Michel Barnier

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Michel Barnier (2014)

Michel Barnier (born January 9, 1951 in La Tronche , Département Isère ) is a French politician ( Les Républicains ). From 2004 to 2005 he was French Foreign Minister. From 2010 to 2014 he was Commissioner for Internal Market and Services in the Barroso II Commission . Since October 1, 2016, he has been the EU Commission's representative for negotiations on the UK's exit from the EU .

Life

Michel Barnier comes from the Albertville area in Savoy . As one of the few top French politicians, he is not a graduate of the École nationale d'administration (ENA), but attended ESCP Europe until 1972 . Barnier is married to a lawyer and has three children.

Barnier quickly made a political career. From 1973 to 1978 he worked on the staff of various ministers; At the age of 22 he became a member of the Departmental Council of Savoie in 1973 and was its president from 1982 to 1999. In this capacity he was together with Jean-Claude Killy President of the Organizing Committee for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.

In 1978, at the age of 27, he entered the National Assembly for the neo-Gaullist RPR , becoming its youngest member. In the government of Édouard Balladur , Barnier was Environment Minister from 1993 until Balladur's replacement in 1995, after which he was appointed European Minister subordinate to the Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Alain Juppés . As such, he was instrumental in the negotiations on the Amsterdam Treaty .

After the Conservative government was voted out of office , Barnier was elected to the Senate for the Savoie department in 1997 and headed its European Committee until 1999. In 1999 he was nominated by France as a member of the European Commission and, under Commission President Romano Prodi, he took on the responsibility for regional policy and institutional reforms . During his time as EU Commissioner, he was, among other things, the representative of the Commission in the European Convention , whose task it was to draw up the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe .

After a cabinet reshuffle by Jean-Pierre Raffarin , Barnier succeeded Dominique de Villepin in the post of Foreign Minister on March 31, 2004 . He held this office until June 2, 2005, when he was no longer taken into account when the new Prime Minister de Villepin was formed. Commentators suspected a connection with the failed referendum on the EU constitution . From February 2006 to May 2007 he was Vice President of the Mérieux Alliance with responsibility for international relations. As special advisor to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso , in 2006 he was also responsible for submitting a report proposing the creation of a European civil protection force ("Europe Aid").

Following the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President and the appointment of François Fillon as Prime Minister, Barnier returned to the government in 2007 and served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Within the French conservatives, the prominent European specialist Barnier has always been a supporter of European unification. In the campaigns leading up to the 1992 referendum to approve the Maastricht Treaty , he was on the side of the supporters and regretted the division among neo-Gaulists on this issue. In March 2006 he was elected one of the Vice-Presidents of the European People's Party and moved into the European Parliament as the UMP list leader for the Île-de-France in the 2009 European elections.

On November 27, 2009, EU Commission President Barroso announced Barnier's nomination as Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services. He took up this position on February 10, 2010 and was thus given a key portfolio during the financial and economic crisis, which includes responsibilities for the supervision of financial service providers and the dismantling of market barriers.

On the occasion of World Consumer Day 2011 on March 15, 2011 Internal Market Commissioner Barnier u. a. the creation of a European fundamental right to a basic current account and stricter rules for consumer protection in mortgage loans.

From July 1, 2014, when Viviane Reding and Antonio Tajani moved to the EU Parliament, Barnier was also Vice President of the Commission.

Barnier is considered a close friend of former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and - despite Chirac's occasional Euroscepticism - has always maintained a good relationship with former President Jacques Chirac .

On February 17, 2015, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed Barnier as Special Advisor to the EU Commission for European Defense and Security Policy. Barnier did this on a voluntary basis.

After Didier Seeuws was appointed chief negotiator of the EU member states in the exit negotiations with the United Kingdom in June 2016, Barnier was appointed chief negotiator of the EU Commission in July 2016.

In March 2020, Barnier announced that he had tested positive for the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 .

Criticism for lobbying

At the beginning of 2013, Barnier came under fire as a lobbyist for French water providers when he was pursuing the adoption of an EU directive on the liberalization of the water supply. After considerable international resistance and the success of the European Citizens' Initiative, water is a human right! he withdrew the directive in March 2013.

Honors

Works

  • Le défi écologique. Chacun pour tous. Hachette, Paris 1991. ISBN 2-01-018217-0 (German. The ecological challenge. Everyone for everyone. )

Web links

Commons : Michel Barnier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ France's ex-foreign minister: Barnier should negotiate Brexit for the EU. heute.de, July 27, 2016, archived from the original on July 27, 2016 ; accessed on July 28, 2016 .
  2. ↑ European Union
  3. ^ Four EU commissioners give up posts, become MEPs. In: EUobserver . July 2, 2014, accessed September 11, 2014 .
  4. ^ President Juncker appoints Michel Barnier as special advisor on European defense and security policy , February 17, 2015
  5. ↑ Decision of the EU Commission: Barnier will negotiate Brexit. tagesschau.de, July 27, 2016, accessed on July 28, 2016 .
  6. ↑ EU Brexit chief negotiator: Michel Barnier has Covid-19. Der Spiegel, March 19, 2020, accessed on March 22, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Water privatization
  8. ↑ Water ( Memento from December 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ criticism
  10. ↑ Withdrawal of the directive
  11. ↑ Office of the Federal President
personal data
SURNAME Barnier, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician (LR), Foreign Minister, MEP and European Commissioner
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH La Tronche , Isere department , France