Joachim Zeller (politician)

Joachim Zeller (2014)

Joachim Zeller (born July 1, 1952 in Opole , Poland ) is a German politician ( CDU ). He was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019 . Prior to that, he was district councilor in Berlin's Mitte district from 1992 to 2009 and also district mayor from 1996 to 2006 . From 2003 to 2005 he was also regional chairman of the CDU Berlin .

Career

Zeller was born in Opole, Upper Silesia, and studied Slavic Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow , where he graduated as a language mediator .

From 1977 to 1992 he was a research assistant at the university library of the Humboldt University.

politics

Zeller has been a member of the CDU Berlin since 1990 and was chairman of the Mitte district association from 1990 to 1999. In addition, from 1991 he was a member of the state executive committee of the CDU Berlin.

In 1996, Zeller was elected deputy state chairman at the state party congress, before he became chairman himself in 2003, succeeding Christoph Stölzl . In 2005 he gave up his post to Ingo Schmitt and moved again to the post of deputy state chairman until 2009.

After Schmitt resigned surprisingly, Zeller took over the provincial chairmanship for a short time again in 2008 until Frank Henkel was elected chairman.

From 2009 to 2011, Zeller was chairman of the local branch on Bernauer Strasse and was a co-opted member of the board there until 2019.

In addition, since March 2010 he has been Deputy Chairman of the Europa Union parliamentary group in the European Parliament . He did not run again in the 2019 EU elections and left the EU Parliament.

During his time as a member of the European Parliament, he was once again a member of the Berlin CDU state executive as an advisory member.

District City Councilor and District Mayor (1992–2009)

Zeller had been a member of the district assembly of Berlin-Mitte since 1990 , before he was first elected to the district councilor in 1992. He initially took over the environment and health departments.

In February 1996, Zeller was elected district mayor to succeed Gerhard Keil. He kept this office after the district reform in 2001 .

After the Berlin elections , he took over the office of the District Councilor for Economics, Real Estate and Public Order on October 26, 2006, and was also deputy district mayor. The SPD politician Christian Hanke became the new mayor .

European Parliament (2009-2019)

In November 2008, Zeller was chosen as the top CDU candidate for the 2009 European elections. He prevailed against the former State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense Friedbert Pflüger .

Zeller was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 and belongs to the Group of the European People's Party . Since March 2010, he has also been a representative of the CDU / EPP on the board of the non-partisan European Union parliamentary group European Parliament .

In the 2014 elections , Zeller was re-elected to the European Parliament and was deputy chairman of the Committee for Regional Development in the 8th legislative period . He was also a member of the Budgetary Control Committee , the Development Committee , the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and the Delegation to the ACP-EU (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

He was also a deputy member of the subcommittee on human rights and the delegations for parliamentary cooperation between EU and Kyrgyzstan, EU and Uzbekistan, and for relations with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

In the 2019 European elections , Zeller did not run again at his own request. On November 10, 2018, the state representative assembly elected Hildegard Bentele as the new top candidate of the CDU Berlin, who also won a mandate on election day.

Zeller resigned as a member of parliament at the constituent session of the 9th European Parliament on July 2, 2019 .

Political positions

As one of 28 members of parliament, Zeller turned on April 18, 2012 (against a majority of 580 votes in favor with 74 abstentions) against a resolution that created a legal basis for monitoring Internet censorship by autocratic regimes and EU export regulations Technologies that serve the Internet censorship, demands.

As one of only two German MPs voted Zeller in recent years in the European Parliament always against the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LSBTTIQ privileges). He rejected the "Resolution on joining a UN call for safeguarding the human rights of LGBT people in the world", as well as the "Report on fundamental rights in the EU, including LGBT rights", the "Report on Human rights in the world 2013 ", the" Resolution on the EU Citizenship Report 2010: Dismantling the obstacles to EU citizens' rights ", the" Resolution on homophobia in Europe "and the" Report on EU Roadmap against homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity ".

Private

Zeller is widowed and has four children.

Web links

Commons : Joachim Zeller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Joachim Zeller
• Entry on Joachim Zeller in the Members' database of the European Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Europa-Union Deutschland # Parliamentary work
2. ^ Website of the European Parliament
3. ^ Ryan Gallagher: Who Voted Against Restricting Sales of Spy Tech to Dictators? These European Politicians. . In: slate , April 19, 2012.
4. ↑ Press statement of the LSVD zero percent for Zeller