Markus Ferber


Markus Ferber is a German politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 1994. He is a member of the Christian Social Union, part of the European People's Party. In addition to his parliamentary work, Ferber will serving as president of the Hanns Seidel Foundation from 2020.

Education

A member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria and of the Bureau of the European People's Party, Ferber is currently a vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on which he has been serving since 2009. He is also a full member of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect and a substitute member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism. From 2016 until 2017, Ferber was part of the Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion that investigated the Panama Papers revelations and tax avoidance schemes more broadly.
In his capacity as member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Ferber led the negotiations on an update of securities trading rules, known as Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, for the European Parliament from 2012 to 2013.
In addition to his committee assignments, Ferber serves as a member of the European Parliament's Sky and Space Intergroup.
Previously, Ferber was a member of the Committee on Budgets between 1999 and 2009 as well as of the Committee on Budgetary Control between 2004 and 2009. Prior to that, he served on the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy between 1994 and 1997.
In early 2014, the CSU chose Ferber to lead the party list for the 2014 European elections. He was replaced as leader of the CSU MEPs by Angelika Niebler following the party's poor showing in the elections.

Role in national politics

In 2010, Ferber was a CSU delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany. In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and the SPD following the 2013 German elections, he was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on banking regulation and the Eurozone, led by Herbert Reul and Martin Schulz.

Political positions

Amid the 2012 Romanian constitutional crisis, which had been sparked by a dispute between President Traian Băsescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Ferber said he would initiate the suspension of Romania in the European Council for "lack of minimum standards functioning the legal state."

Controversy

In 2017, Politico Europe revealed, in letter to chief executives of Europe's biggest asset management companies, that Ferber had promoted a commercial product that allows companies to navigate key requirements in MiFID II, rules he helped usher into EU law. Ferber was affiliated with the financial service product that he promoted, as it was offered through a foundation he co-founded with the CEO of the company that produces it, but had not declared the affiliation to the Parliament. By early 2018, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, decided that Ferber would not face disciplinary action from the Parliament.

Other activities

Corporate boards

See also: 2004 European Parliament election in Germany