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Revision as of 06:04, 17 January 2007 by Wolfram~enwiki (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Prof. Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering (born September 15, 1945 in Bersenbrück/Niedersachsen) is a German conservative politician (CDU), and the current President of the European Parliament.
Education
He studied law, political science and history in Bonn, Geneva and at the Columbia University in New York. He took his first juristic state exam in 1973, was promoted Dr. phil. in political science and history in 1974 and took his second juristic state exam in 1976.
Political career
He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1979, one of only 14 members of the European Parliament who have served continuously since the first elections.
From 1984 to 1994 he was chairman of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. From 1994 to 1996, he chaired the EPP and EPP-ED working group on the Intergovernmental Conference 1994, the results of which became the official EPP position for the Treaty of Amsterdam. In 1994, he also became vice-chairman of the EPP, and from 1999 to 2007 he was chairman of the EPP-ED.
He was the top candidate of the CDU in the 2004 European elections.
He also is a member of the Executive Board (Präsidium) of the CDU.
President of the European Parliament
As part of a deal with the socialist group, he was to succeeded Josep Borrell Fontelles as President of the European Parliament in the second part of this term, which he did on 2007-01-16. He was elected with 450 of valid 689 votes, and defeated Italian Green Monica Frassoni, Danish Eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde and French Communist Francis Wurtz.
Platform
Pöttering is known as an enthusiatic European federalist and an ally of Angela Merkel. He has stated his priority will be to rejuvenate the European constitution.
Awards
Pöttering has received the Schuman Medal, the Grand Order of Merit of Germany, the Grand Decoration of the Republic of Austria and the Mérite Européen en or.
Private life
He lives in Bad Iburg at Osnabrück, is Catholic and has two sons.
External links
| Preceded byJosep Borrell Fontelles | President of the European Parliament 2007–2009 |
Succeeded byIncumbent |
| Preceded byWilfried Martens | Chairman of the EPP-ED 1999–2007 |
Succeeded byJoseph Daul |
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