Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl

Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl is a German politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1989 until 2019. She is a member of the Christian Democratic Union in Lower Saxony, which is a part of the European People's Party. She most recently served as the European People's Party's coordinator of the International Trade Committee (INTA), chairwoman of the UK Monitoring Group of INTA, vice-coordinator of the Committee on Human Rights (DROI) and vice-chairwoman of the Delegation for relations with Canada.

Education and career

Quisthoudt-Rowohl studied Chemistry at University of Leuven. After graduating, she did a PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen from 1972 to 1973.

From 1974 to 1978 Quisthoudt-Rowohl continued researching at the Hannover Medical School. From 1979 to 1989 she served as ''Akademische Rätin'' of the University of Hildesheim. There she also worked as an academic employee at the institute for applied glottology and later became an academic council at the institute for applied glottology. From 2002, she was teaching at its Institute of Social Sciences,. On 6 March 2009, she became a professor at the department of education and social sciences. She gave guest lectures at the University of Kaliningrad, at the European Business School and at Harvard University.

Political career

Career in national politics

In 1990 Quisthoudt-Rowohl was a CDU board member in Lower Saxony. From 1994 to 2012 she was national board member for the CDU. She is counted as one of the principal supporters of Angela Merkel's bid for Chancellorship in 2004.

From 1990 to 1996 Quisthoudt-Rowohl was a national board member of the Frauen Union for the CDU. She was assistant member of the European committee of the German Bundestag. From 2005 to 2009 she was the leader of the city association CDU in Hildesheim.
From 1990 to 1996 she served on the national board of the ''Frauen Union'',

Member of the European Parliament, 1989–2019

From 1989 Quisthoudt-Rowohl was a member of the European Parliament where she was one of the senior deputies for the CDU in the European Parliament with Elmar Brok and Karl-Heinz Florenz. She was a member of the executive board (Quaestor) from 1997 to 2007 and was a member of the board of the EPP.

As member of the Committee on International Trade, she advocated European car manufacturers against dumping prices of aluminium rims by Chinese manufacturers. At her request, the committee decided to criticize Turkey urgently because Turkey still does not allow Cyprus to export goods to Turkey. Further, Turkey should ratify the Ankara Protocol as soon as possible. Finally she urged Turkey to enforce copyrights effectively and so to stop brand piracy. Quisthoudt-Rowohl holds the European ban on incandescent lamps for patronizing and undemocratic, because the parliament and the public were not involved. Ms Quisthoudt-Rowohl was also involved in the ceilings for the mobile phone fees in the EU.

She wants to strengthen small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by increasing participation in international trade and by an intensification of relations to the USA. She was involved in a new energy agreement between Russia and the EU.

Quisthoudt-Rowohl was formally a member of the Committee on Development. There, she brought European student exchanges and projects to promote democracy in China and India on the way (since 2010). In 1999 she ensured that the Commission gave higher priority to children's rights. Quisthoudt-Rowohl works on the implementation of the Gender-Mainstreaming, in particular she speaks up for boys and young men to end their current discrimination. In 2003 she suggested a review of the use of EU funds for the Palestinian Authority, to ensure that the money is not wasted for corruption or funding of terrorist groups.

From 1994 to 1999, Quisthoudt-Rowohl was Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Energy, Research and Technology. 2005 she initiated the first talks between European institutes for oceanography and the European Parliament to discuss the rapidly advancing climate change, global sea level rise, marine resources, the increasing threat and damage from tsunamis, earthquakes and extreme weather events and the continuing destruction of the marine environment in order to discuss sustainable use and work on a consensus on priorities for future research.

In June 2018, Quisthoudt-Rowohl announced that she would not stand in the 2019 European elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.

Committee assignments and Delegations

Committees

1989-1991 Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Member)Christian de Fouloy: ''The European Strasbourg register 1994.'' Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1994, , , S. 93.''The European Union Encyclopedia and Directory 1999.'' Routledge, 1999, , , S. 322.

1991-1999 Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Vice-chairwoman and coordinator)

1989-1999 Committee for Commerce and Currency (Deputy member)

2004-2007 Committee on Development (Deputy member)

2004-today Committee on International Trade