Since March 15, 2009, Klaus Welle is the Secretary General of the European Parliament. He has previously been Head of the Office (cabinet) of the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering MEP, in Brussels.
Born in Beelen, Germany in July 1964, Welle studied economics at the Witten/Herdecke University, before becoming Head of Foreign and European Affairs for the CDU party in Bonn (1991–94). He made his political reputation by masterminding an unexpectedly strong CDU performance in the June 1994 European elections. Welle then served successively as Secretary General of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), Secretary General of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament, and Director General for Internal Policies in the general secretariat of the European Parliament.
During his time with the EPP Europarty and EPP-ED Group in the EP, Welle is credited with the strategy of opening the formerly Christian Democrat EPP alliance to a broader range of conservative and liberal political forces, to consolidating the European centre-right under the EPP. This approach culminated in the EPP-ED Group becoming the largest political group in the European Parliament in June 1999, a position it has enjoyed ever since, and the EPP becoming the overall dominant political force in all the main EU institutions. In 1991-95, Welle also cut his political teeth as Chairperson of the Democrat Youth Community of Europe.[1]
On 23 May 2010, the British newspaper The Sunday Times, citing an anonymous source, claimed that Klaus Welle had an initiative to provide an Apple iPad to all 736 MEPs. The Sunday Times article about the alleged initiative implied that earmarking money on iPads is not the best of examples of austerity, when Europe is suffering from severe budget deficits. However, a parliament spokesperson interviewed for the article was reportedly not aware of any such initiative.[2]
| Preceded by Neale Stevenson |
Chairman of the Democrat Youth Community of Europe 1991-1994 |
Succeeded by Arthur Winkler-Hermaden |