Daniel Cohn-Bendit

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, MEP

Daniel Cohn-Bendit (born 04 April 1945, Montauban, France) is a Franco-German MEP from the French ecologist political coalition Europe Écologie. He has served as an MEP representing both Germany (Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen, between 19.07.1994 / 19.07.1999 and 20.07.2004 / 13.07.2009) and France (Les Verts, 20.07.1999 / 19.07.2004, and Europe Écologie, since 14.07.2009).

He is well known in France, having been one of the student leaders of the demonstrations of May 1968. His photo, facing a tall policeman, is in all the history books to illustrate the strongest popular uprising in France since the end of the Second World War -- a month and a half of riots, debates, and new publications. He was also a hope for a European future, symbolizing the person at home in more than one national culture. Cohn-Bendit was born in France just after World War 2, his father being a left-wing German-Jewish lawyer who had left Germany for France as soon as Hitler came to power. The family had returned to Germany in 1957 but Daniel wanted to do his studies in France where his older brother was also studying. By 1968 he was a student leader in Paris -- the right place at the right time to influence discussions on the nature of a new society. Being German, Jewish and left wing did not endear him to the French police authorities, and at the height of the demonstrations, he was expelled from France and forbidden to return. That edict remained in force for 10 years. Thus Cohn-Bendit made his way to Germany.

From 1989 to 1997 Cohn-Bendit was deputy mayor of Frankfurt in charge of multicultural affairs, a new and experimental post in a city in which 25% of the population are foreigners, some of whom, like the Turks and the Kurds or the Serbs and the Kosovars, do not like one another and are often disliked by the ethnic Germans. In 1994 Cohn-Bendit was elected to the European Parliament where he played an active role, especially on social and foreign policy questions. He was a leader in the European Parliament's efforts for peace in Algeria. Daniel Cohn-Bendit is a close friend of Joschka Fischer, the Grunen leader, now Foreign Minister of Germany, and as such, a key player in the Kosovo conflict.

Affiliations

• Member, Conference of Presidents
• Member, Committee on Constitutional Affairs
• Substitute, Committee on Budgets
• Substitute, Subcommittee on Security and Defence
• Substitute, Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee
• Substitute, Delegation for relations with South Africa
• Substitute, Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
• Substitute, Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly

Record and Controversies

Declaration of Financial Interests

Professional Activities:

• Publicist

Paid Functions or Activities:

• Publicist

Record of Parliamentary Votes

Election Campaign 2009

Daniel Cohn-Bendit has pledged to all 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.

Personal Information

Curriculum Vitae

• Advanced school-leaving certificate, Odenwaldschule (1966). Studied sociology at the University of Nanterre.
• Spokesman and leader, Paris May Revolution (1968).
• Deported from France (1968).
• Childcare worker with the Kinderladen movement in Frankfurt; bookseller at the Karl-Marx bookshop (1969-1973).
• Editor-in-chief and publisher of Pflasterstrand magazine (1976).
• Honorary head of department, Office for Multicultural Affairs (Frankfurt/Main) (1989).
• Presenter of the Swiss television programme Literaturklub (since 1994).
• Member of the European Parliament (since 1994).
• Delegation Chairman, EU - Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-2002).
• Co-chairman of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (since 2002).
• Honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Tilburg, Netherlands (1997).
• Trombinoscope 'Political Discovery' award for special contributions in the field of politics (1998).

Contact

Address:

Parlement européen

Bât. Altiero Spinelli

08G205

60, rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60

B-1047 Bruxelles/Brussel

Phone:

+32 (0)2 28 45498

Email:

daniel.cohn-bendit AT europarl.europa.eu

Website:

http://www.cohn-bendit.de

This article is part of the MEPedia project of Spinwatch.

Resources

• Election Campaign, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, accessed 05 June 2009.
• European Parliament, Erklärung der finanziellen Interessen der Mitglieder: Daniel Cohn-Bendit, 17 February 2009, accessed 06 March 2009.
• European Parliament, MEP Directory: Daniel Cohn-Bendit, accessed 06 March 2009.
• European Parliament, MEP Directory: Daniel Cohn-Bendit, accessed 05 October 2010.
• Yavin, Jonathan, "Danny the Red in the land of white and blue" (part 1), Haaretz, 3 December 2003, accessed 06 March 2009.