Tiemo Wölken (born 5 December 1985) is a German lawyer and politician who has been 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 ...

(MEP) since 14 November 2016. He is a member 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 ...

, part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...

Early life and education

Wölken was educated at the

Halepaghen Grammar School The Halepaghen Grammar School (), or HPS, is a ''Gymnasium (school), gymnasium'' ("grammar school") in Buxtehude (Lower Saxony, Germany). The school was mentioned for the first time in 1390 as an (original) grammar school. The school was named af ...

before studying law at the

University of Osnabrück A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, where he specialised in European public law. He also completed a supplementary course in economics at the University of Osnabrück before completing a Master in International Law in 2013 at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

in England.

Political career

Wölken became a

when he replaced

Matthias Groote Matthias Groote (born 21 October 1973) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 2005 until 2016, he served as Member of the European Parliament and was a part of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. Earl ...

who resigned to run for local office in 2016. During his first term, he served on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (2016–2017) and 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 2014.2019 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 cou ...

, he moved to 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 ...

, where he serves as his parliamentary group’s coordinator. He is also the Parliament’s lead

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 ...

health technology assessment Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that uses systematic and explicit methods to evaluate the properties and effects of a health technology. Health technology is conceived as any intervention (test, device, medici ...

. In 2021, Wölken and

Roberta Metsola Roberta Metsola (; ; born 18 January 1979) is a Malta, Maltese politician who has served as the president of the European Parliament since January 2022. She is a member of Malta's Nationalist Party (Malta), Nationalist Party (PN) and the European ...

co-authored a resolution to protect journalists and critical voices from

strategic lawsuits against public participation Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with ...

, which was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Parliament. In addition to his committee assignments, Wölken has been part of the Parliament’s delegations to the

Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) is a trans-national body of 150 Parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America. It was established in 2006 to bolster EU-Latin American relations. It was described by Benita Ferrero-Waldner ...

(2016–2019), the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee (2016–2019) and to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(since 2019). He co-chairs the MEP Interest Group on

Antimicrobial Resistance Antimicrobial resistance (AMR or AR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections. This resistance affects all classes of microbes, including bacteria (antibiotic resista ...

(AMR). He is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption, the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas, the European Parliament Intergroup on Artificial Intelligence and Digital, the European Internet Forum and the Responsible Business Conduct Working Group. Wölken was nominated by his 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

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

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 ...

. In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

'' under the leadership of

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (; ; born 11November 1955) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. He has also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022, leading the CDU/CSU ...

's Christian Democrats ( CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: Universities and university systems United States * Columbia Southern University, in Orange Beach, Alabama * California State University system * Colorado State University, in Fort Collins, Colorado * Connecticut State Univers ...

) and the SPD following the 2025 German elections, Wölken was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on digital policy, led by

Manuel Hagel Manuel Hagel (born 1 May 1988) is a former German bank employee and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg since 2016, where has been chairing his party's ...

, Reinhard Brandt and Armand Zorn.

Other activities

* Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory BoardPolitical Advisory Board
Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. * Education and Science Workers' Union (GEW), Member

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wölken, Tiemo Living people 1985 births Alumni of the University of Hull German expatriates in the United Kingdom Social Democratic Party of Germany MEPs MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 Politicians from Lower Saxony Osnabrück University alumni MEPs for Germany 2024–2029