Claudia Niessen

Claudia Niessen (2018)

Claudia Niessen (born April 21, 1979 in Aachen ) is a Belgian architect, urban planner and politician of the Ecolo party , who is active in local politics in Eupen in the German-speaking community , but was also a senator in Brussels for two years . She has been the mayor of Eupen since December 4, 2018.

biography

Born in Aachen, Germany, Claudia Niessen, daughter of the Ecolo politician Hans Niessen , grew up in Kettenis , Belgium, near the German border near Aachen. Here she got involved in the Catholic rural youth (KLJ), where she was also a youth leader in the Kettenis village group. She attended the Rhein-Maas-Gymnasium Aachen , where she obtained the general university entrance qualification in 1998, and then started studying architecture and urban planning at the FH Aachen . At the same time, she began to get involved in Belgian local politics.

Niessen joined the ecologically oriented Belgian party Ecolo in Eupen in 1999. In the local elections in 2000, she ran for Ecolo in Eupen and in 2002 was a member of the city council of Eupen as a replacement for Bernard Paquet . At the same time, she completed her studies in Aachen in 2004. From 2004 Niessen worked as an employee of the Ecolo regional representative Monika Dethier-Neumann and from 2007 worked as an employee of the regional office of Ecolo in Eupen.

In 2010 Niessen was elected to the Belgian Senate , where she was a senator from July 6, 2010. In the Belgian local elections in 2012, Niessen ran on the Ecolo list for the mayor's office in Eupen, with 1336 preferential votes, after winning the second most preferential votes after the then mayor Elmar Keutgen, who had 1,722 votes. However, since the liberal Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF) received 78 votes more than Ecolo (albeit less than the Christian Social Party ), its candidate Karl-Heinz Klinkenberg became mayor. Niessen, however, became a lay judge (alderman) and deputy mayor, for which she resigned her position as senator on December 21, 2012 to the successor Benoit Hellings . When Karl-Heinz Klinkenberg fell ill at the beginning of 2016, she represented him as mayor.

Her political activities focus on urban development, environmental, energy and transport policy. Among other things, she campaigns for the promotion of pedestrian traffic and city buses.

In August 2017, Claudia Niessen expressed her negative opinion regarding the transfer of further competencies from the Walloon region to the German-speaking community. This was intended for the areas of spatial planning, housing construction and energy. She doubted that there were enough skilled workers available.

In the local elections in 2018, Niessen again won the second-most preferred votes behind the CSP candidate Karl-Joseph (Joky) Ortmann, but with 1,566 or (17.37%) this was significantly more than in 2012, while the proportion of votes of the parties in Eupen Ecolo with 2,857 Votes (25.89%), i.e. almost the same number of votes, PFF / MR overtook and came in second behind CSP. Ecolo, PFF / MR and SP + continued their collaboration to elect Claudia Niessen as mayor. The new city council was installed on December 3, 2018, and on December 4, 2018 Claudia Niessen took her oath of office as mayor of the city of Eupen in front of Minister Isabelle Weykmans .

family

Claudia Niessen has three children.

Web links

Claudia Niessen, Mayor of the City of Eupen
Claudia Niessen, 1st lay judge ( Memento from March 13, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (presentation on the website of the city of Eupen)
Press dossier on the Ecolo website, December 7, 2011 ( memento of November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), Claudia Niessen, for Eupen 2012
Claudia Niessen ( Memento from November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (on the Ecolo website)

Individual evidence

↑ Claudia Niessen (Ecolo) wants to be Eupen's first mayor. Ostbelgiendirekt, 2nd August 2017.
↑ The former community senator and current deputy mayor of Eupen, Claudia Niessen, has expressed herself cautiously and skeptically about the transfer of new competencies from the Walloon region to the German-speaking community. BRF, August 4, 2017.
↑ Elections on October 14, 2018, preliminary results, preferential votes, municipality of Eupen. German speaking community.
↑ Elections on October 14, 2018, preliminary results, results in figures, municipality of Eupen. German speaking community.
↑ Future mayor Claudia Niessen vented her displeasure with criticism on the Internet. Ostbelgiendirekt, October 25, 2018.
^ Appointment of the new city council on December 3rd. The 25 council members and the aldermen took their oath. City of Eupen, December 4, 2018.

personal data
SURNAME	Niessen, Claudia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 21, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH	Aachen

[obd-141920-1] Claudia Niessen (Ecolo) wants to be Eupen's first mayor. Ostbelgiendirekt, 2nd August 2017.

[2] The former community senator and current deputy mayor of Eupen, Claudia Niessen, has expressed herself cautiously and skeptically about the transfer of new competencies from the Walloon region to the German-speaking community. BRF, August 4, 2017.

[3] Elections on October 14, 2018, preliminary results, preferential votes, municipality of Eupen. German speaking community.

[4] Elections on October 14, 2018, preliminary results, results in figures, municipality of Eupen. German speaking community.

[5] Future mayor Claudia Niessen vented her displeasure with criticism on the Internet. Ostbelgiendirekt, October 25, 2018.

[6] Appointment of the new city council on December 3rd. The 25 council members and the aldermen took their oath. City of Eupen, December 4, 2018.