Peter Beyer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1970-12-25)25 December 1970 (age 54) |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Peter Beyer (born 25 December 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the GermanBundestag since 2009.
In addition to his parliamentary work, Beyer served as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at theFederal Foreign Office in thefourth coalition government ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2018 to 2021.[1]
After finishing hisAbitur in 1991, Beyer completed hismilitary service inWuppertal. Beyer then studiedlaw at the Universities ofDüsseldorf andBonn. Furthermore, he attended lectures in History and Politics in Bonn. In 1999 he finished his studies and wasadmitted to the bar. He subsequently worked at theCologne office of law firmMayer Brown.
In 2000 Beyer enrolled in a post-graduate legal studies program at theUniversity of VirginiaSchool of Law inCharlottesville where he completed aMaster of Laws in 2001. Returning to Germany, Beyer practiced law at the BEYER Intellectual Property firm inRatingen. There, he became one of the country's first officially certifiedintellectual property specialists.[2]
In thefederal election on 27 September 2009, Beyer was elected as a Member of theBundestag. He won his in district "Mettmann II" (consisting of the cities ofHeiligenhaus,Ratingen,Velbert undWülfrath) with a relative majority of 39.8% of the votes.[3]
In thefederal election on 22 September 2013, Beyer was re-elected as a Member of theBundestag, winning his district with a 45.6% relative majority.[4] Currently, he is a member of the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he serves as his parliamentary group'srapporteur on transatlantical and the relations withKosovo,Montenegro andSerbia. He is also a member of its Sub-Committee on the United Nations. In 2022, he joined a study commission set up to investigate the entire period of German involvement in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 and to draw lessons for foreign and security policy in future.[5]
In addition to his committee assignments, Beyer has been a member of the German delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) since 2018, where he serves on the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) and the Sub-Committee on Crime Problems and the Fight against Terrorism. In this capacity, he is the Assembly'srapporteur onKosovo.[6]
Beyer is also a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group, the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of South-Eastern Europe (Albania,Kosovo,Montenegro,North Macedonia,Serbia) and the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of theSouthern Caucasus (Armenia,Azerbaijan,Georgia).
From April 2018, Beyer served as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at theFederal Foreign Office in thefourth coalition government ofChancellorAngela Merkel.
In 2019, Beyer joined fellow CDU lawmakers – includingRoderich Kiesewetter andNorbert Röttgen – in co-signing an op-ed inHandelsblatt, calling onChancellorAngela Merkel to keep Chinese telecom companyHuawei out of Germany's5G network, citing national security reasons.[10]
WhenPresidentDonald Trump ordered the U.S. military to remove 9,500 troops from Germany in 2020, Beyer called the decision “completely unacceptable, especially since nobody in Washington thought about informing its NATO ally Germany in advance.”[11]
In March 2021, Beyer broke ranks with the official position ofChancellorAngela Merkel’sgovernment by publicly calling for a moratorium on the construction of theNord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe in an effort to improve transatlantic relations.[12]
In June 2017, Beyer was one of only five members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group who abstained from a vote on Germany's introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[13]
In 2019, Beyer joined 14 members of his parliamentary group who, in an open letter, called for the party to rally aroundAngela Merkel and party chairwomanAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer amid criticism voiced by conservativesFriedrich Merz andRoland Koch.[14]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats’leadership election in 2021, Beyer publicly endorsedArmin Laschet to succeedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair.[15]
Beyer lives in the German town of Ratingen and has two school-aged children.
