Elmar Brok

Elmar Brok, MEP

Elmar Brok (born 14 May 1946, Verl, Kr. Gütersloh) is a German MEP from Christian Democratic Union of Germany, who has been elected to the parliament for 7 consecutive terms since June 1980. He is also a radio and newspaper journalist, and the Senior Vice President Media Development at Bertelsmann AG.

He's a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs; a deputy member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Committee on European Union Affairs in the Deutsche Bundestag; the chairman of the CDU district Ostwestfalen-Lippe; a member of the CDU Board Northrine-Westfalia, and the CDU Federal Board and the Federal Committee; the chairman of the CDU Federal Advisory Committee on European Policy; a member of the EPP board and the EPP-ED political bureau; the president of the European Union of Christian-Democratic Workers; the deputy chairman of the Transatlantic Policy Network Parliamentary Group; the co-chairman of the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue and the German-Hungarian Forum.

Brok is also a member of European Friends of Israel.

Affiliations

• Chairman, Delegation for relations with the United States
• Member, Conference of Delegation Chairs
• Member, Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Substitute, Committee on Constitutional Affairs
• Substitute, Subcommittee on Security and Defence
• Substitute, Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee
• Substitute, Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Former Affiliations

• Member, Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Member, Delegation for relations with the United States
• Substitute, Committee on Constitutional Affairs

Record and Controversies

Declaration of Financial Interests

Professional Activities:

• Senior Vice President Media Development, Bertelsmann Aktien Gesellschaft

Background of Conflicts

Elmar Brok is one of the European Parliament’s longest standing and most influential MEPs, having served for 28 years. From 1999-2007 Brok was Chair of the powerful Committee on Foreign Affairs and as a consequence was seen as the European Parliament’s “ambassador at large”.

Since the early nineties, Brok has been both an MEP and worked for Bertelsmann, the German media company. He is currently Senior Vice President Media Development at Bertelsmann. Although Brok has always disclosed the Bertelsmann connection, he has never declared how much he receives from the media group. His salary was reported to be 200,000 Euros a decade ago.

Register of Interests

• Senior Vice President Media Development, Bertelsmann AG - transnational media corporation

Conflicts of Interest

Many have highlighted the potential conflict of interest in having a senior MEP involved with the lobbying activities of a major media company. As the Financial Times puts it “few people could be in a better position to open doors to decision-makers.”

Internal documents from the 1990s show Brok’s close links to lobbying by Bertelsmann. One memo written by Bertelsmann’s Liaison Office in Brussels talks about the company’s lobbying strategy and notes, “we have achieved that the initial wording of ‘cross-ownership’ restrictions are weakened.” It is signed by Brok.

Brok’s role is complicated further by his inclusion on other pro-business pressure groups. He is Vice-Chair of the Transatlantic Policy Network’s (TPN) European committee. TPN is a powerful political / corporate network dedicated to influencing EU policy. Bertelsmann is a corporate member. Brok is also involved in the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), an elite EU and US corporate / state alliance. “Brok [on behalf of Bertelsmann] is TABD's European group manager on electronic commerce, an area where TABD actively works to avoid government regulations and most of all taxes and tariffs.”

Brok has been accused of cutting-and-pasting the demands of TPN into a draft European Parliament resolution on EU-US relations in April 2004.” The same year he met with European Commission President, Romano Prodi, to present TPN's then recently published set of recommendations designed to strengthen the transatlantic partnership between Europe and the US. One of the areas for special discussion was the digital economy, a subject in which Bertelsmann has an interest.

Brok has also been active in promoting business interests more generally in Brussels. In January 2005 Brok, with other MEPs, issued two motions for a resolution on transatlantic relations. Then in June 2005 he was one of three MEPs proposing an “enhancement of the transatlantic economic partnership”, which called for “reducing regulatory and other non-tariff barriers to transatlantic trade and investment with the goal of establishing a barrier-free transatlantic market by 2015”.

In May 2006, Brok was the Rapporteur for a report by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on “Improving EU-US relations in the framework of the Transatlantic Partnership Agreement”. He also spoke on the subject in Parliament in January, May and June 2006. In April 2007, he was one of 11 MEPs who put forward a motion for a resolution before the EU-US Summit. It called on “Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and the United States of America to use the opportunity of the April 2007 EU-US Summit to initiate the negotiation of a new Transatlantic Partnership Agreement and to jointly commit themselves to a binding roadmap for achieving a barrier-free transatlantic market by 2015.”

Opening doors for Bertelsmann

“Everyone in town knows that Brok is Mr. Bertelsmann,” Tony Robinson, a spokesman for the Socialist Group of MEPs told the International Herald Tribune in 2005. Brok replied that there was nothing incompatible in working for a big multinational while serving in the European Parliament. “I'm not a lobbyist,” he said. “I'm allowed to have a job. Hundreds of other Parliamentarians do it, why shouldn't I?” This contrasts with his critics, who argue his main employer is Bertelsmann, and who see him as Bertelsmann’s top lobbyist in Brussels.

The benefits to Bertelsmann of having an MEP as the Chair of such an influential Committee as Foreign Relations is obvious. By all accounts Brok was reluctant to give up his committee post in 2007. As the German Times reported in February that year: “In the end, Brok’s ambition annoyed even his fellow party members. ‘We all know that every post is assigned for an even shorter period of time than in national parliaments,’ one colleague said. Another sneered that Brok was attached to his large office, while a third speculated that Brok was worried ‘that he would no longer be worth the money that Bertelsmann is paying him.’ As senior vice president for media development [at Bertelsmann], Brok is actually the most important lobbyist for the company in Brussels.”

Brok’s office declined to answer questions put to him on his outside interests.

Record of Parliamentary Votes

• Voted against the directive on "establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy" (A5-0027/2000). The directive covers all water management aspects in order to achieve a 'good status' of all waters by 2015.
• Voted against the directive on "national emission ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants" (A5-0063/2000). The amendment allows setting less ambitious national emission ceilings for sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), which would result in more damage to human health and the environment.
• Voted in favour of the Commission White Paper on "Strategy for a future Chemicals Policy" (A5-0356/2001). The amendment helps avoid the necessary precautionary approach towards some chemical substances that are not proven to be completely safe.
• Voted in favour of the report on "Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network" (A5-0135/2002). The Trans-European Network of Transport (TEN-T) is a network of so-called 'transport corridors' through Europe. This amendment calls for a full Strategic Environmental Assessment of these transport corridors and calls on the Commission to improve methods for analysing the environmental and economic impact of the TEN-T.
• Voted against the regulation concerning "traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms" (A5-0229/2002). The amendment allows customers the right to choose GM free food.
• Voted against the report towards a "thematic strategy on the sustainable use of pesticides" (A5-0061/2003). The amendment proposes to ban or severely restrict use of pesticides in areas around sources of drinking water and nature protected zones.
• Voted against the directive on restructuring the "Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity" (A5-0302/2003). The amendment aims at giving tax benefits to environmentally friendly sources of energy, which would make them cheaper and more competitive to conventional (more polluting) sources of energy. It also gives tax benefits to environmentally friendly uses of energy for transport, for instance trains. Rejected due to lack of absolute majority.

Election Campaign 2009

Elmar Brok has not yet pledged to any of the four issues presented by the Election Campaign:

• to provide leadership in lobbying transparency and ethics,
• to provide leadership in reforming financial architecture,
• to promote a full-scale rethink of the EU trade policy,
• to promote corporate accountability.

Ask Elmar Brok to pledge: Pin down your candidate now!

Personal Information

Curriculum Vitae

• Member of the European Parliament (since 1980). EP's representative in the Council`s Reflection Group preparing for the reform of the Maastricht Treaty. EP's representative at the Intergovernmental Conference in Amsterdam 1996/97 and at Nice 2000. EP's representative at the Intergovernmental Conference on the EU-Constitution (2003/2004). EPP Coordinator in the EU-Constitutional Convention (Voted "Mr Convention" after a poll taken amongst members of the Convention, Academics and Journalists). EP's representative at the intergovernmental conference for the EU Constitutional Treaty (2003/2004). Reporter in Chief on the Enlargement (1999-2004).
• Career: Studies of Law and Political Science, amongst others at the "Centre of European Governmental Studies", University of Edinburgh. Radio and newspaper journalist, Senior Vice President, Media Development, Bertelsmann AG.
• Federal Vice-Chairman of the Junge Union Deutschland (1973-1981).
• Vice-Chairman and Chairman of the Democrat Youth Committee of Europe (DEMYC) (1977 - 1981).
• Deputy chairman of the International Democrat Union (IDU, 1991-2003).
• Member of the CDU Board Northrine-Westfalia (since 1994).
• Chairman of the CDU district Ostwestfalen-Lippe (since 1996).
• Chairman of the CDU Federal Advisory Committee on Foreign and Security Policy (1989-1999).
• Chairman of the CDU Federal Advisory Committee on European Policy (since 1999).
• President of the European Union of Christian-Democratic Workers (EUCDW, since 2002 [1993-2002: Vice-President]).
• Member of the CDU Federal Board (since 2004) and the Federal Committee.
• Member of the EPP-ED political bureau. Member of the EPP board. President of Europa-Union Deutschland.
• Deputy Chairman of the Europäische Bewegung Deutschlands. Deputy Chairman of the Transatlantic Policy Network Parliamentary Group. Deputy Member of the Committee on European Union Affairs in the Deutsche Bundestag.
• Honours: First Class Federal Cross of Merit. Grand Golden Medal of Honour of the Republic of Austria
• "Commander of the Gregorius-Order" presented by Pope John Paul II in Nov. 2002. Order of Merit of the Grand Officer of Luxembourg. Board member of the Oxford Council on Good Governance Dr Alois Mock Prize for "European of the Year" in Austria, 2003. "MEP of the Year 2003", after a Europe-wide vote, organised by "European Voice".

Contact

Address:

Parlement européen

Bât. Altiero Spinelli

15E205

60, rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60

B-1047 Bruxelles/Brussel

Phone:

+32 (0)2 28 45323

Fax:

+32 (0)2 28 49323

Email:

elmar.brok@europarl.europa.eu

Website:

http://www.elmarbrok.de

This article is part of the MEPedia project of Spinwatch.

Resources

• von Arnim, Hans Herbert, "A salary of 9,053 Euros for Members of the European Parliament?" Undated, accessed 08 November 2008.
• Bertelsmann AG, "‘Books For Asia’ Thanks Random House For 81,000 Donated Books And Audiobooks," 14 February 2006, accessed 27 February 2009.
• Corporate Europe Observatory, Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), Putting the Business Horse Before the Government Cart, Briefing Paper, 25 October 1999, accessed 08 November 2008.
• Elmar Brok, Curriculum Vitae, accessed 27 February 2009.
• European Parliament, Debate on EU-US Transatlantic Partnership Agreement – EU-US economic relations, 31 May 2006, accessed 08 November 2008.
• European Parliament, Debate on Transatlantic Relations, 12 January 2005, accessed 08 November 2008.
• European Parliament, Debate on Transatlantic Relations, 08 June 2005, accessed 08 November 2008.
• European Parliament, Erklärung der finanziellen Interessen der Mitglieder: Elmer Brok, 04 December 2008, accessed 27 February 2009.
• European Parliament, Erklärung der finanziellen Interessen der Mitglieder: Elmar Brok, 08 July 2009, accessed 18 November 2009.
• European Parliament, MEP Directory: Elmar Brok, accessed 27 February 2009.
• European Parliament, MEP Directory: Elmar Brok, accessed 15 September 2010.
• European Parliament, Motion for a resolution, 01 June 2005, accessed 08 November 2008.
• European Parliament, Motion for a resolution, 18 April 2007, accessed 08 November 2008.
• European Parliament, Motions for resolutions, accessed 08 November 2008.
• European Parliament, Report on improving EU-US relations in the framework of a Transatlantic Partnership Agreement, 08 May 2006, accessed 08 November 2008.
• Friends of the Earth, EU Vote Watch, accessed 27 February 2009.
• Hoedeman, Olivier, "EU-US summit: free trade talks ahead?" Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), 11 June 2004, accessed 08 November 2008.
• Rowell, Andy, "Too Close for Comfort?" Spinwatch, July 2008.