Günter Verheugen

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Günter Verheugen (born 28 April 1944 in Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German politician, currently serving as European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry. He is also one of five vice-presidents of the 27-member Barroso Commission.

Günter Verheugen was previously Commissioner for Enlargement in the Prodi Commission, presiding over the accession of ten new member states in 2004.

Verheugen studied history, sociology and political science at the University of Cologne and at the University of Bonn. He was secretary general of the FDP (liberals) from 1978 to 1982. He left the FDP with many left-liberal party members in 1982, because the FDP left the government of the federal chancellor Helmut Schmidt. In the same year he joined the SPD (social democrats).

In 1983 he became member of the federal parliament. He was member of the committee on foreign relations from 1983 to 1998. From 1994 to 1997 he was deputy chairman of the parliamentary group of the SPD. He served as minister of state in the department of foreign affairs from 1998 to 1999. In 1999 he left parliament and became EU commissioner for Enlargement of the European Union.

On November 5, 2004, during a press conference, Verheugen mentioned that the future prime-minister of Romania would be Mircea Geoană (of the PSD) and that Romania would end negotiations with the EU with just four days before the Romanian legislative and presidential elections. Following this, Romanian journalists accused him of meddling in Romanian politics.

In October 2006 he accused European Union officials of being impossible to control, stating inter alia the purported impossibility of firing Directors-General (the highest grade in the EU civil servants structure). However, Article 50 of the EU's Staff Regulations empowers the Commission to do precisely that.

In the aftermath of this comment, for which he was rebuked both by the Commission President, José Manuel Durão Barroso and by Commissioner Viviane Reding, he was embroiled in another controversy, when accused of having personally intervened to promote the appointment of a friend, Ms Petra Erler, to a plum job as head of his private office - "Head of Cabinet", which carries an astronomical net monthly salary in excess of 11,500 Euro (approximately $15,150).

His denial was somewhat tempered by photos taken of him, first hand in hand with Ms Erler (October 2006), then, in December 2006, naked on a naturist beach in Lithuania with said Ms Erler.

Various sources, in the European Parliament, as in the German Bundestag, question whether this behaviour is consistent with the code that members of the European Commission swear to uphold while in office.

[edit] Quotes

[edit] On cutting the EU bureaucracy

• "Many people still have this concept of Europe that the more rules you produce the more Europe you have."

  (October 2006)

• "The idea is that the role of the commission is to keep the machinery running and the machinery is producing laws. And that's exactly what I want to change."

  (October 2006)

[edit] On being photographed naked with Ms Erler

• "I consider that the question of where and with whom I choose to spend my August holidays is a purely private matter which does not concern anyone other than my wife, who was informed about it.”

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Archived website as Commissioner for Enlargement
• Biography from the Southeast European Times

Preceded by Ján Figeľ, Erkki Liikanen (Enterprise, as part of wider portfolio)	European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry 2004–2009	Succeeded by —
Preceded by Loyola de Palacio, Neil Kinnock	Vice-President of the European Commission 2004–2009 (jointly held position)	Succeeded by —
Preceded by —	European Commissioner for Enlargement 1999–2004 (jointly with Janez Potočnik briefly in 2004)	Succeeded by Olli Rehn
Preceded by Martin Bangemann, Monika Wulf-Mathies	German European Commissioner 1999–2009 (also Michaele Schreyer until 2004)	Succeeded by —