CV (English)
- born 1975 in Amberg, Germany, married, 2 children
Member of the European Parliament since 2009
Partisan Activites
- since 2022: chairman of OberpfalzSPD
- since 2002: held different positions in local politics at SPD Amberg, Germany
- since 1999: Member of Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland (SPD)
Professional Experience
- 1996 - 2009: held different positions at Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK)
- 2005: Business Administrator in health insurance
- 1996: Industrial Clerk
Memberships
- ver.di (German United Services Trade Union)
- AWO (National workers' welfare association)
- Mobifair
- Rail Forum Europe
- "Gemeinsames Leben und Lernen e.V."
- Europa Union
- Action alliance "Bunt statt braun"
- "Schule ohne Rassismus"-sponsor for the Franz-Xaver-von-Schönwerth junior high school Amberg
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Legislative Work
9th parliamentary term (2019 – 2024)
Rapporteur
Fit-for-55
- Revision of the Directive on Deployment of Alternative Fuels Infrastructure
- Strategy for sustainable and smart mobility
- Regulation on batteries and waste batteries
Shadow-rapporteur
- Framework of ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies
8th parliamentary term (2014 – 2019)
Rapporteur
- Legislative initiative procedure on odometer manipulation in motor vehicles 2017/2046(INL)
- recommendations to the Commission on how to combat odometer fraud (economic damage estimated between EUR 5.6 and 96 billion)
- asking the Commission to come up with legislative steps to combat odometer fraud
- Own initiative report on deployment for alternative fuels infrastructure 2018/2023 (INI)
- plea to the Commission to urgently recast the existing directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure
- increasing political and financial efforts (European Clean Mobility Fund)
- Regulation amending regulation (EC) 1071/2009 and (EC) 1072/2009 with view to adapting them to developments in the sector 2017/0123 (COD) – Market Access and cabotage in the road Transport sector
- Increasing efforts to combat letterbox companies within the European road haulage sector
- Improving enforceability of cabotage rules and ensure that cabotage is a temporary undertaking to avoid empty runs and not a business model
- BREXIT contingency file on ensuring continued connectivity through the Eurotunnel in case of no deal
Important files while S&D-Coordinator (selection)
- Mobility Packages I + II + III
- including new Social rules for the road haulage sector
- CO2-Emissions for cars, vans, trucks
- Eurovignette
- Passenger rights for rail passengers
- 4th railway package
- completing the single market for Rail services
- groundwork for common ticketing system
- simplifying cross-border travel
- harmonisation of safety and technical standards
- Monitoring of external aviation agreements e.g. EU-Qatar, EU-Turkey etc.
7th parliamentary term (2009 – 2014)
Rapporteur
- Regulation on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network
- partition of the network into a core- and a comprehensive network
- introduction of 9 multimodal corridors as new political instrument
Shadow-rapporteur
- Directive on technical requirements for inland waterway vessels 2013/0302 (COD)
- more uniform technical standards for inland navigation vessels
- ensuring high safety standards and promote innovation
- Regulation on community-fleet capacity policy to promote inland waterway transport 2013/0303 (COD)
- introducing a mechanism to avoid fleet overcapacity of European inland waterway fleets
- setting up an Inland Waterway Fund
- Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure 2013/0012 (COD)
- setting up guidelines for a European-wide alternative fuels infrastructure for all transport modes
- unfortunately MS could not agree on binding targets
Non–legislative work
- Founder of the Driving Future Platform a series of panel discussions enabling the exchange between policymakers and stakeholders on the complex subject of automated and connected driving. While initially only aiming at the subject of automating, since 2018 the scope is shifting to more general aspects of future mobility: The series already saw a total of nine events over the past three years:
Road safety aspects in light of autonomous and connected driving
Liability and Insurance questions connected to autonomous driving
Questions of data protection and data ownership that come with the increasing connectivity of vehicles
Infrastructural requirements (and European standards) needed for autonomous driving
Societal impacts of autonomous and connected driving, as well as ethical questions
R&D efforts and needs that are necessary for Europe to be a leader in the field of autonomous driving
what fuels and what powertrains will run the vehicle fleet of tomorrow
The influence of digitalisation and decarbonisation on the future of urban mobility
- Mobile & Long Distance connectivity
Digitalisation and better connectivity in long distance transport
- Comprehensive discussion paper on “Transformation of our Mobility”. Discussing the future of mobility. How to shape the trends of digitalisation and decarbonisation. to achieve the best outcome for the whole society? Main topics:
- Decarbonising mobility
- Automation and digitalisation of mobility
- Value chain and labour market
- Proposal for a European Clean Mobility Fund (ECMF)
- Goal: Establishing a platform on which the industry and the public sector plan and expand an Europe-wide infrastructure for electro- and hydrogen mobility
- 20 - 23 billion Euros to establish a Europe-wide comprehensive infrastructure for alternative fuels
- Proposal for a fund with shared financial contribution from the private - (80 - 90 %) and the public sector (10 - 20 %)
