Klaus Hänsch

Klaus Hänsch (* December 15 1938 in Sprottau, Silesia) was from 1979 to 2009 Member of the European Parliament and member of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. From 1994 to 1997 he was President of the European Parliament.

Life

The family fled in 1945 from Silesia to Flensburg where Klaus Hänsch his schooling ended in 1959 with the Abitur. He then completed from 1959 to 1960 his military service. Between 1960 and 1965 he studied political science, history and sociology in Cologne, Paris and at the Free University of Berlin. In Cologne, he has since been a member of the Corps Silingia Wroclaw to Cologne. His studies ended Klaus Hänsch in 1965 with a degree in political science. Following this, he joined the Berlin Otto -Suhr- Institute a position as a teaching assistant and received his PhD in 1969 with Gilbert Ziebura. 1968 to 1969 he also worked as editor of the political magazine documents, a journal of international cooperation.

1969 to 1970 he was Speaker of the cultural affairs under the Franco-German Treaty in the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister President Heinz Kühn. After that Klaus Hänsch 1970 to 1979, first as press and later served as Officer in the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Science Johannes Rau. In addition, he had 1976-1994 a teaching position at the University of Duisburg, in 1984 he was appointed honorary professor.

Policy

Klaus Hänsch is a member of the SPD, whose sub-district of Mettmann he chaired from 1972 to 1986 since 1964.

Klaus Hänsch was from 1979 to 1994 and from 1997 to 2009 a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Security and Defence Policy and 1984-1994 and 1997 and 2009, Substitute Member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament. From 1987 to 1989 he was Chairman of the European Parliament delegation for relations with the United States of America.

Klaus Hänsch was between 1994 and 1997 President of the European Parliament. During his tenure, he caused numerous internal reforms of the European Parliament. His greatest achievement was the introduction of public hearings of the Commissioners-designate individual in Parliament prior to its vote of confidence in the entire Commission.

From 2002 to 2003 he represented the European Parliament in the Bureau of the Convention on the Future of Europe ( Constitutional Convention ), where he was involved as the only German instrumental in the draft Constitution for Europe. Then he represented the European Parliament in the subsequent Intergovernmental Conference on the Constitutional Treaty.

More offices

Klaus Hänsch committed to the Board of Trustees of the European Youth Parliament in Germany eV and is a member of the European Union Parliamentarians European Parliament.

Klaus Hänsch is a member of the Board of the École nationale d'administration (ENA ) in France and the Scientific Board of the Institute for European Policy in Bonn.

Awards

For his work Klaus Hänsch numerous awards were presented.

He is an honorary citizen of the Polish city Szprotawa and bears the honorary doctorate from the British Loughborough University and the Academy of Economics, Poznan.

He also is the recipient of the Order of Merit. On 30 November 2006 he received the " Mérite Européen ".