Ingeborg Helen Gräßle (born 2 March 1961) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, 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 Representat ...

since the 2021 elections, representing the Backnang – Schwäbisch Gmünd district. She previously served as 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 European Coal and Steel Commu ...

(MEP) from 2004 until 2019, where chaired of the Budgetary Control Committee. As the co-

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 ...

for the revision of the

financial regulation Financial regulation is a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the stability and integrity of the financial system. This may be handle ...

, approved in the plenary in October 2012, Gräßle was instrumental in the negotiation of a compromise between the European Institutions. Gräßle is well known within the EU as a strong proponent of increased

transparency Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to: * Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material They may also refer to: Literal uses * Transparency (photography), a still ...

and

accountability Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the publ ...

for the Institutions.

Early life and education

Gräßle was born in 1961 in the town of Großkuchen, located in the Heidenheim district of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Germany, where she attended elementary school until 1971. She attended high school at Hellenstein-Gymnasium Heidenheim until 1980, after which she completed a two-year internship with ''

Augsburger Allgemeine The ''Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung'' is a major German regional daily newspaper published since 1945. History From 1807 to 1882, another paper named ''Allgemeine Zeitung'' was published in Augsburg but it is not connected to the later newspape ...

'', where she subsequently worked as an editor from 1982 to 1984. After leaving editorial work in 1984, Gräßle enrolled at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wi ...

, where she earned a master's degree in romance languages, history, and political science in 1989. She spent a year studying at the

Institut d'études politiques An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

in Paris, France, and in 1990, she took a job as the Director of Public Relations for Konrad-Adenauer-Haus (the German national headquarters for the Christian Democratic Union) in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, Germany. In 1994 Gräßle earned her PhD in political science from the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in poli ...

. Her dissertation, the "Der europäische Fernseh-Kulturkanal ARTE : deutsch-französische Medienpolitik zwischen europäischem Anspruch und nationaler Wirklichkeit", examined the Franco-German television network,

ARTE Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, pl ...

and explored the relationship between European standards and national realities.

Political career

Beginnings

From 1995 to 1996 Gräßle was the spokeswoman for

Rüsselsheim am Main Rüsselsheim am Main is the largest city in the Groß-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany. It is one of seven special status cities (implementing several functions that counties normally provide) in Hessen and is located on the Mai ...

, the largest town in the

Groß-Gerau Groß-Gerau () is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse, Germany, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area. In 1994, the town hosted the 34th Hessentag state festival. Geo ...

district of the

Rhein-Main region The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...

. In 1996 Gräßle was elected to the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg where she served until 2004 when she was elected to 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 adop ...

. Since 1999, Gräßle has served as the Vice-Chair of the CDU Women's Union of Baden-Württemberg, a member of the Heidenheim District Council, and a member of the CDU Bureau in Baden-Württemberg. In 2001 she was appointed as the Deputy District Chair of the CDU in Northern Baden-Württemberg, and the District Chair of the CDU in Heidenheim. Gräßle was a CDU delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

in May 2004.

Member of the European Parliament, 2004-2019

Gräßle was elected to the European Parliament and began her first term on 20 August 2004. She was re-elected in 2009 and 2014. Gräßle acted as the co-rapporteur, along with Crescenzio Rivellini, and lead parliamentary negotiator on legislation which created a new set of rules that govern the implementation of EU funds, known commonly as the financial regulation; the European Parliament acted as co-legislator with 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 ...

for the first time while drafting the new financial regulation that entered into force in January 2013. 2004 *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 Jean Arthuis (born 7 October 1944 in Saint-Martin-du-Bois, Maine-et-Loire) is ...

*Member of the

Committee on Budgetary Control The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) is a committee of the European Parliament. with 30 permanent members. It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesirable developments within EU institutio ...

2007 *

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of the CDU/

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...

Delegation in the European Parliament *Coordinator of the EPP group in the Committee on Budgetary Control 2009 *Substitute Member of the Delegation to the

Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly The Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PAUM), previously known as the ''Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly'' (''EMPA''), established in Naples on 3 December 2003 by decision of the Ministerial Conference of the Eu ...

*Substitute Member of the

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is a committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of employment and social policy, including labour rights, social security, inclusion, free movement for workers and pensi ...

*Substitute Member of the Delegation for Relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo 2014 * Chairperson of the

* Member of the Conference of Committee Chairs * Member of the Committee on Budgets * Member of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China * Substitute Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs During her time on the Committee on Budgetary Control, Gräßle led fact-finding missions to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

in 2011 and 2017 to visit multiple controversial EU-funded projects. Before the 2019 election, Gräßle was listed as number 5 on the local election list by the CDU Baden-Würtemberg. This fifth place made her the first woman on the list. The local CDU could only win four seats, and so all were taken by men. In an interview she spoke of an "old boys" network in the party with no interest in change. In the same interview, she also criticized the fact that there were no MEPs for the CDU of immigrant background. Gräßle was not re-elected in the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

Career in national politics

In September 2020, Gräßle announced that she would run for a parliamentary seat in the 2021 national elections. In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg

Winfried Kretschmann Winfried Kretschmann (born 17 May 1948) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2011. A member of the Alliance '90/Greens, he was President of the Bundesrat and ''ex officio'' deputy to the President of ...

following the 2021 state elections, Gräßle was a member of the working group on public finances, co-chaired by

Edith Sitzmann Edith Sitzmann (born 4 January 1963, Regensburg) is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens party served as State Minister of Finance in the second cabinet of Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann of Baden-Württemberg from 2017 to 2 ...

and Stefanie Bürkle. Since her election to the German

in 2021, Gräßle has been serving on the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment.

Political positions

Ahead of the Christian Democrats'

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...

in 2018, Gräßle publicly endorsed

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fro ...

to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.

Controversy

In December 2017, the

Committee on Legal Affairs The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities The main responsibilities of the committee are the interpretation and application of international and European law and the compliance of European U ...

decided to waive Gräßle's immunity after she caused a car accident in which a person suffered a shoulder injury.Report on the request for waiver of the immunity of Ingeborg Gräßle, 8 December 2017 (2017/2220(IMM))

Recognition

* 2013 – Taxpayers Prize of the Tax Payers' Association of Europe (jointly with

Michel Barnier Michel Barnier (born 9 January 1951) is a French politician who served as the European Commission's Head of Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom (UK Task Force/UKTF) from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as Chief Negotiator, Tas ...

)

Footnotes

External links

Personal Website
Dr. Gräßle's official website
Member Details

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

profile
MEP Dr. Inge Gräßle

's profile
"Stubborn Reformer"

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biographical article
EU offices around the world 'left empty for months'

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Dr. Inge Gräßle's Facebook page

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.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grassle, Ingeborg 1961 births Living people Christian Democratic Union of Germany MEPs European People's Party politicians Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Members of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg People from Heidenheim University of Stuttgart alumni Free University of Berlin alumni MEPs for Germany 2004–2009 MEPs for Germany 2009–2014 MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 21st-century women MEPs for Germany