born: 1952
married, two children
land list: Bremen

Office in Berlin
T: +49 30 / 227 - 71605
F: +49 30 / 227 - 76262
marieluise.beck@bundestag.de

Spokesperson on eastern europe policy

I entered the Bundestag with the first Green parliamentary party in 1983 and was elected spokesperson together with Petra Kelly and Otto Schily. Apart from interruptions caused by the rotation principle (1985) and an electoral setback (1990), I have been a member of the parliamentary group since then.

After working in the red-green coalition government as integration delegate, my main field of interest now lies in the states of Eastern Europe. Over ten years ago I tried to help the people of Bosnia through the Bremen initiative "Bridge of Hope". Now I am able to return to (South-) Eastern Europe, as the Western Balkans are once again part of my field of activity, along with Belarus, the Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The former Yugoslavian states are undergoing difficult periods of transition with a profound lack of simultaneity, and here it is vital to support the build-up of a functioning infrastructure and their continued convergence with the EU.

As a member of the civil liberties party Alliance 90/The Greens, I see the human rights situation in Belarus and Russia as a great cause for concern. The massacres in Andishan, Uzbekistan have also revealed the scant regard for human rights in many countries of Central Asia. A central task of green foreign policy, therefore, is the advancement of active civil societies and democratic structures, and as a member of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE, I have the opportunity to influence this.

Foreign policy is also increasingly a matter of energy policy. This is reflected in our relationships to the huge oil and natural gas suppliers like Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran, so for the Greens the promotion of alternative forms of energy is not solely an ecological question. The drastic running dry of Lake Aral is not only an ecological catastrophe, but a human one as well. It shows once again the imperative of an alternative energy and resources policy

Committees

• Committee on Foreign Affairs (m.)

• Finance Committee (alt. m.)

Political CV

• Co-founder of the Green Party (1979/80)

• Member of the first Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Co-spokesperson with Otto Schily and Petra Kelly (from 1983)

• Member of the Bundestag, Green parliamentary group (1987-1990)

• Executive committee spokeswoman, Bremen Green Party (1990-1991)

• Member of the provincial legislature of Bremen and co-founder of the "Bridge of Hope" aid organisation for Bosnia (1991-1994)

• Member of the Bundestag, Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group (since 1994)

• Federal Government commissioner for migration, refugees and integration (1998-2005)

• Parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (2002-2005)