Helga Trüpel (born 21 July 1958) is a German politician who served as

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) from 2004 until 2019. She is a member of the

Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...

, part of the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is a transnational, European political party representing national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–Eur ...

Educational background

Helga Trüpel studied German,

Religious Studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

, and

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

at the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen () is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 18,400 students from 117 countries. Its 12 faculties offer more than 100 degree programs. The University of Bremen has been among the top 50 European rese ...

. In 1988 she completed her

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German Literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

Political career

In 1980 Trüpel joined the political party The Greens, today called Alliance '90/The Greens.

Bremen

From 1987 to 1991 she was an elected member of the State Parliament of Bremen. From 1991 to 1995 she served as Bremen's State Minister for Culture and the Integration of Immigrants under the coalition government of Klaus Wedemeier. She also headed the Department of Environmental Protection and Urban Development for a brief period beginning in February 1995. From 1996 to 2004 she once again served as a member of the State Parliament of Bremen. She additionally served as the body's Vice President in the last two years of her term.

Europe

In 2004, 2009 and 2014 Trüpel was elected

(MEP) at the federal conferences of Alliance '90/The Greens. During her tenure as a MEP she held a variety of positions. From 2004 to 2014 she served as deputy spokesperson of the German delegation of Greens. During this period she also served as her parliamentary group's spokesperson for budgetary affairs. From 2004 to 2019 she was deputy chair of the

Committee on Culture and Education The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities of the committee This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race and the increased opportunities for educat ...

. From 2014 to 2019 she was a deputy member of the

Committee on Budgets The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) is a committee of the European Parliament. It has 41 members plus 39 substitute members. The committee's current chair is Jean Arthuis, who has held this position since 7 July 2014.People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and a deputy member of the Delegation for Relations with the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

. While criticizing the Jamaica Coalition in November 2017, Trüpel referred to Christian Democratic Union politician

Jens Spahn Jens Georg Spahn (born 16 May 1980) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the lower house of the federal parliament, the Bundestag (, MdB), for Steinfurt I – Borken I since 2002. Since 2025, he ...

as "right-wing, gay Spahn." This was met with nationwide criticism, leading to Trüpel temporarily suspending her party membership. In September 2017, Trüpel announced that she would not stand in the 2019 European elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. In her statement, Trüpel said she could not agree with the direction of the Green Party in the EU Parliament, particularly its support of open borders and increasing numbers of refugees. Trüpel was also a vocal supporter of a highly controversial reform to the European Union's

copyright law A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, e ...

concerning digital content. She published a manifesto in support of the reform. Her claims were met with pushback from IT and legal experts, many of whom accused her of being misinformed.

Later career

Trüpel was nominated by her party as delegate to the

Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and devise the first system of federal government under the Articles of Conf ...

for the purpose of electing the

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

.17th Federal Convention, 13 February 2022, List of Members

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trupel, Helga 1958 births Living people People from Moers Alliance 90/The Greens MEPs MEPs for Germany 2004–2009 MEPs for Germany 2009–2014 MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 21st-century women MEPs for Germany University of Bremen alumni