Manfred Weber | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Weber in 2025 | |
| President of the European People's Party | |
| Assumed office 1 June 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Donald Tusk |
| Leader of theEuropean People's Party in theEuropean Parliament | |
| Assumed office 4 June 2014 | |
| President | Donald Tusk Himself |
| Preceded by | Joseph Daul |
| Member of the European Parliament forGermany | |
| Assumed office 13 June 2004 | |
| Member of theLandtag of Bavaria | |
| In office 21 September 2003 – 12 June 2004 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1972-07-14)14 July 1972 (age 53) |
| Political party | Christian Social Union |
| Education | Munich University of Applied Sciences |
Manfred Weber (born 14 July 1972) is a German politician who has been serving as President of theEuropean People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of theEPP Group in theEuropean Parliament since 2014. He has been aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany since 2004. He is a member of theChristian Social Union (CSU), part of theEuropean People's Party.
In the2003 Bavarian state elections, Weber became the state's youngest parliamentarian at the age of 31.[1] Currently heading theEuropean People's Party Group, he was the youngest group leader in the Parliament at the time of his appointment in 2014, as well as the youngest-ever group leader of the EPP.[1] Weber is known as a moderate politician and power broker in EU politics.[2]
In September 2018, Weber declared his intention to run for the position ofPresident of the European Commission[3] and was elected as theSpitzenkandidat of the EPP in November.[4] On 26 May 2019 Weber's European People's Party won the most seats in the European Parliament, thus making Weber the lead candidate to become the next President of the European Commission.[5][6] It was announced on 28 May that the new European Commission President would be picked at an EU summit in June; Weber was not nominated, withUrsula von der Leyen selected instead.[7]
From 2002–2014, Weber was a member of theKelheim District Council. From 2002 until 2004, he served as Member of theLandtag of Bavaria.[9]
In 2003, Weber succeededMarkus Söder as chairman of theJunge Union in Bavaria; he served in that position until 2007. In this capacity, he also joined the CSU executive board. In 2008, he succeededErwin Huber as chairman of the CSU of Lower Bavaria, one of the party's ten districts.[10]
Weber served on theEuropean Parliament'sCommittee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs from 2004 until 2012 and on theCommittee on Constitutional Affairs from 2012 until 2014. During that time, he was a substitute for theCommittee on Regional Development, a member of the Delegation for relations with India, a substitute for the Delegation for relations with the countries of theAndean Community and a substitute on theSubcommittee on Human Rights. Asrapporteur, he negotiated in 2008 for the European Parliament Directive on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (Return Directive), the first Directive in the field of home affairs to be adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure.[11]
After his reelection in 2009 Weber became vice-chairman of theEuropean People's Party group in the European Parliament under the leadership of chairmanJoseph Daul. In that capacity, he was responsible for setting the political strategy and the policy in the area of Justice and Home affairs.[10]
Weber has been chairing the EPP group since 2014. He has since been a member of theConference of Presidents of the European Parliament, first under the leadership ofMartin Schulz (2014–2017) and laterAntonio Tajani (since 2017). Between 2014 and 2016, Weber was a member of the now defunct G5 group along with European Commission PresidentJean-Claude Juncker,Vice PresidentFrans Timmermans, Socialist group leaderGianni Pittella andMartin Schulz, thenPresident of the European Parliament.[12] In early 2017, Weber established the so-called G6, a group of parliamentary leaders including Pittella as well asGuy Verhofstadt of theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE),Syed Kamall of theEuropean Conservatives and Reformists (ECR),Ska Keller of theGreens, andGabi Zimmer of theEuropean United Left–Nordic Green Left.[12]
In September 2018, Weber announced his candidacy (Spitzenkandidat) for the post of thePresident of the European Commission for the2019 European election.[13] (Under the unofficialSpitzenkandidat system, the leader of the European party that commands the largest coalition in the European Parliament subsequent to anelection to the European Parliament is likely to become the European Commission president.[5][6])
Weber's European People's Party won a plurality of seats in the European Parliament in May 2019, thus making him the lead candidate to succeedJean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission unless theSpitzenkandidat system was abandoned.[5] On 28 May, leaders of EU governments tasked European Council President Donald Tusk with leading the negotiations with members of the European Parliament and national leaders to pick a new European Commission President at an EU summit in late June 2019.[7] Tusk hinted that Weber was the "lead candidate."[7] This did not materialise withUrsula von der Leyen, a fellow member of theEuropean People's Party, being appointed president.
In 2022, Weber become president of the EPP.[14]
In 2023, he was invited byMateusz Morawiecki for an election debate beforethe same year's election due to controversies related withDonald Tusk.
In 2015,Bavaria'sMinister PresidentHorst Seehofer nominated Weber as one of his deputies in the office of CSU chairman, making him part of the party's leadership. In the negotiations to form acoalition government under the leadership ofChancellorAngela Merkel following the2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on European policy, led byPeter Altmaier,Alexander Dobrindt andAchim Post. Merkel and her government also have backed Weber's bid to become President of the European Commission.[15]
On 7 June 2014, Weber dismissed demands by British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron to put the brakes onEuropean integration.[16] Weber stated that "The EU is based on an ever closer union of European peoples. That is set out in the treaties. It is not negotiable for us... We cannot sell the soul of Europe... if we grant every national parliament a veto right, Europe would come to a standstill."[16] However, he supported Cameron's demand that Britain, as a non-euro country, should be empowered to influenceeurozone policy decisions. Also, he toldThe Guardian in early 2015 that the United Kingdom's drive to freeze welfare payments for EU immigrants was justified and set an example for the rest of the union.[17]
In early 2017, Weber held that if theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) insisted ondebt relief forGreece, it should no longer participate in thebailout, thereby breaking ranks with his political party's official line that the program would end if the IMF pulled out.[18]
Commenting on the UK's vote to leave the European Union, Weber said, "The British people decided to leave this union, so they will not be so comfortable, so safe, not so economically strong. That's why we will say that it really is a very negative day."[19]
In 2018, Weber placed a petition to grant free Interrail tickets to allEU citizens on their 18th birthday. These tickets would allow free travel within all of the EU for one month. Motivating reasons mentioned by Weber: "It is about bringing people together. We must arrange for young people to be thrilled by Europe again." However, the idea would have cost the EU taxpayer subsidies of 2.3 billion euros every year, hence the proposal did not find much support.[20]
In July 2013, when theEuropean Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) issued theTavares Report criticizing the erosion of fundamental rights inHungary, Weber dismissed it as a politically motivated attack on the government of Hungarian Prime MinisterViktor Orbán by leftist parties.[21] However, in September 2018 he approved theSargentini report voting to triggerArticle 7 of the Treaty on European Union procedure against the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.[22] Nevertheless, as head of the group, he failed in preventing a split in theEuropean People's Party group: 115 of its deputies voted in favour of the move, while 57 voted against, with 28 abstentions and 20 stayed away from voting.[23]
In the run-up of the2019 European Parliament election, Weber could not stop Orbán from his poster campaign targeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker[24] and billionaireGeorge Soros.[25] Eventually, on 20 March 2019, the EPP suspended the membership of Orban's partyFidesz.[26] When Fidesz withdrew from the EPP-Group under threat of expulsion in March 2021, Weber declared it a "sad day" for the EPP and thanked Fidesz members for their past contributions.[27]
In a 2016 letter toSigmar Gabriel, German economy minister, andMiguel Arias Cañete, EU energy commissioner, Weber criticized the proposedNord Stream 2 pipeline project, in that it would undermine the EU's foreign and security goals by increasing dependence onGazprom, Russia's gas export monopoly. Rather than new supplies across the Baltic, Weber called upon the commission to accelerate its efforts to import more gas acrossTurkey from theCaspian Sea, and even potentiallyIran andIraq.[28]
In response to the arrest and detention ofAlexei Navalny in early 2021, Weber demanded that the EU cut financial transactions fromPresidentVladimir Putin's inner circle.[29]
In March 2018, Weber voted against initiatives prohibiting gayconversion therapies, unlike the majority of the European People Party's MEPs.[30]
In April 2023, theRegional Government of Andalusia, led by the conservativePeople's Party, proposed a law to legalise to date illegal extraction of water for irrigation in theDoñana National Park, home to one of Europe's largest wetlands and UNESCO World Heritage, threatened by drought.[31] TheEuropean Commission warned that this would constitute "a flagrant violation of the provisions of the judgment of the Court of Justice".[32]Weber disagreed on this stance, accusing thevon der Leyen Commission of playing "party politics" and of campaigning against the regional Government of Andalucía and in favour of Spanish Socialist Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez.[33]
IncumbentEuropean Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and FisheriesVirginijus Sinkevičius contradicted Weber pointing out, that "Doñana is important for Spain & the EU".[32] Observers interpret the clash between the von der Leyen Commission and Weber – both are conservatives – as a new attempt by Weber to position himself for the presidency of the European Commission in the upcoming 2024 elections.[34]
In July 2023, Weber tried to block theNature Restoration Law, saying it would destroy farmers' livelihoods and threatenfood security.[35]
In March 2024, the EPP unveiled its new manifesto, which garnered media attention for several controversial proposals. Among these was the offshore asylum scheme, aimed at accommodating illegal migrants in third-world countries.[36][37] While some saw this proposal as a strategic move to appeal to conservative voters, others criticized it as a shift towards the far-right for the EPP.[38]
Media related toManfred Weber at Wikimedia Commons
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Leader of theEuropean People's Party in theEuropean Parliament 2014–present | Incumbent |
  German members of the European Parliament (2019–2024) | |
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| Christian Democratic Union | |
| Alliance 90/The Greens |
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| Social Democratic Party | |
| Alternative for Germany | |
| Christian Social Union in Bavaria | |
| The Left |
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| Free Democratic Party | |
| Die PARTEI |
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| Free Voters | |
| Ecological Democratic Party |
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| Family Party |
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| Volt |
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| Pirate Party |
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| Bündnis Deutschland |
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| European Commissioners (2024–2029) |
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| Heads of government at the European Council |
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| List of members of theEuropean People's Party group (2019–2024) | |
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| Austria | |
| Belgium | |
| Bulgaria | |
| Croatia | |
| Cyprus | |
| Czech Republic | |
| Denmark | |
| Estonia | |
| Finland | |
| France | |
| Germany | |
| Greece | |
| Hungary | |
| Ireland | |
| Italy | |
| Latvia | |
| Lithuania | |
| Luxembourg | |
| Malta | |
| Netherlands | |
| Poland | |
| Portugal | |
| Romania | |
| Slovakia | |
| Slovenia | |
| Spain | |
| Sweden | |
| International | |
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