Reinhard Hans Bütikofer (born 26 January 1953) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
since 2009. He is a member of the
Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...
, part of the
European Green Party
The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is the European political party that represents national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Fre ...
. He was the co-chair of Alliance 90/The Greens (alongside
Claudia Roth
Claudia Benedikta Roth (born 15 May 1955) is a German politician (Alliance 90/The Greens). She was one of the two party chairs from 2004 to 2013 and previously served as one of the President of the Bundestag, vice presidents of the ''Bundestag'' ...
from 2002 to 2008 and of the European Green Party (alongside
Monica Frassoni
Monica Frassoni (born 10 September 1963) is an Italian politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009 and as co-chair of the European Green Party from 2009 to 2019. In 2018, she was elected at the local Council of ...
) from 2012 to 2019.
Early life and education
Bütikofer was born in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
and grew up in
Speyer
Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
. He studied
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
,
sinology
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to th ...
and
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, but did not finish his studies.
Political career
Early beginnings
Bütikofer was active in the
student's movement and one of the "
K-gruppen
K-Gruppen (''Kommunistische Gruppen'', "Communist Groups") is a term referring to various Marxist (often Maoist) organizations that sprang up in West Germany at the end of the 1960s, following the collapse of the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studente ...
", the
Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
Communist League of West Germany
The Communist League of West Germany (''Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland''; KBW) was a Maoist organization in West Germany which existed from 1973 until 1985. The KBW contested the general elections in 1976 and 1980 in West Germany and was ra ...
(''Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland''; KBW). From the 1980s onwards, he became active in Heidelberg municipal politics for the Green-Alternative List.
In 1984, Bütikofer was elected into the town council of Heidelberg and became a member of the Green Party, the starting point of his political career with Alliance 90/The Greens. In 1988, he was elected in the
Landtag of Baden-Württemberg
The Landtag of Baden-Württemberg is the diet (assembly), diet of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It convenes in Stuttgart and currently consists of 154 members of five political parties. The majority before the 2021 Baden-Württemberg ...
. He was Member of the Landtag until 1996.
After a year of
parental leave
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" an ...
, in 1997 Bütikofer became co-chairman of the Green Party in Baden-Württemberg, alongside Monika Schnaitmann. Two years later he was elected
secretary general
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the federal party. In December 2002 he became co-chairman of the federal party (alongside
Angelika Beer
Angelika Beer (born 24 May 1957 in Kiel) is a German politician.
2004 to 2009 she was a Member of the European Parliament for Alliance 90/The Greens, part of the European Greens. She was chair of the delegation for relations with Iran and a membe ...
) and was reelected in 2004 and 2006 (alongside
Claudia Roth
Claudia Benedikta Roth (born 15 May 1955) is a German politician (Alliance 90/The Greens). She was one of the two party chairs from 2004 to 2013 and previously served as one of the President of the Bundestag, vice presidents of the ''Bundestag'' ...
). On 3 March 2008 he announced not to stand again as a party chairman and to run for European Parliament in 2009, to which he was elected.
Member of the European Parliament, 2009–present
Since 2009, Bütikofer is 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 ...
(MEP) for the German Green Party. He is a member of the
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its areas of responsibility relate to industry, especially technology-intensive manufacturing, information technology, and telecommunications. It also ...
(ITRE), and a substitute member of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and the
Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE). As
shadow rapporteur
A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word.
For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...
, he has authored reports on the evaluation of the
European Endowment for Democracy
The European Endowment for Democracy is a European non-governmental organisation with the stated purpose of promoting democracy, particularly in the European Neighbourhood, Turkey and the Western Balkans. It was established in 2013 following a p ...
(2015), on the impact of developments in European defence markets on the security and defence capabilities in Europe (2015) and on green growth opportunities for SMEs (2015).
In addition, Bütikofer is a member of the parliament's delegation for relations with the United States and the
Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue
Taking the existing interparliamentary relationship as its basis, the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue (TLD) aims to strengthen and enhance the level of political discourse between European and American legislators. It does so against the backgr ...
and the chair of the delegation for Relations with China. He also serves as a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on SMEs.
Bütikofer is the
Green Group
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
's spokesperson on industrial policy, and speaker of the delegation from the German Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) to the European Parliament.
In the negotiations to form a
coalition government
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
with the Christian Democrats – both the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the
Christian Social Union in Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: , CSU) is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic ...
(CSU) – and the
Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the
2017 national elections, Bütikofer is currently part of the 14-member delegation of the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
.
Following the
2019 elections, Bütikofer was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's four-year work program on foreign policy.
In the negotiations to form a so-called
traffic light coalition
In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...
of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(SPD) and the
Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the
2021 federal elections, Bütikofer was part of his party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired by
Heiko Maas
Heiko Josef Maas (; born 19 September 1966) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018–2021) and as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protectio ...
,
Omid Nouripour
Omid Nouripour ( fa, امید نوریپور; born 18 June 1975) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2006, representing the state of Hesse. Since 2022, he has also been ...
and
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff
Alexander Sebastian Léonce, Baron von der Wenge, Count Lambsdorff (born 5 November 1966), commonly known as Alexander, Count Lambsdorff (german: Alexander Graf Lambsdorff) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany, part of t ...
.
Political views
On the Green Party and the German political system
In 2005, Bütikofer complained that because Germany has no
winner-take-all political system, there were only a few Green party members in the foreign service, even after
Joschka Fischer
Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fis ...
had been foreign minister for seven years; by contrast, hundreds of supporters of the
Christian Democratic Union served in the
Federal Foreign Office
, logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg
, logo_width = 260 px
, image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg
, picture_width = 300px
, image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building
, headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...
. In 2010, Bütikofer characterized his party as representing “a certain lifestyle,” noting that, mostly urbanized, many belong to the professions and are politically and socially engaged. “They sit on school boards. They are active in their churches or sports clubs. They support nongovernmental organizations,” he said.
On public safety and civil liberties
Under Bütikofer’s leadership, a two-year-long effort to negotiate a revised immigration law was abandoned by the Green Party in 2004, citing concerns about, among other things, that any regulations allowing easier detentions or expulsions of terror suspects would subvert Germany's civil rights protections.
On natural resources
When the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
issued a strategy paper in 2010 which proposed pursuing more bilateral trade agreements and investing in infrastructure in Africa as a means to increase alternative sources of
rare earth metals
The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silve ...
, hoping to break China’s dominance of the market for the strategic minerals, Bütikofer demanded an “innovative industrial policy that reduces the use of resources” instead.
On China
When German Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ...
announced in 2005 his intentions to lift an
arms embargo
An arms embargo is a restriction or a set of sanctions that applies either solely to weaponry or also to "dual-use technology." An arms embargo may serve one or more purposes:
* to signal disapproval of the behavior of a certain actor
* to maintain ...
on China that had been in place since the crackdown on student-led opposition demonstrators near
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen (" ...
in Beijing in 1989, Bütikofer opposed the plan and instead called for a joint approach together with the United States.
Since 2020, Bütikofer has been serving as co-chair of the
Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) is an international, cross-party alliance of parliamentarians from democratic countries focused on relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), and specifically, the Chinese Communist Party ...
(IPAC). Also in 2020, he was one of 40 fellow Members of the European Parliament from five political groups who called for EU member states and the Commission to cut European public funding for Chinese 5G vendors
Huawei
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
and
ZTE
ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.
ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, opt ...
in a letter, arguing the two are "high-risk" companies that pose a security threat to network security in Europe.
On Russia
Following the assassination of journalist and human rights activist
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
in 2008, Bütikofer characterized the human rights situation in Russia as "deteriorating". He also criticized Russia's behaviour towards Georgia as "almost unbelievably arrogant", referring to the country's confrontation with Georgia and its decision to sever all transport and postal links in 2008. He is an advocate of "a more open and more clear-cut language from the West, including Germany
..if we just don't want to be standing by."
Other activities
*
European Council on Foreign Relations
The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decisi ...
(ECFR), Member (since 2021)
* Center for Global Politics (CGP),
Free University of Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...
, Member of the Advisory Board
*
EastWest Institute
The EastWest Institute (EWI), originally known as the Institute for East-West Security Studies and officially the Institute for EastWest Studies, Inc., was an international not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank focusing on international confli ...
, Member of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention
*
European Business Summit
European Business Summit (EBS) is an events and conference organiser, and the creator of one of the largest networking and debating events in Brussels – the annual European Business Summit.
Description
EBS was founded in 2000 by the FEB (Federa ...
(EBS), Member of the Honorary Committee
* European Endowment For Democracy (EED), Member of the Board of Governors
*
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
’s Ramer Institute Berlin, Member of the Advisory Board
*
Heinrich Böll Foundation
The Heinrich Böll Foundation (german: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V., HBS) is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was founded in 1997 when three predecessors merged. The foundation was n ...
, Member of the Europe/Transatlantic Advisory Board
*
Green European Foundation
The Green European Foundation is a political foundation at European level funded by the European Parliament. It is linked to, but independent of, other European Green actors such as the European Green Party and Greens–European Free Alliance.
...
, Member of the General Assembly
In addition, Bütikofer served on the board of Europa-Union Deutschland, the German branch of the
Union of European Federalists (UEF), Aspen Institute Berlin, and German-Chinese Dialogue Forum. He is a member of the
Green European Foundation
The Green European Foundation is a political foundation at European level funded by the European Parliament. It is linked to, but independent of, other European Green actors such as the European Green Party and Greens–European Free Alliance.
...
, the
International Institute for Strategic Studies
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been Arundel House in London, England.
The 2017 Global Go To Think T ...
, the
German Council for Foreign Relations, the
Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), and the German trade union
ver.di
(''Verdi'' (stylized as ''ver.di''; vɛʁdiː; German: ''United Services Trade Union'') is a German trade union based in Berlin, Germany. It was established on 19 March 2001 as the result of a merger of five individual unions and is a memb ...
.
Recognition
In November 2011, Bütikofer was honored with the Fray International Sustainability Award at Fray International Symposium in Cancún, Mexico, for his achievements in sustainable development in politics.
Personal life
Bütikofer's father was a post office worker and his mother was a housewife. He has fathered three daughters with Henriette Katzenstein. In 2001, he married Renee Krebs.
References
External links
Reinhard Bütikofer's website, both German and English vita* with comments and plenary speeches
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butikofer, Reinhard
1953 births
Living people
Politicians from Mannheim
Leaders of political parties in Germany
Communist League of West Germany politicians
Alliance 90/The Greens politicians
Heidelberg University alumni
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
Members of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg
Alliance 90/The Greens MEPs
MEPs for Germany 2009–2014
MEPs for Germany 2014–2019
MEPs for Germany 2019–2024