![RobertGoebbelsSchengen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/RobertGoebbelsSchengen.jpg)
Robert Goebbels (born 3 April 1944) is a former
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
, and a former
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 ...
for the
Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party
The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party ( lb, Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Aarbechterpartei, french: Parti ouvrier socialiste luxembourgeois, german: Luxemburger Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei), abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social-democratic, pr ...
, part of the
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 ...
.
Goebbels started his career as one of the editors in charge of international affairs in a Luxembourg daily. From 1972 to 1974 he was elected three times chairman of the Luxembourg Association of Journalists.
Goebbels’ political career started as president of the Young Socialists in 1969. He was elected secretary general of the Luxembourg Socialist Party in 1971 and regularly re-elected up to 1984.
In 1976 Goebbels was elected to the City Council of Luxembourg, and re-elected later on for 3 additional mandates.
In 1984 Goebbels was elected to the
National Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, and afterwards re-elected 4 times. That same year, he was appointed to the Government as
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
, International Trade and Development Cooperation and as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
From 1984 to 1989 Goebbels attended numerous
ASEAN
ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...
post-ministerial conferences and co-chaired in 1985 in Bangkok the first ASEAN-EU- Conference on Economic Affairs.
In 1985 Goebbels invited to the signature of the first
Schengen-Agreement. In the following years he was Luxembourg's negotiator for the Schengen Convention of 1990.
In 1986 Goebbels signed for Luxembourg the European Single Act, which launched the European single market.
In 1986 Goebbels was also appointed vice-chairman of the GATT-Conference in Punta del Este, which launched the Uruguay Round.
In 1989 Goebbels was appointed Minister of the Economy, Minister of Public Works, Minister of Transport. In the latter capacity he chaired the European Conference of Ministers of Transport.
In 1994 Goebbels was appointed Minister of the Economy, Minister of Energy, Minister of Public Works. As member of the Ecofin-Council of the EU he was involved in the launching of the
Euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
.
In 1999 Goebbels was elected to the European Parliament, re-elected in 2004 and 2009.
From 1999 to 2009 Goebbels served as vice-chair of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, and as spoke-person of his group on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In addition he chaired the Lisbon network on Growth and Investments of the European Socialist Party. In 2001 Goebbels was elected chairman of the Committee on Human Genetics of the European Parliament.
In 2006 Goebbels was appointed by the Government as High Commissioner for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the
Shanghai World Expo
Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the tr ...
2010.
In his 15 years in the European Parliament, Goebbels was rapporteur or co-rapporteur of numerous European legislations.
Goebbels was a member of the ACP-EU joint Parliamentary Assembly and a member of the EP-Delegation to the ASEAN countries. From 2009 to 2014 he served as first vice-president of the EP-delegation to ASEAN and attended in that capacity most of the meetings of the
ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Assembly. In 2014 he was appointed EP-Member of the EU-task force for
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
. He served also in 2014 as chair of the EP observation-mission to the presidential elections in Egypt.
In July 2014 Goebbels retired from active politics. He continues to publish articles in the national and international press.
In March 2016 the Luxembourg Government appointed Robert Goebbels as the Luxembourg representative to the ASEF Board of Governors.
Footnotes
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goebbels, Robert
Ministers for the Economy of Luxembourg
Ministers for Public Works of Luxembourg
Ministers for Transport of Luxembourg
Ministers for Energy of Luxembourg
MEPs for Luxembourg 2004–2009
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg)
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg) from Centre
Councillors in Luxembourg City
Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party politicians
Luxembourgian journalists
Male journalists
1944 births
Living people
People from Luxembourg City
Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party MEPs
MEPs for Luxembourg 1999–2004
MEPs for Luxembourg 2009–2014