Constituency Lower Saxony Children 4 | Spouse(s) Married Nationality German/Belgian | |
Full Name Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl Political party Christian Democratic Union (CDU) (1989–present) Name Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl Education Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Party Christian Democratic Union of Germany | ||
Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl (born 18 June 1947) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament from Germany. She is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.
Contents
- Education and career
- Political career
- Germany
- European Parliament
- Committee assignments and Delegations
- Worldwide
- Personal life
- Academic literature
- References
She focuses on international trade and foreign affairs. She committed herself to helping companies by cutting back EU regulations and by fighting against discriminating economic rules from non-EU-countries. She is an expert in research funding and particularly committed to children's rights and democratization.
Education and career
Quisthoudt-Rowohl studied Chemistry at University of Leuven. After graduating, she did research in chemistry from 1972 to 1973 as a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen from 1972 to 1973 and afterwards received her PhD ScD in physical chemistry.
From 1974 to 1978 she continued researching at the Hannover Medical School. From 1979 to 1989 she served as Akademische Rätin of the University of Hildesheim. There she worked as an academic employee at the institute for applied glottology, from 1979-1988, and from 1988 to 1989 she was an academic council at the institute for applied glottology. Since 2002, she has been teaching at its Institute of Social Sciences, where on 6 March 2009, she became a professor at the department of education and social sciences. She gave inter alia guest lectures at the University of Kaliningrad, at the European Business School and at Harvard University.
Political career
Quisthoudt-Rowohl takes part of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany and actively works in politics in Lower-Saxony, Germany, and the European Union since the end of the 80's.
Germany
In 1990 Quisthoudt-Rowohl was a CDU board member in Lower-Saxony. From 1994 to 2012 she was national board member for the CDU. She is counted as one of the principal supporters Angela Merkel's bid for Chancellorship in 2004. From 1990 to 1996 she was a national board member of the Frauen Union for the CDU. She was assistant member of the European committee of the German Bundestag. From 2005 to 2009 she was the leader of the city association CDU in Hildesheim. From 1990 to 1996 she served on the national board of the Frauen Union,
European Parliament
Since 1989 she has been a member of the European Parliament where she is one of the senior deputies for the CDU in the European Parliament with Elmar Brok and Karl-Heinz Florenz. She was a member of the executive board (Quaestor) from 1997 to 2007 and was a member of the board of the EPP.
The international organisation Transparency International awarded Quisthoudt-Rowohl in line of the Integrity Watch Program with best mark of 0 at the External Activity Indicator. Being present at 85% of the plenary sittings she is one of the front-runners in the EPP-group.
As member of the Committee on International Trade, she advocated European car manufacturers against dumping prices of aluminium rims by Chinese manufacturers. At her request, the committee decided to criticize Turkey urgently because Turkey still does not allow Cyprus to export goods to Turkey. Further, Turkey should ratify the Ankara Protocol as soon as possible. Finally she urged Turkey to enforce copyrights effectively and so to stop brand piracy. Quisthoudt-Rowohl holds the European ban on incandescent lamps for patronizing and undemocratic, because the parliament and the public were not involved. Ms Quisthoudt-Rowohl was also involved in the ceilings for the mobile phone fees in the EU.
She wants to strengthen small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by increasing participation in international trade and by an intensification of relations to the USA. She was involved in a new energy agreement between Russia and the EU.
Quisthoudt-Rowohl was formally a member of the Committee on Development. There, she brought European student exchanges and projects to promote democracy in China and India on the way (since 2010). In 1999 she enusured that the Commission gave higher priority to children's rights. Quisthoudt-Rowohl works on the implementation of the Gender-Mainstreaming, in particular she speaks up for boys and young men to end their current discriminiation. In 2003 she suggested a review of the use of EU funds for the Palestinian Authority, to ensure that the money is not wasted for corruption or funding of terrorist groups.
From 1994 to 1999, Quisthoudt-Rowohl was Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Energy, Research and Technology. 2005 she initiated the first talks between European institutes for oceanography and the European Parliament to discuss the rapidly advancing climate change, global sea level rise, marine resources, the increasing threat and damage from tsunamis, earthquakes and extreme weather events and the continuing destruction of the marine environment in order to discuss sustainable use and work on a consensus on priorities for future research.
In 2011 she proposed changes to the Parliament's international trade committees (INTA) guidelines for the rights of foreign investors under future EU trade deals that were said to be in line with industry demands.
Committee assignments and Delegations
Committees
1981-1991 European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Member)
1991-1999 European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Chairman)
1991-1999 Speaker for research and innovation politics in the EPP-group
1989-1999 Committee for Commerce and Currency (Assistant Member)
2004-2007 European Parliament Committee on Development (Assistant Member)
2004-Today European Parliament Committee on International Trade (Member)
2007-2009 European Parliament Committee on International Trade (Assistant Chairwoman))
2009-2014 European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs (Member)
2009-2014 European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights (Assistant Member)
Today
Delegations 2009-2014
Delegation for relations with the United States (Assistant member)
Delegation for the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (speaker of the EPP-group)
Delegation for relations with the countries of Andean community (Member)
Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. (Member)
2012-2014
Surveillance group for trade relations between Australia and New Zealand (Chairwoman)
Today
Worldwide
At the invitation of the "German Conference at Harvard" (USA) Dr. Quisthoudt spoke on the German people. She spoke of length on how to endure the pluralism of modern society and hold on to the German identity with Europe's identity for explanation.
Personal life
Professor Quisthoudt-Rowohl is married and has four adult children. She lives in Hildesheim in Lower-Saxony. Quisthoudt-Rowohl is chairman of the advisory board of the Hildesheim Episcopal Foundation "Gemeinsam für das Leben"(German: Together for life). She is decorated with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Quisthoudt-Rowohl is a native Dutch and French Speaker as well as completely fluent in German, she can also speak English and Italian.