Andreas Kiefer (born 6 October 1957 in Salzburg) is an Austrian politician. Since 2010, he is Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, an institution representing local and regional authorities of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.
Following his childhood in Salzburg, Kiefer studied law at Salzburg University and economics at the University of Linz. He graduated from his studies with a PhD in law in 1984. [1]
Beginning in 1984, Kiefer worked as Chef de Cabinet of Hans Katschthaler, the vice-governor and later governor of the State of Salzburg. Kiefer played a key role in the creation of the Euroregion Salzburg - Berchtesgadener Land - Traunstein with nearly 100 municipalities, the first Euroregion with Austrian participation. Following Austria's accession to the European Union in 1995, Kiefer became Director of the European Affairs Service of the State of Salzburg regional government. Kiefer was the first national coordinator of the Austrian delegation to the Committee of the Regions of the European Union. In the Council of Europe he has worked for all Congress members of the State of Salzburg since 1995 and as a representative of the Austrian states in the Congress working group on Regions with Legislative Powers since 1999. [2]
From 2000 to 2009 Kiefer represented the Austrian states in the Intergovernmental Conferences of the European Union on the Treaty on a Constitution for Europe and the Lisbon Treaty at working level. [3]
At municipal level Andreas Kiefer served as chairman and member of municipal electoral committees for municipal, regional, federal and European elections and initiated a citizens' participation project to integrate new residents and to create a municipal mission statement in the municipality of Kuchl in Salzburg.
In March 2010, Kiefer was elected Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe for a term of five years by the Parliamentary Assembly. He has since been re-elected in 2015 [4] and in November 2020. [5]
Andreas Kiefer has been a speaker at a number of international conferences and has given lectures at universities and post graduate courses. He has published widely about local self-government, regionalism, federalism, interregional and cross-border co-operation, regions with legislative powers, the Austrian political system, about the local and regional dimension in the Council of Europe and the Committee of the Regions. Kiefer is active member of the Network of Authors of the European Center for Research in Federalism at the University of Tübingen. He is also member of the academic advisory council of the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano.
Kiefer is married to Carmen Kiefer, who works as public relations consultant under vice-mayor of the town of Kuchl. They have three children. Their son Severin Kiefer is a figure skater (pairs).
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