Egon Alfred Klepsch (30 January 1930 – 18 September 2010) was a German politician ( CDU). In the years 1963–1969 Klepsch was Federal leader of the

Junge Union The Junge Union Deutschlands (''Young Union of Germany'') or JU is the joint youth organisation of the two conservative German political parties, CDU and CSU. Membership is limited to individuals between 14 and 35 years of age. Junge Union clai ...

. In 1965 he worked briefly as an election campaign manager for

Ludwig Erhard Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economic ...

. In the same year he was elected to the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

, to which he belonged until 1980. Since 1964, Klepsch had been active at the European level. From 1973 he was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

in parallel to the Bundestag. After the first direct election of the parliament in 1979 Klepsch became chairman of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

(EPP) parliamentary group. After he had stood in vain in 1982 for the office of

President of the European Parliament President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

, he was elected in 1992 with the support of the EPP and

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...

parliamentary groups. In 1994 he retired from the European Parliament and became an advisor to Deutschen Vermögensberatungs AG.

Honours

Foreign honours

* : ''Honorary'' Companion of Honour of the National Order of Merit (25 March 1994Prime Minister of Malta Website
Honorary Appointments to the National Order of Merit
)

References

1930 births 2010 deaths People from Děčín Sudeten German people Naturalized citizens of Germany Presidents of the European Parliament Christian Democratic Union of Germany MEPs MEPs for Germany 1958–1979 MEPs for Germany 1979–1984 MEPs for Germany 1984–1989 MEPs for Germany 1989–1994 Members of the Bundestag for Rhineland-Palatinate Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany {{Germany-MEP-stub