Viola von Cramon | |
|---|---|
Viola von Cramon-Taubadel atHeinrich Böll Foundation | |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 2 July 2019 – 2024 | |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| In office 2009–2013 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1970-03-23)March 23, 1970 (age 55) |
| Citizenship | German |
| Nationality | |
| Political party | Alliance 90/The Greens European Green Party |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn |
Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, often officially referred as simplyViola von Cramon (néeGehring, 23 March 1970), is a German politician ofAlliance 90/The Greens who served as a member of theEuropean Parliament from 2019 to 2024 and of theBundestag, the German federal parliament, from 2009 to 2013.[1]
Viola was born inWerther, North Rhine-Westphalia, the elder daughter of restaurant owner Hartwig Gehring and his wife Margit.[citation needed]
Viola von Cramon graduated from Ratsgymnasium Bielefeld in 1989. From 1990 to 1991 she did an agricultural internship with theDemeter Charity inUpper Bavaria. From 1992 to 1993, she was an Erasmus Scholar atWye College inKent, followed by a 1993 study visit toRussia. In 1994 she travelled toVoronezh andBelgorod as part of aWorld Bankfeasibility study and the following yearEstonia for a study visit.
In 1996, von Cramon was an assistant to theUkrainian Government inKyiv as part of a German Government project. She graduated from theUniversity of Bonn in 1997 with a degree inAgricultural economics. From 1993 to 1996 she lectured atAgra-Europe.
From 1997 to 2004, von Cramon managed projects inCentral andEastern Europe. During 2006-2007 she attended lectures atCornell University.[2]
Von Cramon has been a member of the Green Party since 2001.
Von Cramon was a member of the GermanBundestag from 2009 until 2013. Within herparliamentary group, she served as spokeswoman for theforeign relations of the European Union and sports.[3]
She was Deputy Chairwoman of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States of theSouthern Caucasus (Armenia,Azerbaijan,Georgia). She was a member of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the States ofCentral Asia (Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Uzbekistan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan). From 2010 until 2014, she was a substitute member of the German delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Von Cramon served on theCommittee on Foreign Affairs and was itsrapporteur on relations with theWestern Balkans.[4] She joined the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union in 2020.[5][6][7]
She was an EU Parliament delegate to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, to theEuronest Parliamentary Assembly and toSerbia.[8]
She was a member of the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group which oversees the Parliament’s election observation missions.[9] In response to an invitation byPresidentHashim Thaçi,Federica Mogherini appointed her to lead the EU mission to observe2019 elections inKosovo.[10]
In 2020, she joined theInter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.[11]
From 2021, von Cramon was part of the Parliament's delegation to theConference on the Future of Europe.[12]
Von Cramon is married toGerman nobleman Stephanvon Cramon-Taubadel, who currently works as a Professor ofAgricultural policy at theUniversity of Göttingen. They are parents of 4 children.