Manfred Weber

Manfred Weber
Manfred Weber
Leader of the European People's Party in the European Parliament
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 4 June 2014
Preceded by	Joseph Daul
Personal details
Born	14 July 1972 (age 51); Niederhatzkofen, West Germany; (now Germany)
Political party	German:; Christian Social Union; EU:; European People's Party
Alma mater	Munich University of Applied Sciences

Manfred Weber (born on 14 July 1972 in Niederhatzkofen) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for Bavaria with the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, part of the European People's Party.

In the Bavarian state elections in 2003, Weber became the state’s youngest parliamentarian at the age of 29.^[1] Currently heading the European People's Party Group, he is the youngest group leader in the current Parliament as well as the youngest-ever group leader of the EPP.^[2]

Education

1996: Graduate engineer (Fachhochschule)

Career

1996: Founded DG Beratung GmbH consultants
1998: Founded G+U GbR
2003-2007: Regional Chairman of the Bavaria Junge Union
Member of the CSU executive board and Chairman of the CSU of Lower Bavaria
since 2002: Member of Kelheim Regional Council
2002-2004: Member of the Bavarian Regional Assembly

Member of the European Parliament, 2004–present

Weber serves on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. He is a substitute for the Committee on Regional Development, a member of the Delegation for relations with India, a substitute for the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community and a substitute on the Subcommittee on Human Rights. As rapporteur, he negotiated in 2008 for the European Parliament Directive on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (Return Directive), the first Directive in the field of home affairs to be adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure.^[3]

After his reelection in 2009 Weber became Vice-Chairman of the Group of the EPP in the European Parliament, and was responsible for setting the political strategy and the policy in the area of Justice and Home affairs.^[4]

In 2015, Bavaria's Minister President Horst Seehofer nominated Weber as one of his deputies in the office of CSU chairman, making him part of the party’s leadership.

Political positions

On 7 June 2014, Weber dismissed demands by British Prime Minister David Cameron to put the brakes on European integration.^[5] Weber stated that "The EU is based on an ever closer union of European peoples. That is set out in the treaties. It is not negotiable for us... We cannot sell the soul of Europe... if we grant every national parliament a veto right, Europe would come to a standstill."^[5] However, he supports Cameron’s demand that Britain, as a non-euro country, should be empowered to influence eurozone policy decisions. Also, he told the Guardian in early 2015 that the United Kingdom’s drive to freeze welfare payments for EU immigrants was justified and set an example for the rest of the union.^[6]

In July 2013, when the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) issued the Tavares Report criticizing the erosion of fundamental rights in Hungary, Weber dismissed it as a politically motivated attack on the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán by leftist parties.^[7]