Karin Evers-Meyer

Karin Evers-Meyer
Member of the Bundestag
In office 2002–2017
Personal details
Born	(1949-09-10) 10 September 1949 (age 73) Neuenburg, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Political party	Social Democratic Party (SPD)
Occupation	Politician, Member of the German Bundestag (MP)

Karin Evers-Meyer (born 10 September 1949) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Political career

A former journalist and author, Evers-Meyer was first elected member of the German Bundestag in the 2002 federal elections.

Between 2005 and 2009, Evers-Meyer – herself a mother of a child with disabilities ^[1] – served as the Federal Government Commissioner for Matters relating to Disabled Persons (at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Ahead of the 2009 elections, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier included her in his shadow cabinet of 10 women and eight men for the Social Democrats' campaign to unseat Merkel as chancellor. ^{[2] [3]}

Following the 2009 federal elections, Evers-Meyer was appointed the SPD parliamentary group's deputy spokesperson on defense policy. A member of the Budget Committee since the 2013 elections, she served as the group's rapporteur on the budget of the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg). In addition, she was a member of the German delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, led by Karl A. Lamers.

In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2013 federal elections, Evers-Meyer was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on foreign affairs, defense policy and development cooperation, led by Thomas de Maizière and Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

In late 2014, Evers-Meyer was considered as successor of Hellmut Königshaus  [ de ] as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces but withdrew her candidacy when Hans-Peter Bartels emerged as her parliamentary group's nominee; she would have been the first woman to hold that office. ^[4]

In July 2016, Evers-Meyer announced that she would not stand in the 2017 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. ^[5]

Political positions

Relations with the African continent

Evers-Meyer has in the past voted in favor of German participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as in Somalia – both Operation Atalanta (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015) and EUTM Somalia (2014, 2015 and 2016) –, Darfur/Sudan (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), South Sudan (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), Mali – both EUTM Mali (2014 and 2015) and MINUSMA (2014 and 2015) –, the Central African Republic (2014), and Liberia (2015). In 2013, she abstained from the votes on extending the mandate for participation in EUTM Somalia and EUTM Mali, and she voted against the participation in Operation Atalanta in 2012 and 2013.

Other activities

• Association of the German Army (FKW), Member of the Presidium
• Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), Member of the Advisory Board (since 2015) ^[6]
• EWE AG, Member of the Supervisory Board (2002–2005)
• EWE Stiftung, Member of the Board (2002–2012)

References

1. Malte Kirchner (13 September 2013), Karin Evers-Meyer (SPD): Einsatz für mehr Gerechtigkeit im Land Wilhelmshavener Zeitung  [ de ].
2. Bertrand Benoit (30 July 2009), Lagging SPD starts campaign Financial Times .
3. Veit Medick and Markus Feldenkirchen (29 July 2009), Germany's Election Pre-Game: Social Democrats to Announce Campaign 'Team Steinmeier' Der Spiegel .
4. Thorsten Jungholt and Daniel Friedrich Sturm (27 July 2014), Neuer Anwalt für die Soldaten der Bundeswehr Die Welt .
5. Klaus-Dieter Heimann (1 July 2016), Bundestag: Evers-Meyer wird 2017 nicht kandidieren Jeversches Wochenblatt.
6. Advisory Board, Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS).

External links

• Official website
• Biography of German Bundestag