Prof Dr Klaus Buchner

Klaus Buchner, Distinguished Fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations, He is a German politician, university professor and a Member of European Parliament for the green-conservative Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP).

He has represented the European Parliament Germany since 2014 to 2020. He was with the Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament. He was Leader of the ÖDP from 2003 to 2010.

Political career

In 1983 he joined the ÖDP. At the time of joining the party, he was still an advocate of nuclear energy and hoped “the party would withstand him”. In the meantime, around 1985, however, he turned away from nuclear energy.

From 1990 he was chairman of the ecological council of the ÖDP. From 2000 to 2003 Buchner was the first deputy national chairman of his party.

ÖDP federal chairman (2003-2010)

In 2003 Buchner became federal chairman of the ÖDP. At the federal party conference on March 8th and 9th, 2003 in Coburg, he prevailed in a vote against his predecessor Uwe Dolata with 120: 68 votes. While Dolata was in favor of concentrating party work on Bavaria, Buchner represented a nationwide claim by the ÖDP. In 2004, 2006 and 2008 Buchner was confirmed in his office as federal chairman. As of February 2010, he was the longest incumbent in the party’s history.

In the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on March 26, 2006, he was the top candidate of the list connection “Justice, Environment, Animal Welfare (GUT)”, which, in addition to the ÖDP, consisted of the animal welfare party, the GRAUEN and citizens’ initiatives. The alliance received 0.8% of the vote.

Member of the European Parliament (2014-2020)

Buchner has been a member of the European Parliament since the 2014 European elections. There he joined the group The Greens / European Free Alliance.

In the eighth legislature (2014-2019) he was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defense Policy (AFET), the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), the Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE) and part of the delegation for the Relations with Iran. He is also a deputy in the Committee on International Trade (INTA). On January 17, 2018, as chief rapporteur for dual-use goods in the plenary session of the European Parliament, he achieved an approval rate of over 90%.  The aim is to ensure that the export of dual-use goods is regulated more strictly in order to avoid the military use of these goods in dictatorships.

For the 2019 European elections, the ÖDP nominated Buchner again on the list. He won the mandate again and, as before, remained in the Greens / EFA parliamentary group. In the ninth legislature, Buchner was a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the Subcommittee on Security and Defense. He was also an alternate member of the Committee on International Trade and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. On July 15, 2020, he handed over his mandate to Manuela Ripa.