Peter Liese


Peter Liese is a German physician and politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 1994. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

Education

Career in state politics

Liese sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, where he serves as the European People's Party Group’s coordinator. In this capacity, he was responsible for writing a report on including aviation within the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. In 2020, he also joined the Special Committee on Beating Cancer.
Liese is a substitute for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, a member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America and a substitute for the Delegation to the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee. He was part of the Parliament's delegations to the 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, to the 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw and to the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh.
In addition, Liese serves as member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals and of the European Parliament Intergroup on Biodiversity, Countryside, Hunting and Recreational Fisheries. Previously, he was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity. In 2014, he supported Françoise Grossetête’s proposal to establish a European Parliament Intergroup on Health for Citizens, including stakeholders such as the European Cancer Patients Association and the Organisation for European Cancer Institutes.
A member of the EPP Working Group on Bioethics and Human Dignity, Liese is known for his work on a human cells and tissues directive and conservative stance on stem cell research. Between 2000 and 2001, he served on the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Human Genetics and Other New Technologies in Modern Medicine.

Role in national politics

From 2012 until 2018, Liese was a member of the CDU leadership under the party’s successive chairwomen Angela Merkel and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Merkel's Christian Democrats and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, he was part of the CDU delegation in the working group on consumer protection. In similar negotiations following the 2017 federal elections, he was part of the working group on energy, climate protection and the environment, led by Armin Laschet, Georg Nüßlein and Barbara Hendricks.

Political positions

In a background paper presented to the EPP in summer 2017, Liese proposed to scrap the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament and give the French city the European Medicines Agency instead.
Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2018, Liese publicly endorsed Friedrich Merz to succeed Angela Merkel as the party's chair.

Other activities