Stefan Berger (politician)

Stefan Heinrich Berger (* 15 September 1969 in Mönchengladbach) is a German politician CDU and economist.[1] He was elected as Member of the European Parliament in 2019 and is part of the group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats).[2] Previously, he was a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Stefan Berger

MEP
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
Personal details
Born (1969-09-15) September 15, 1969
Mönchengladbach, West Germany
(now Germany)
NationalityGerman
Political party German:
Christian Democratic Union
 EU:
European People's Party

Education and Personal Life

Stefan Berger received his high school diploma at the Gymnasium St. Wolfhelm (Schwalmtal) in 1989 and studied economics at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz from 1989 to 1995. He graduated in 1995 with a diploma as a business teacher (Handelslehrer) and in 1997, he also passed the Second State Examination. Berger carried out his legal clerkship at the Studienseminar in Düsseldorf. He then worked for an enterprise in advanced education services and received his doctorate in 1999. He lectures on international economic and monetary policy at the Fachhochschule für Oekonomie und Management (FOM) and the International School Of Management (ISM). Berger is married and has one daughter.

Municipal/Communal Politics

Berger has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 1995 and chairman of the CDU Schwalmtal since 1999. Since 2000, he has been a member of the executive board of the CDU Niederrhein, and since 2009 deputy chairman of the CDU of the county district Viersen. In addition, he is deputy chairman of CDU Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsvereinigung (MIT) North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1999 to 2009, he was a councillor of the Schwalmtal municipality. From 2001 to 2004, he was a member of the district council of the district of Viersen.

Regional politics

Stefan Berger was a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia from June 2, 2000 to July 3, 2019. He was directly elected in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2017 in the electoral district of Viersen I. He performed the position as University Policy Spokesman for the CDU State Parliament faction in NRW.[3] During the term of office of Cabinet Kraft II, he was the parliamentary adversary of the CDU to the Minister of Science Svenja Schulze.

In 2010, Berger was a voting member of the Federal Assembly.[4] From 2014 to 2017, he was also a member of the CDU Federal Committee for Education, Research and Innovation. From 2006 to 2008 and from 2010 to 2012, he was a full member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.[5]

European Policy

In January 2018, the district executive committee and district conference of the CDU district of Viersen nominated Berger as a candidate for the 2019 European elections, as Karl-Heinz Florenz, then MEP for the Lower Rhine region, did not run again for this election due to his age.[6] In June 2018, he was elected as a candidate for the European Parliament by the CDU Niederrhein.[7] In a secret ballot for the recommendation for sixth place on the list, the state executive of the CDU NRW nominated Stefan Berger at the beginning of 2019 in place of the European politician Elmar Brok. This led to a strong response from several media outlets.[8] On January 26, 2019, the NRW CDU's state representatives' meeting confirmed Berger's sixth place on the North Rhine-Westphalian electoral list for the European elections on May 26, 2019, which is considered to be a likely position from which to enter the European Parliament.[9]

After all the votes cast in the 2019 European elections had been counted, Berger's entry into the European Parliament was officially confirmed on 27 May 2019.[2] Berger is member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) [10] and of the Delegation for relations with Japan.[11] He is an alternate member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and the Delegation for bilateral relations with the Arab Peninsula.[11] His seat neighbor in the European Parliament is Silvio Berlusconi.[12]

On the European level, Berger stands up for medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by being an active in the Parliamentary Circle for medium-sized Businesses Europe as well as in the SME-Circle of the EPP Group. Berger is part of the Federal Expert Committee on European Policy (Bundesfachausschuss Europapolitik) of the CDU/CSU.

Digital Currency Libra

In the course of the planned launch of Facebook's digital currency Libra, Stefan Berger calls for the rapid development of a European stable coin, which could serve as a secure and stable alternative to Facebook's introduced currency. Berger regards the power of the "Libra society" as a threat to the stability of the Eurozone and a threat to European democracy. He warns that Libra should not convert Zuckerberg into central bank,[13] argues that it is time for Europe to gather expert knowledge on Libra and to carry out a detailed impact assessment of the financial system.[14]

Berger will be in charge of the European report of Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) which will serve as base for a regulatory framework for crypto-assets.[15]

Presidency of the EU Commission

Given the withdrawal of Manfred Weber as candidate for the office of EU Commission President, Berger welcomed the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen as an alternative candidate. He described a possible failure of her election and the associated further search for candidates as a "journey to Jerusalem (musical chairs), but without chairs".[16]

List of publications
  • Berger, S. (2020). „Wir brauchen freiwillige Datenspenden“. Rheinische Post. 27 März. [online] available at:
  • Berger, S. (2020). Zuckerberg darf nicht zur Zentralbank werden. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  • Berger, S. (2020). Zuckerbergs Zentralbank? Europas Antwort auf Facebooks Währungspläne. Die Politische Meinung, 560, S.110-113 (2020). available at:
  • Berger, S. (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility: Win-Win-Strategie für Unternehmen und Umwelt. Bundesnetzwerk Bürgerliches Engagement. 23. Januar. [online] available at:

Voluntary Commitment

In addition to his parliamentary work, he was member the advisory board of the Society for Employment Promotion of the district of Viersen and on the advisory board of the Willich I prison. He is also vice president of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Nordrhein-Westfalen, member of the administrative board of the Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW (BLB) and deputy member of the media commission of the LfM NRW. From 2005 to 2012, Berger was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Heinrich Hertz Foundation. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Johannes Rau Research Association.[17]

Berger is supporter of the Freundes- und Förderkreis der Jungen Union NRW e.V.

References
  1. Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen. "Landtag NRW: Abgeordneter Dr. Stefan Berger".
  2. Martin Röse. "CDU-Politiker: Stefan Berger aus dem Kreis Viersen ins Europaparlament gewählt" (in German).
  3. RP
  4. 14. Bundesversammlung 2010 Accessed on 16th July 2018.
  5. "Lebenslauf - Stefan Berger". CDU/CSU-Gruppe in der EVP-Fraktion im Europäischen Parlament.
  6. Press release 30 January 2018
  7. EU Kandidat für CDU Niederrhein gewählt Accessed on 16 July 2018.
  8. Laschet wirbt für Brok. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 January 2019, accessed on the same day.
  9. Westdeutsche Zeitung. "78,4 Prozent für den Kandidaten der Niederrhein-CDU" (in German). Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  10. "Mitglieder | Home | ECON | Ausschüsse | Europäisches Parlament" (in German).
  11. "Home | Stefan BERGER | Abgeordnete | Europäisches Parlament" (in German).
  12. RP ONLINE. "EU-Parlament in Straßburg: Stefan Berger ist Banknachbar von Silvio Berlusconi im EU-Parlament" (in German).
  13. FOCUS Online. "Müssen schnell sein: CDU-Europaabgeordneter plant digitalen Euro" (in German).
  14. "Brauchen wir einen digitalen Euro?" (in German).
  15. "Verfasser der EU-Berichterstattung zur Regulierung des Kryptomarktes" (in German).
  16. FOCUS Online. "Reise nach Jerusalem ohne Stühle? Von der Leyens schwierige Kür um Brüsseler Top-Job" (in German).
  17. jrf.nrw
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