; he was one with the FDP (Germany's free-market liberals) and then the SPD (Social Democrats). That's his thing. InBrussels, he's weighed down in the details, he gets lost in legislation and he's not really interested in the Enterprise and Industry portfolio. That's why he was so enthusiastic about enlargement because that's foreign policy. But he's been weakened by the mandarins, and by complaining about the bureaucracy he has only made things worse. Employing his girlfriend as his head of cabinet didn't help. He has become ridiculous, but no one wants him to go. When you have a commissioner who is so undermined, you stand a good chance of overruling him and getting your way.[9]
Since leaving public office, Verheugen has held a variety of paid or unpaid positions, including the following:
In 2014 Verheugen was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at theUniversität Essen-Duisburg'sNRW School of Governance. He gave both seminars and lectures at the university.[13]
From March 2015, Verheugen headed the European integration work stream in theDmytro Firtash-backedAgency for the Modernisation of Ukraine (AMU),[14] a non-governmental organization developing a comprehensive program of modernization of Ukraine and looking for investment resources for its implementation.[15] Verheugen led the Agency's sectoral division for the institutional reforms recommendations aimed at the integration of Ukraine into the EU and civil society building.[16]
In 2001, former Czech Prime MinisterVáclav Klaus accused Verheugen of a "tragic misuse of his position", after Verheugen warned that the country's hope of joining the European Union swiftly would take a setback if the right-leaningCivic Democrats won the2002 elections. On 5 November 2004, during a press conference, Verheugen mentioned that the future prime-minister ofRomania would beMircea Geoană (of thePSD) and that Romania would end negotiations with the EU with just four days before the Romanianlegislative andpresidential elections. Following this, Romanian journalists accused him of meddling in Romanian politics.[citation needed]
During his time in office, photographs appeared showing Verheugen holidaying with Petra Erler, the head of his private office.[17] A Commission spokesman backed him by saying "the private holidays of Vice President Verheugen inLithuania this summer did not violate the rules applicable to members of the Commission". Despite this, there was a minor political row over Erler's appointment with allegations of her being appointed due to their friendship. These allegations were later aggravated over photos of them together on holiday holding hands, and then on anaturist beach together inLithuania.
Verheugen claims that theRevolution of Dignity was a planned coup d'etat;[18] he also calledSvoboda members of the transitional Ukrainian government in 2014richtige Faschisten ("true fascists").[19]
National honours
Germany : Knight Commander of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of GermanyForeign honours
Croatia : Honorary citizen ofŠibenik[21]
Estonia : 1st Class of theOrder of the Cross of Terra Mariana
Latvia : 1st Class of theOrder of the Three Stars
Slovakia : Grand Cross (or 1st Class) of theOrder of the White Double Cross (2004)[22]
Czech Republic : 1st Class of theOrder of the White Lion (2016)[23]| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | German European Commissioner 1999–2010 Served alongside:Michaele Schreyer | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | ||
| New office | European Commissioner for Enlargement 1999–2004 Served alongside:Janez Potočnik | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas European Commissioner for Enterprise andInformation Society | European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry 2004–2010 | Succeeded byas European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
