Svenja Schulze | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2021 | |
| Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development | |
| In office 8 December 2021 – 6 May 2025 | |
| Chancellor | Olaf Scholz |
| Preceded by | Gerd Müller |
| Succeeded by | Reem Alabali-Radovan |
| Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety | |
| In office 14 March 2018 – 8 December 2021 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Barbara Hendricks |
| Succeeded by | Steffi Lemke |
| Minister for the Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office 15 July 2010 – 27 June 2017 | |
| Minister-President | Hannelore Kraft |
| Preceded by | Andreas Pinkwart(Innovation, Science, Research and Technology) |
| Succeeded by | Andreas Pinkwart(Economics, Innovation, Digitization, and Energy) |
| General Secretary of theSPD North Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office June 2017 – March 2018 | |
| Preceded by | André Stinka |
| Succeeded by | Nadja Lüders |
| Member of the German Bundestag forNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |
| Assumed office 26 October 2021 | |
| Preceded by | multi-member district |
| Member of theLandtag of North Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office 22 October 2004 – 16 March 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Frank Baranowski |
| Succeeded by | Inge Blask |
| Constituency |
|
| In office 3 June 1997 – 1 June 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Stefan Frechen |
| Constituency | Social Democratic List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1968-09-29)29 September 1968 (age 57) |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | Ruhr-Universität Bochum |
Svenja Schulze (born 29 September 1968) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as member of the GermanBundestag since 2021, representingNorth Rhine-Westphalia.
On the national level, Schulze served asMinister for Economic Cooperation and Development in thecabinet of Olaf Scholz from 2021 to 2025[1] and asMinister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in thefourthcoalition government ofChancellor 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 ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia.[2]
Schulze was born inDüsseldorf and grew up in the Weckhoven district ofNeuss.[3] She completed her school-leaving exam in 1988 at the Gymnasium Norf in Neuss. She then studiedGerman Studies andPolitical Science atRuhr-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, avocational school in Bochum.
After graduating, Schulze worked as a freelancer in the advertising andPR industry.[2] From 2000, she worked as a management consultant specializing in the public sector, including atMummert & Partner,BBDO andBooz & Company.
Schulze joined the SPD in 1988[4] 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 theAStA at the University of Bochum. From 1993 to 1997, Schulze was North Rhine-Westphalia's regional leader ofJusos.
From 1996 to 2002 and again from 2006 to 2018, Schulze served on the leadership of theSPD in North Rhine-Westphalia.[2]
From 3 June 1997 to1 June 2000 and again from 22 October 2004, Schulze was a member of theState Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.[2] She last moved in for Frank Baranowski, who had been elected Lead Mayor ofGelsenkirchen. In the2005 and2010 elections she was again elected to the state parliament.[2] From 2005 until 2010, she served as her parliamentary group's spokesperson onenvironmental policy andconsumer protection.[5][6]
In 2007, Schulze took over the chairmanship of the SPD sub-district Münster from Christoph Strässer and held it until 21 May 2011.
After2010 state elections,Minister-PresidentHannelore Kraft appointed Schulze as State Minister of Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Cabinet Kraft I). With the abolition oftuition 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 theAVR reactor inJülich occurred. At theelection 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 theCabinet Kraft II.
From 2017 until 2018, Schulze served as Secretary General of theSPD North Rhine-Westphalia, in this capacity supporting interim chairman Michael Groschek.[7] On 8 December 2017, she was elected to the SPD national board, under the leadership of chairwomanAndrea Nahles.[8] On the following day she was also elected to the SPD Presidium.[9]
In the negotiations to form afourth coalition government underChancellorAngela Merkel following the2017 federal elections, Schulze was part of the working group on education policy, led byAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer,Stefan Müller andHubertus 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.[10] When Germany held the rotatingpresidency of theCouncil of the European Union in 2020, she chaired the meetings of itsEnvironment Council.[11]
After SPD chairwomanAndrea Nahles resigned in 2019, Schulze declined to join the race to succeed her;[12] insteadSaskia Esken andNorbert 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.[13] She later oversaw the introduction of 2021 legislation under which farmers in Germany would have to gradually reduce their use ofglyphosate and stop using it completely from 2024 in order to preserve clean habitats for insects.[14] 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 achievecarbon neutrality by 2045, five years earlier than initially planned.[15][16]
In October 2020, Schulze announced that she would run for a parliamentary seat in the2021 federal elections.[17] In the elections, she stood inMünster but came in third place. She was elected on the state list.
In the negotiations to form a so-calledtraffic light coalition of the SPD, theGreen Party and theFree 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 byMatthias Miersch,Oliver Krischer andLukas Köhler.[18]
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.[19]
After the SPD won the2021 election,Olaf Scholz succeeded Merkel as Chancellor and named Schulze asFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, while, under the terms of thetraffic light coalition agreement,Steffi Lemke of theGreens took Schulze's old job as Environment Minister. Schulze took office in her new role on 8 December 2021.[20] Along withHubertus Heil, she is currently the longest-serving cabinet member.[21]
In her capacity as minister, Schulze chaired the meetings of theGroup of Seven (G7) development ministers when Germany held the group's rotating presidency in 2022.[22] In April 2022, she also co-hosted a donor conference which helped raise $4.8 billion in funding pledges for the vaccine-sharing schemeCOVAX.[23] In response to the2022 food crises, she led G7 efforts to establish the Global Alliance for Food Security, jointly convened with theWorld Bank.[24]
In September 2022, Schulze made available an additional 200 million euros ($199.02 million) to fund Ukraine's aid programs for thoseinternally displaced as a result ofRussia's invasion.[25]
In October 2023, Schulze joined the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Scholz andPresidentEmmanuel Macron.[26][27]
Amid theCOVID-19 pandemic, Schulze opposed awaiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19. In a 2021 interview withRedaktionsNetzwerk 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."[32]
Schulze has been married to Italian-borntrade unionist Andrea Arcais since 2011.[33] The couple live inMünster.[34] Schulze is avegetarian.[6]
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