Michel Barnier
Michel Barnier ( born January 9, 1951 in La Tronche, Isère, France ) is a French politician ( UMP). Since 10 February 2010, he is Commissioner for Internal Market and Services in the Barroso Commission II
Life
Barnier comes from the area of Albertville. As one of the few French leaders he is not a graduate of the École nationale d'administration (ENA ), but attended the École supérieure to 1972 de Commerce de Paris ( ESCP Europe ). Barnier is married to a lawyer and has three children.
Barnier quickly made political career. From 1973 to 1978 he worked on the staff of various ministers; the age of 22 he became a deputy in the 1973 General Council of Savoie and was its president from 1982 to 1999. In this role, he was with Jean -Claude Killy Chairman of the organizing committee for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.
At 27, he moved in 1978 to the neogaullistische RPR in the National Assembly and thus became the youngest Member of Parliament. In the government Édouard Balladur's Barnier was from 1993 until 1995 Environment Minister Balladur's detachment, then in the Cabinet Alain Juppé, the Office of the Secretary of State assumed he was appointed Minister for Europe. As such, he was instrumental in the negotiations on the Treaty of Amsterdam.
After the dismissal of the conservative government Barnier was elected to the Senate for the department of Savoie in 1997 and directed until 1999 the European Union Affairs Committee of the Senate. He was nominated by France as a member of the European Commission in 1999 and took over under Commission President Romano Prodi the department of regional policy and institutional reforms. During his time as Commissioner, he served as representative of the Commission of the European Convention, whose task was the preparation of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
After a cabinet reshuffle Jean -Pierre Raffarin's Barnier was 2004 Dominique de Villepin's successor in the office of the Secretary of State on March 31. This office he held until June 2, 2005, when he was no longer considered in the formation of a government of new Prime Minister de Villepin. Commentators speculated to the non-consideration was linked to the failure of the referendum on the EU constitution. From February 2006 until May 2007, he was Vice President of Mérieux Alliance with the responsibility of international relations. As Special Advisor to the EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso in 2006, he was also responsible for the submission of a report, in which the creation of a European Civil Protection Force ( " Europe Aid " ) has been proposed.
After the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President and his appointment of François Fillon as Prime Minister Barnier was appointed again in 2007 in the government and served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Within the French conservatives profiled Europe specialist Barnier was always an advocate of European unification. In the campaign against the 1992 referendum on the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, he was on the side of the proponents and deplored the division of Neogaullisten on this issue. In March 2006 he was elected one of the Vice- President of the European People's Party, and pulled at the 2009 European election as leader of the UMP list for the Ile -de -France an the European Parliament.
On 27 November 2009 the European Commission José Manuel Barroso announced the nomination of Michel Barnier as Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. A position he took up on 10 February 2010 and thus receives in the financial and economic crisis, a key department in which, among other things, the responsibility for the supervision of financial service providers and the degradation are settled by market barriers.
On the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day 2011 on 15 March 2011 Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier announced, inter alia, the creation of a European fundamental right to a basic bank account and more stringent rules for the protection of consumers in mortgage loans.
Barnier is considered a close friend of former Prime Minister Jean -Pierre Raffarin and has - despite Chirac temporary euro skepticism - always keep a good relationship with former President Jacques Chirac.
Criticized for lobbying
The beginning of 2013 came as a lobbyist Barnier French water suppliers in the criticism than the pursued the adoption of an EU directive on the liberalization of water supply. After considerable international resistors and the success of the European Citizens' Initiative water is a human right! , He pulled the Directive in March 2013 back.
Works
- Le défi écologique. Chacun pour tous. Hachette, Paris 1991. ISBN 2-01-018217-0 (Eng. The ecological challenge. Everyone for all. )