Reinhard Bütikofer | |
|---|---|
 Reinhard Bütikofer in 2019 | |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 14 July 2009 – 15 July 2024 | |
| Constituency | Germany |
| Co-chair of theEuropean Green Party | |
| In office 2012 – 10 November 2019 Serving with Monica Frassoni | |
| Preceded by | Philippe Lamberts |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Waitz |
| Leader ofAlliance 90/The Greens | |
| In office 8 December 2002 – 16 November 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Fritz Kuhn |
| Succeeded by | Cem Özdemir |
| Member of theLandtag of Baden-Württemberg | |
| In office 25 March 1984 – 24 March 1996 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Reinhard Hans Bütikofer (1953-01-26)26 January 1953 (age 72) Mannheim,Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Political party |  GermanAlliance 90/The Greens  EUEuropean Green Party |
| Alma mater | University of Heidelberg (did not graduate) |
| Website | http://reinhardbuetikofer.eu/ |
Reinhard Hans Bütikofer (born 26 January 1953) is a German politician who served as a member of theEuropean Parliament from 2009 to 2024. He is a member of theAlliance 90/The Greens, part of theEuropean Green Party. He was the co-chair of Alliance 90/The Greens (alongsideClaudia Roth) from 2002 to 2008 and of the European Green Party (alongsideMonica Frassoni) from 2012 to 2019.[1]
Bütikofer was born inMannheim and grew up inSpeyer. He studiedphilosophy,sinology andhistory inHeidelberg, but did not finish his studies.
Bütikofer was active in thestudent's movement and one of the "K-gruppen", theMaoistCommunist League of West Germany (Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland; KBW). From the 1980s onwards, he became active in Heidelberg municipal politics for the Green-Alternative List.
In 1984, Bütikofer was elected into the town council of Heidelberg and became a member of the Green Party, the starting point of his political career with Alliance 90/The Greens. In 1988, he was elected in theLandtag of Baden-Württemberg. He was Member of the Landtag until 1996.
After a year ofparental leave, in 1997 Bütikofer became co-chairman of the Green Party in Baden-Württemberg, alongside Monika Schnaitmann. Two years later he was electedsecretary general of the federal party. In December 2002 he became co-chairman of the federal party (alongsideAngelika Beer) and was reelected in 2004 and 2006 (alongsideClaudia Roth). On 3 March 2008 he announced not to stand again as a party chairman and to run for European Parliament in 2009, to which he was elected.
From 2009 to 2024, Bütikofer was aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) for the German Green Party. He was a member of theCommittee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and a substitute member of theCommittee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and theSubcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE). Asshadow rapporteur, he authored reports on the evaluation of theEuropean Endowment for Democracy (2015), on the impact of developments in European defence markets on the security and defence capabilities in Europe (2015) and ongreen growth opportunities for SMEs (2015).
In addition, Bütikofer was a member of the parliament's delegation for relations with the United States and theTransatlantic Legislators' Dialogue and the chair of the delegation for Relations with China.[2] He also served as a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on SMEs.[3]
Bütikofer was theGreen Group's spokesperson on industrial policy, and speaker of the delegation from the German Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) to the European Parliament.
In the negotiations to form acoalition government with the Christian Democrats – both theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) and theChristian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) – and theFree Democratic Party (FDP) following the2017 national elections, Bütikofer is currently part of the 14-member delegation of theGreen Party.
Following the2019 elections, Bütikofer was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's four-year work program on foreign policy.[4]
In the negotiations to form a so-calledtraffic light coalition of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) and theFree Democratic Party (FDP) following the2021 federal elections, Bütikofer was part of his party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired byHeiko Maas,Omid Nouripour andAlexander Graf Lambsdorff.[5]
Amid theQatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament, it was found that Bütikofer was, by far, the Member of the European Parliament who has travelled the most during the current legislature. These travels were financed by third parties or non EU states with, so far, a total of 22 voyages and 47 hotel nights. Among the countries he visited there are, amongst others, India, China, Russia, the United States and Australia.[6]
In 2023, Bütikofer announced that he would not stand in the2024 elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[7]
In 2005, Bütikofer complained that because Germany has nowinner-take-all political system, there were only a few Green party members in the foreign service, even afterJoschka Fischer had been foreign minister for seven years; by contrast, hundreds of supporters of theChristian Democratic Union served in theFederal Foreign Office.[8] In 2010, Bütikofer characterized his party as representing “a certain lifestyle,” noting that, mostly urbanized, many belong to the professions and are politically and socially engaged. “They sit on school boards. They are active in their churches or sports clubs. They support nongovernmental organizations,” he said.[9]
Under Bütikofer’s leadership, a two-year-long effort to negotiate a revised immigration law was abandoned by the Green Party in 2004, citing concerns about, among other things, that any regulations allowing easier detentions or expulsions of terror suspects would subvert Germany's civil rights protections.[10]
When theEuropean Commission issued a strategy paper in 2010 which proposed pursuing more bilateral trade agreements and investing in infrastructure in Africa as a means to increase alternative sources ofrare earth metals, hoping to break China’s dominance of the market for the strategic minerals, Bütikofer demanded an “innovative industrial policy that reduces the use of resources” instead.[11]
When German ChancellorGerhard Schröder announced in 2005 his intentions to lift anarms embargo on China that had been in place since the crackdown on student-led opposition demonstrators nearTiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, Bütikofer opposed the plan and instead called for a joint approach together with the United States.[12]
Since 2020, Bütikofer has been serving as co-chair of theInter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).[13] Also in 2020, he was one of 40 fellow Members of the European Parliament from five political groups who called for EU member states and the Commission to cut European public funding for Chinese 5G vendorsHuawei andZTE in a letter, arguing the two are "high-risk" companies that pose a security threat to network security in Europe.[14]
On 22 March 2021, he wassanctioned by the Chinese government after the European Union imposed sanctions on China overXinjiang.[15]
Following the assassination of journalist and human rights activistAnna Politkovskaya in 2008, Bütikofer characterized the human rights situation in Russia as "deteriorating". He also criticized Russia's behaviour towards Georgia as "almost unbelievably arrogant", referring to the country's confrontation with Georgia and its decision to sever all transport and postal links in 2008. He is an advocate of "a more open and more clear-cut language from the West, including Germany [...] if we just don't want to be standing by."[16]
In addition, Bütikofer served on the board of Europa-Union Deutschland, the German branch of theUnion of European Federalists (UEF), Aspen Institute Berlin, and German-Chinese Dialogue Forum. He is a member of theGreen European Foundation, theInternational Institute for Strategic Studies, theGerman Council for Foreign Relations, theNature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), and the German trade unionver.di.
In November 2011, Bütikofer was honored with the Fray International Sustainability Award at Fray International Symposium in Cancún, Mexico, for his achievements in sustainable development in politics.[20]
Bütikofer's father was a post office worker and his mother was a housewife. He has fathered three daughters with Henriette Katzenstein. In 2001, he married Renee Krebs.
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