Serving citizens for three decades

Throughout my political career – over more than three decades, first in Germany and then as a member of the European Commission – I have served citizens. My first term as Commissioner culminated with ten new Member States joining the Union in 2004, and my job as Enterprise and Industry Commissioner now gives me the chance to to contribute to promoting more and better jobs through enhancing competitiveness, an issue that is crucial for the lives of all EU citizens.

I grew up and was educated in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s industrial heartland. Having experienced Germany’s economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) at first hand, and the enduring prosperity it brought to my region, I have no doubts about the value of enterprise in European society. Moreover, that this prosperity was built on a strong partnership between workers and investors has had a lasting impact on my political beliefs

After leaving school in 1963, I worked as a trainee on the Neue Rhein/Neue Ruhr Zeitung (NRZ) newspaper for a couple of years. After my time at university, where I studied history, sociology and politics, I worked for the federal government, first for the Ministry of the Interior then for the Foreign Ministry, responsible for media relations and information departments. After that, I moved full time into politics, becoming becoming finally the General Secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party. However, in 1982, along with many of my colleagues, I left the FDP in protest at the party leader’s decision to bring down the then Social Democrat government.

I joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1982, and was elected to the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament the following year. Thanks to the support of my constituents, I was a member of the Bundestag continuously from 1983 until I joined the European Commission in September 1999. Within the parliament, I sat on the Foreign Affairs Committee from 1983 until 1998. In parallel, I held a number of senior offices within the SPD. With the return of the SPD to government in 1998, I was appointed Minister of State for European Affairs in the Foreign Ministry, before being nominated as European Commissioner responsible for enlargement in 1999.

My appointment as Commissioner for the period 1999-2004 put me in charge of managing the EU’s biggest and most complex enlargement process. I am grateful for having welcomed the ten Member States which joined in May 2004, and laid the base for the recent membership of two more, as well as for the accession negotiations with Turkey. In 2002, moreover, I got the task to develop a new policy approach towards our neighbours to the East and to the South that now enjoy privileged relations with the EU.

It has also reinforced my conviction that the Union is central to peace, security and equal opportunities in Europe. And so the invitation to tackle the challenge of strengthening Europe’s enterprise culture and industrial base in the current Commission was one I could not turn down.