Manfred Weber

Manfred Weber
Weber in 2023
President of the European People's Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 June 2022
Preceded byDonald Tusk
Leader of the European People's Party in the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 June 2014
PresidentDonald Tusk
Himself
Preceded byJoseph Daul
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office
13 June 2004
Personal details
Born (1972-07-14) 14 July 1972 (age 52)
Niederhatzkofen, West Germany
Political partyChristian Social Union
EducationMunich University of Applied Sciences

Manfred Weber (born 14 July 1972) is a German politician who has been serving as President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014. He has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany since 2004. He is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), part of the European People's Party.

In the 2003 Bavarian state elections, Weber became the state's youngest parliamentarian at the age of 29.[1] Currently heading the European People's Party Group, he was the youngest group leader in the Parliament at the time of his appointment in 2014, as well as the youngest-ever group leader of the EPP.[1] Weber is known as a moderate politician and power broker in EU politics.[2]

In September 2018, Weber declared his intention to run for the position of President of the European Commission[3] and was elected as the Spitzenkandidat of the EPP in November.[4] On 26 May 2019 Weber's European People's Party won the most seats in the European Parliament, thus making Weber the lead candidate to become the next President of the European Commission.[5][6] It was announced on 28 May that the new European Commission President would be picked at an EU summit in June; Weber was not nominated, with Ursula von der Leyen selected instead.[7]

  1. ^ a b Toby Vogel (20 November 2014), Manfred Weber – calm conciliator European Voice.
  2. ^ Laurens Cerulus (6 January 2018), Manfred Weber apologizes for 'final solution' comment Politico Europe.
  3. ^ de la Baume, Maia; Gray, Andrew (5 September 2018). "Manfred Weber announces run to lead center right in European election". Politico. Archived from the original on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  4. ^ Herszenhorn, David M.; de la Baume, Maia (8 November 2018). "Europe's conservatives nominate Manfred Weber for EU top job". Politico. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference electionmay26 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "EU center-right claims European Commission presidency | the Japan Times". Archived from the original on 27 May 2019.
  7. ^ "EU leaders task Tusk to find commission chief by June". EUobserver.