Moritz Körner is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a

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 ...

since 2019. He is member of the board of the Free Democratic Party in Germany.

Political career

Career in state politics

Körner joined the FDP in 2008. Since 2014, he has been a member of the party's leadership in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, under the leadership of successive chairmen Christian Lindner (2014-2017) and Joachim Stamp (since 2017). From

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

to 2019, Körner served as a member of the

Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia is the state parliament (''Landtag'') of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which convenes in the state capital of Düsseldorf, in the eastern part of the district of Düsseldorf-Hafen, Hafen ...

, representing

Mettmann Mettmann () is a town in the northern part of the Bergisches Land, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Mettmann (district), district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district. The town lies ...

. At the time of his election, he was the parliament's youngest member. During his time in parliament, he served as his parliamentary group’s spokesperson on universities.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present

Körner has been a

since the 2019 European elections. He has since been serving on 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.Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

. In this capacity, he served as the Parliament’s

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 ...

on a 2020 scheme that linked member states’ access to the

Budget of the European Union The budget of the European Union ( The Union’s annual budget) is used to finance EU funding programmes (such as the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, Horizon Europe, or Erasmus+) and other expenditure at the European ...

to respecting the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

. On the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, he also follows digital surveillance issues. In 2022, he joined the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

and equivalent surveillance

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy, endangering their device's securit ...

. In addition to his committee assignments, Körner is part of the Parliament's delegation for relations with

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 ...

. He is also a member of the

Spinelli Group The Spinelli Group is an initiative founded with a view to reinvigorate the endeavour for federalisation of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic uni ...

; the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption; the European Parliament Intergroup on Artificial Intelligence and Digital; the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup of the European Parliament's legislators which focuses on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons both inside and outside the European Uni ...

; the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals; the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas; and of the URBAN Intergroup. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

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 Form ...

(SPD), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

and the FPD following the 2021 federal elections, Körner was part of his party's delegation in the working group on financial regulation and the

national budget A government budget is a projection of the government's revenues and expenditure for a particular period, often referred to as a financial or fiscal year, which may or may not correspond with the calendar year. Government revenues mostly include ...

, co-chaired by Doris Ahnen, Lisa Paus and

Christian Dürr Christian Dürr (born 18 April 1977) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2017 to 2025. From December 2021, he was the leader of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Ea ...

. In January 2022, Körner was nominated as Secretary General of the FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia, succeeding Johannes Vogel. Since 2024, Körner has been leading the group of FDP members in the European Parliament, succeeding Nicola Beer.

Other activities

Institute for European Politics The Institute for European Politics (IEP; German: ''Institut für Europäische Politik'') is a German foreign and European policy research centre based in Berlin. It is an independent non-governmental organization focused on the research of Euro ...

(IEP), Member of the Board of Trustees

Personal life

Körner is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

.Christian Knuth (3 May 2017
Moritz Körner: „Wir sind der schärfste Kontrast zur AfD."
'' Männer''.

References

External links

Living people MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 Free Democratic Party (Germany) MEPs 1990 births German gay politicians LGBTQ legislators in Germany 20th-century German LGBTQ people 21st-century German LGBTQ people MEPs for Germany 2024–2029 {{Germany-MEP-stub