Michael Kauch (born 4 May 1967, in Dortmund) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party who served as a Member of the European Parliament in 2024 and as a Member of the Bundestag between 2003 and 2013.
Kauch was born in Dortmund and attended the Helmholtz-Gymnasium. He studied economics at the University of Dortmund from 1986 to 1993.
Kauch became a member of the Free Democratic Party in Germany in 1989. From 1995 to 1999, he served as the chair of the Young Liberals (JuLis). [1]
On 14 June 2003 Kauch became a member of the Bundestag, taking the seat of Jürgen Möllemann who had deceased shortly before. Throughout his time in parliament, he was as a member of the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and of the Parliamentary Advisory Board on Sustainable Development. He also served as his parliamentary group’s rapporteur on LGBT rights, organ transplantation and palliative care (2005-2009). [2]
In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the FDP and the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) following the 2009 federal elections, Kauch led the FDP delegation in the working group on environmental policy, agriculture and consumer protection; his counterpart of the CDU/CSU was Ilse Aigner. [3]
In late 2018, Kauch announced that he would run for a parliamentary seat in the 2019 European elections; [4] however, his place on the FDP list for the elections meant that he did not win a seat in parliament.
In the negotiations to form a coalition government between the SPD, the Green Party and FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Kauch was part of his party's delegation in the working group on equality, co-chaired by Petra Köpping, Ricarda Lang and Herbert Mertin. [5]
In 2024, Kauch replaced Nicola Beer who resigned her seat in the European Parliament to move to the board of the European Investment Bank. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and deputy member of the Committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Foreign Affairs (AFET). In addition, he was part of the parliament’s delegation for relations with Israel. [6] The FDP delegation made him its spokesperson in the aforementioned committees as well as in the areas of law, culture and LGBTI issues. [7] He was shadow rapporteur for a legislative proposal to facilitate consular protection for unrepresented EU citizens in third countries. [8]
The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.
Axel Eduard Fischer is a German politician. He is a member of the CDU and has been a member of the German parliament from 1998 to October 2021, representing Karlsruhe-Land since 2002.
Ingbert Liebing is a German lobbyist and former politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as a member of the Bundestag from 2005 until 2017, where he represented Nordfriesland – Dithmarschen Nord. From 2014 until 2017, he was the chairman of the CDU state party group of Schleswig-Holstein.
Jan-Marco Luczak is a German lawyer and a politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2009, representing the Berlin-Tempelhof-Schöneberg constituency until 2021, and as a party list member since.
Carsten Schneider is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 1998. Since 2021, he has also been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary for East Germany and Equivalent Living Conditions in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet.
Peter Hintze was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1990 until his death in 2016.
Michael Grosse-Brömer is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2002.
Ursula Groden-Kranich is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2013 to 2021, representing the constituency of Mainz. She is also a member of Mainz City Council and was the local representative for Mainz-Hechtsheim between 2004 and 2014.
Stephan Ernst Johann Mayer is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) who has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2002. In 2022, he briefly served as the Secretary General of the CSU, under the leadership of the party's chairman Markus Söder.
Peter Michael Tauber is a former German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2021. From 16 December 2013 to 26 February 2018 he served as Secretary General of the CDU under the leadership of its chairwoman Angela Merkel.
Thomas Strobl is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Deputy Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2016.
Katja Isabel Leikert is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2013, representing the Hanau electoral district. Within the CDU/CSU Bundestag Group, parliamentary colleagues elected her one of the alliance's eleven Bundestag deputy chairpersons in January 2018.
Ulrich Wolfgang Kelber is a German former politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information since 7 January 2019. From 2000 to 2019, he was the member of the Bundestag for Bonn.
Christian Hirte is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as member of the German Bundestag since 2008. From 2020 to 2022, he has been the chairman of the CDU in Thuringia and co-deputy Chairman since then.
Florian Toncar is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. He has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2005 until 2013 and since 2017.
René Röspel is a German biologist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1998 to 2021.
Axel Helmut Schäfer is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Born in Frankfurt, Hesse, he has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2002.
Thomas Heilmann is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Born in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, he has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Berlin since 2017.
Ansgar Guido Karl Johannes Heveling is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2009.
Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from Rhein-Sieg-Kreis I in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2005.