Silvana Koch-Mehrin

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Silvana Koch-Mehrin, 2014

Esther Silvana Koch-Mehrin (born November 17, 1970 in Wuppertal ) is a German politician of the FDP . She was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014 . After the European elections in 2009 , she was one of 14 Vice-Presidents of this Parliament until her resignation on May 11, 2011. For the European elections in 2014 it has not raced for more.

Life

Koch-Mehrin was born in 1970 in Wuppertal as the daughter of a journalist and FDP member and a teacher; her father switched to the foreign service . After her father was transferred to German embassies in Africa, she grew up in preschool in Morocco and Sudan .

education and profession

Koch-Mehrin spent her school days in Cologne . In 1990 she graduated from high school in Rodenkirchen .

She studied economics and history at the universities of Hamburg , Strasbourg and Heidelberg from 1990 to 1995 with a scholarship from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is close to the FDP . After the MA was 2000 History of Philosophy at the Faculty of Heidelberg with the economic history dissertation Historical currency union between business and politics: the Latin Monetary Union 1865-1927 doctorate . Her doctoral supervisor was the historian and former rector of Heidelberg University Volker Sellin . On June 15, 2011, the University of Heidelberg revoked her doctorate due to plagiarism in her dissertation ( see below ) .

Immediately after completing her doctorate, Koch-Mehrin founded Conseillé + Partners sprl , a management consultancy for strategic planning and European advice . At the beginning of 2003 she and her company became a partner in the management consultancy Policy Action Ltd. which specializes in analyzing the effects of laws on companies and is also active as a lobbyist . After being elected to the European Parliament, she says she sold her shares. From 2004 onwards she devoted herself to a reader question about the EU every week in a column for Praline magazine .

In November 2014 the PR and communications company gplus europe hired Koch-Mehrin as a senior policy advisor based in Brussels.

Party career

Koch-Mehrin was deputy chairwoman of the Young Liberals . From 1999 to 2011 she was a member of the federal executive committee of the FDP. Koch-Mehrin is a member of the FDP district association in Karlsruhe .

Public offices

Silvana Koch-Mehrin, 2010

With Koch-Mehrin as the top candidate , the FDP returned to the European Parliament in the 2004 European elections after a ten-year absence . During the election campaign, she campaigned for a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty , compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact and the reduction of bureaucracy . After moving to the European Parliament Koch-Mehrin the chairman of the FDP was delegation within the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe voted (ALDE). This also made her a member of the FDP party presidium. She was also elected as the first deputy chair of the ALDE parliamentary group. Among other things, she was a member of Parliament's Budget Committee .

In the European elections in Germany in 2009 , Koch-Mehrin was again the top candidate of the FDP, which achieved its best result in a European election with 11% of the votes . After the election, Koch-Mehrin was re-elected head of the FDP delegation. She also became one of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament . They were elected with 186 of 644 valid votes in the third ballot, 12 votes ahead of the conservative Polish candidate Michał Kamiński (174 votes). With 148 votes in the first and 141 votes in the second ballot, Koch-Mehrin had previously received the fewest votes of all 15 candidates. In the Presidium, Koch-Mehrin was responsible for relations with the national parliaments, as well as chairing the Gender Equality & Diversity working group and a member of the Presidium's Information and Communication Policy working group . In addition, she was responsible for the Presidium for the European Parliament organ for the assessment of Scientific and Technological Options (STOA - Science Technology Options Assessment) . She also became a member of the Petitions Committee and a deputy member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy .

Because of the plagiarism allegations raised against her, Koch-Mehrin declared her resignation on May 11, 2011 as head of the FDP delegation, as parliamentary vice-president and as a member of the FDP party presidency. Her successor as head of the delegation was Alexander Graf Lambsdorff , and Alexander Alvaro as FDP presidium member . On July 5, 2011, Giles Chichester was elected as the successor to the post of Vice-President of Parliament.

On June 22, 2011, at the request of the ALDE parliamentary group, Koch-Mehrin was named a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy in place of Jorgo Chatzimarkakis . Due to the plagiarism that had recently become known and the withdrawal of her doctorate, the Alliance of German Science Organizations called for her to withdraw from this position. On June 25, 2011, Koch-Mehrin stated that she intended to move to another committee of the EU Parliament; on July 5, Michael Theurer was appointed as the new ALDE representative for the committee.

Koch-Mehrin was a member of the Europa-Union parliamentary group European Parliament .

Koch-Mehrin did not run again for the 2014 European elections .

Other engagement

Koch-Mehrin is a member of the support association of the New Social Market Economy initiative and on the editorial board of the magazine Politik & Kommunikation .

Plagiarism affair

Allegations of plagiarism

After Internet users in the VroniPlag Wiki at the beginning of April 2011 had compiled suspect plagiarism in Koch-Mehrin's doctoral thesis, which was rated cum laude , Heidelberg University announced a review of the allegations by the end of May 2011 at the latest. The Heidelberg public prosecutor determined that possible copyright infringements had already expired , so that no criminal investigation would be initiated.

On May 11, 2011, Koch-Mehrin announced in a written notification that she was resigning as head of the FDP delegation in the European Parliament, as parliamentary vice-president and as a member of the FDP presidium. She wanted the examination of the University of Heidelberg "to be carried out confidentially, fairly, according to the rule of law and without regard to the person and not burdened by the fact that [she] held prominent positions". Koch-Mehrin wanted to keep her mandate in the European Parliament.

Withdrawal of the doctoral degree

On June 15, 2011, the doctoral committee of Heidelberg University announced that her doctoral degree would be revoked. The dissertation consists to a substantial extent of plagiarism and therefore it is unquestionable that Ms. Koch-Mehrin has appropriated third-party intellectual property in her dissertation and passed it off as her own. According to the university, there were over 125 posts on around 80 pages of text that could be classified as plagiarism. These plagiarisms came from over 30 different publications, two thirds of which were not listed in the bibliography, including standard works and manuals.

Koch-Mehrin stated that the scientific results of their work are still undisputed today and are based on their own scientific achievements. She admitted that her dissertation was “not a masterpiece”, “not free from weaknesses, often imprecise, superficial and sometimes downright flawed”. It would also have been desirable if she had made it clear which literature she was based on. However, with full knowledge of all the blatant weaknesses, she was awarded the doctorate degree. Contrary to good scientific practice, the university did not examine the submitted work carefully enough.

The Dean of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg , Manfred Berg , called this an "assumption" that the reviewers had "recognized weaknesses in terms of content and form", but never suspected plagiarism. In addition, the software used at the time was "not yet ready". The weekly newspaper Die Zeit criticized in a comment that Koch-Mehrin had tried to blame the assessing professors. The university classified this statement as "an invective against the reputation of the reviewers and the entire faculty"; Ms. Koch-Mehrin pretends "as if what she calls weaknesses and errors, but we were known to be 'plagiarism'", and insinuate that "you can do a doctorate with plagiarism at Heidelberg University".

The objection and the lawsuit before the administrative court in Karlsruhe against the revocation of the doctoral degree were unsuccessful. The court was of the opinion that Koch-Mehrin had copied longer passages, some with footnotes, without any identification. The work allows the conclusion that the plaintiff "repeatedly and according to plan" identified foreign passages as her own work. Koch-Mehrin's reference to his own extensive research is irrelevant. A "basically conceivable minor threshold" has been exceeded by far. The decision of the doctoral committee was not objectionable. With the rejection of the application for admission of the appeal, the judgment of the administrative court became final on February 7, 2014.

Political Impact

Shortly after the doctoral degree was withdrawn, the media and politicians from several parties criticized the fact that Koch-Mehrin was appointed a full member of the European Parliament's research committee just four days later. The appeal “with a shake of the head” was also accepted from the FDP leadership.

The German Research Foundation declared that Koch-Mehrin's membership in the European Parliament was no longer acceptable: With her move to the research committee, Koch-Mehrin underlined how little respect she had for the European Parliament and the scientific community in Europe after holding all political offices in Germany have laid down. A double standard from Germany is poison for Europe. Fierce criticism came from the Alliance of German Science Organizations : “Plagiarism in scientific papers is anything but a trivial offense. The alliance therefore considers it unacceptable for Ms. Koch-Mehrin to represent Germany in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament. ”On June 25, 2011, Koch-Mehrin responded to the massive criticism by announcing that she would join another committee switch.

Private

Koch-Mehrin has three daughters and has lived in Brussels since 1997. She lives there with the Irish lawyer James Candon.

Political positions

Burqa ban

2010 declared Koch-Mehrin to in Belgium implemented obfuscation ban , they welcome this decision and wish quite explicitly that also in Germany - and Europe - carrying all forms of burqa would be banned. The burqa is a massive attack on women's rights , a mobile prison. “The complete veiling of women is an intrusive commitment to values ​​that we do not share in Europe.” In her letter, she further stated that no one should be restricted in their personal freedom and in their religious practice . Koch-Mehrin also said that veiled women on the street make them alien: “I openly admit: When I meet fully veiled people on the street, I am irritated. I cannot assess who is approaching me with what intent. I'm not afraid, but I'm insecure. "

Allocation of EU funds to NGOs

In 2005, Koch-Mehrin demanded that organizations that contradict the basic principles of the EU should no longer receive EU funds. Koch-Mehrin justified the demand as follows: “The EU has agreed on clear basic economic policy principles, prioritizing Europe's competitiveness in the world. Some non-governmental organizations are hostile to the formulation of these basic principles. ”This was French trade unions that had campaigned against the EU constitutional treaty and NGOs critical of globalization such as Attac or WEED .

The chairman of WEED, Markus Krajewski , accused Koch-Mehrin in 2005 of a “pre-democratic and anti-liberal understanding of the use of public money”. For Reinhard Hermle, chairman of the Association for Development Policy of German Non-Governmental Organizations , the move was part of an “ideological battle”.

Controversy and criticism

Attendance quota debates in 2009 and 2011

In the run-up to the 2009 European elections, Koch-Mehrin was criticized by EU parliamentarians from other political groups and by various media for rarely attending committee and plenary sessions in the European Parliament. In response, Koch-Mehrin stated that the media had not taken into account her gestation period in the calculation; she made an affidavit that her attendance rate was in the "upper half" of MPs. This brought about an injunction against the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . However, this was later repealed, which raised doubts about the correctness of the affidavit.

In September 2011, the media reported on research by the ARD magazine Panorama that Koch-Mehrin had not attended a single meeting of the Petitions Committee in the past two years, even though this committee was the only one in which Koch-Mehrin was a full member.

Comments on parliamentarians and prostitutes

In November 2008, Koch-Mehrin said in an interview with the Bunter : "Anyone who condemns forced prostitution in parliament must behave accordingly before the exit, otherwise the credibility and dignity of the entire house will suffer." The statements were often understood as that Koch-Mehrin flatly accuses the male MPs of being customers of women who are forced into prostitution . The statements apply - in addition to the discussion about their attendance times - as one of the reasons for the close election as Vice President in July 2009.

Tax cut and national debt

On May 5, 2010 Koch-Mehrin took part in the political talk show Hart but fair . The subjects of the debate were the Greek sovereign debt crisis and the EU's aid measures. When asked why she wanted to lower taxes despite Germany's national debt , she replied that tax cuts would lead to economic growth, which could create new jobs and thus lower social spending. When at the end of the program the studio guests were asked to estimate how much the German national debt had risen during the 75-minute program, Koch-Mehrin replied “6000 euros”, while the correct figure was around 20 million euros. This has been commented on in some newspapers as an expression of their fiscal incompetence.

Publications

  • Historic monetary union between business and politics. The Latin Monetary Union 1865–1927. Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 3-7890-7631-7 . (revised version of her dissertation , Heidelberg 2000)
  • Sisters. Polemic for a new feminism. Econ-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-430-30028-5 .

Web links

Commons : Silvana Koch-Mehrin  - Collection of Images
 Wikinews: Silvana Koch-Mehrin  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Silvana Koch-Mehrin MEP. (No longer available online.) In: Liberalismus-Portal. Archived from the original on May 18, 2011 ; Retrieved April 20, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.liberalismus-portal.de
  2. ^ Historical monetary union between economy and politics: the Latin Monetary Union 1865–1927 in the catalog of the German National Library
  3. ↑ Review e.g. B. under: Sascha Rolf Lüder: In: Europarecht. Volume 38, Issue 2, 2003, pp. 356-358.
  4. ↑ Official homepage of the company .
  5. ^ Page by Silvana Koch-Mehrin on the homepage of the FDP Baden-Württemberg , accessed on April 13, 2011.
  6. ↑ Ulrike Simon: Thanks to “Praline” and FDP: Europe is sexy. In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 10, 2004.
  7. ↑ Koch-Mehrin barely escapes being embarrassed. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ Koch-Mehrin scratches past Schlappe. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 15, 2009. Memorandum for Koch-Mehrin. In: the daily newspaper . July 15, 2009.
  9. ↑ koch-mehrin.de: Curriculum Vitae , accessed December 15, 2015.
  10. ↑ a b Financial Times Deutschland , May 11, 2011: FDP top politician Koch-Mehrin resigns from all offices ( Memento from August 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Financial Times Deutschland , May 24, 2011: Lambsdorff follows Koch-Mehrin ( Memento of May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  12. ↑ oe24.at, July 5, 2011: Two new Vice Presidents elected .
  13. ↑ Minutes of Parliament
  14. ↑ Christoph Schult: Koch-Mehrin is promoted to research politician. In: Spiegel Online , June 22, 2011.
  15. ↑ Scientists call for withdrawal from EU committee ( stern.de , June 25, 2011)
  16. ↑ Koch-Mehrin leaves research committee. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 25, 2011, Retrieved June 25, 2011 .
  17. ↑ Use for smaller companies. In: Schwarzwälder Bote , July 6, 2011.
  18. ↑ Julia Stanek: Koch-Mehrin announces withdrawal from the European Parliament. In: Spiegel Online , October 20, 2012.
  19. ↑ Koch-Mehrin wants to check doctor's withdrawal for illegality. In: The time . June 16, 2011, accessed June 17, 2011 .
  20. ↑ Jasmin Lörchner: Plagiarism hunters target Koch-Mehrin. ( Memento from August 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Financial Times Deutschland from April 12, 2011.
  21. ↑ Heidelberg: Uni examines Koch-Mehrin's doctoral thesis for plagiarism.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) In: morgenweb.de of April 11, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.morgenweb.de
  22. ↑ No investigations against Koch-Mehrin. In: Die Zeit , April 21, 2011.
  23. ↑ Koch-Mehrin resigns from all offices. In: Spiegel Online , May 11, 2011.
  24. ^ Silvana Koch-Mehrin - Heidelberg University decides to withdraw the doctorate ; Press release from Heidelberg University, June 15, 2011.
  25. ↑ Judges justify Koch-Mehrin's loss of title. In: Die Zeit , March 28, 2013.
  26. ↑ Silvana Koch-Mehrin: Statement on the revocation of the doctorate. June 18, 2011, archived from the original on June 22, 2011 ; accessed on February 17, 2014 .
  27. ↑ Markus Verbeet: Uni-Dean contradicts Koch-Mehrin. In: Spiegel Online , June 17, 2011 (interview).
  28. ↑ Josef Joffe : It was the university! In: Die Zeit , June 16, 2011.
  29. ^ "Koch-Mehrin's allegations baseless" In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 17, 2011.
  30. ↑ Koch-Mehrin sues against withdrawal of doctor. In: Spiegel Online , December 14, 2011.
  31. ^ VG Karlsruhe, judgment Az. 7 K 3335/11 of March 4, 2013 = openJur 2013, 17347
  32. ↑ Press release of the VGH Baden-Württemberg: Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg , February 7, 2014, revocation of the doctoral degree in the Koch-Mehrin case: No appeal against dismissal , February 7, 2014
  33. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 24, 2011: New task for Koch-Mehrin
  34. ↑ Further membership in the European Parliament not acceptable (PDF; 18 kB), DFG announcement, June 26, 2011.
  35. ↑ Tagesspiegel : Koch-Mehrin waives membership in the research committee , June 25, 2011
  36. ↑ Koch-Mehrin leaves the EU Research Committee. In: Spiegel Online . June 25, 2011. Retrieved June 26, 2011 .
  37. ↑ Michael Stabenow: Flemings and Walloons welcome the ban on burqa. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung May 2, 2010.
  38. ↑ Jörg Lau : Why a burqa ban in Germany would be wrong. ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Die Zeit , May 2, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blog.zeit.de
  39. ↑ Koch-Mehrin wants a Europe-wide burqa ban. In: Die Welt May 1, 2010.
  40. ^ FDP politician demands burqa ban for Europe. In: Spiegel Online , May 1, 2010.
  41. ↑ EurActiv , October 21, 2005: NGOs fend off attacks over EU subsidies .
  42. ↑ Gerhard Klas: No more money for critical NGOs? In: Telepolis , December 9, 2005.
  43. ↑ Michael Stabenow: How hardworking is Silvana Koch-Mehrin? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 4, 2009, accessed March 18, 2014 .
  44. ↑ Albrecht Meier, Christian Tretbar: The tone is sharper. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 6, 2009, accessed March 18, 2014 .
  45. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Jakobs , Thorsten Denkler: Beauty and the Beast from ARD. (No longer available online.) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 3, 2009, archived from the original on April 3, 2010 ; accessed on March 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sueddeutsche.de
  46. ↑ a b Katharina Schuler: top candidate in the twilight. In: The time . June 4, 2009, accessed April 13, 2011 .
  47. ↑ Koch-Mehrin skips committee meetings. In: Panorama . Retrieved September 30, 2011 .
  48. ↑ "Like trips to the Landschulheim" In: Bunte , November 4, 2008.
  49. ↑ S. Bolzen, CB Schiltz: Why Silvana Koch-Mehrin is so unpopular. In: Die Welt , July 15, 2009.
  50. ↑ cf. z. B. Der Westen , May 6, 2010: Plasberg's TV talk shows more pros than cons of helping the Greeks.
  51. ↑ a b Thilo Maluch: With solidarity ouzo against the Greek crisis. In: Die Welt , May 6, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Koch-Mehrin, Silvana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch-Mehrin, Esther Silvana (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (FDP)
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Wuppertal