Rainer Wend (born 8 March 1954) is a German politician of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD) and currently lobbyist for Deutsche Post DHL. From 2002 to 2005, he was chairman of the Bundestag-Committee Economics and Labour as well as spokesman of the SPD parliamentary party on Economic Affairs from 2005 till 2009. In July 2012, he was elected President of

European Movement Germany European Movement Germany (EM Germany) is a non-partisan network of interest groups in the field of EU politics in Germany. It cooperates closely with all EU stakeholders on a national and European level, most particularly with the German Federal ...

Work and life

Wend was born in Gütersloh. After graduating from high school, he started studying law which he successfully completed in 1979 with the first state examination. After his legal practical training he completed the second state examination and started his doctoral thesis at the Bielefeld University. Wend has been qualified as lawyer since 1984. Furthermore, he was curator of the New Social Market Economy Initiative. Wend is married and has three daughters.

Political career

Dr Rainer Wend has already been a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

since 1980. Throughout his studies he had been actively engaged in the respective campus group and became Head of the Young Socialists in Ostwestfalen/Lippe and later on Head of the SPD district Bielefeld (1988-1998). From 1998 till 2008 he had been a member of German Bundestag. In 2002 he became chairmen of the Bundestag-Committee Economics and Labour and was named as spokesman of the SPD parliamentary party on Economic Affairs in 2008. In 2008 he did not run for the reelections anymore and became the Head of Corporate Public Policy and Sustainability at Deutsche Post DHL.

European politics

EBD-Präsident Rainer Wend (Mitte) mit Staatsminister Michael Link (links) und EBD-Ehrenpräsident Dieter Spöri

Since Wend has been working for the Bundestag, his political priorities are related to financial and economical topics as well as to the euro-crisis. According to Wend important elements of crisis management are besides budget discipline and structural reforms in the affected countries a greater convergence of economic and financial policies of the EU members towards a “political union”. Wend supports the introduction of a

financial transaction tax A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a levy on a specific type of financial transaction for a particular purpose. The tax has been most commonly associated with the financial sector for transactions involving intangible property rather than rea ...

on a broad base. In the course of the debates on the

Multiannual Financial Framework The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the European Union, also called the financial perspective, is a seven-year framework regulating its annual budget. It is laid down in a unanimously adopted Council Regulation with the consent of the Eur ...

of the EU, Wend and his British counterpart call for a growth-oriented budget framework. Wend also represents the idea of a social Europe, as a political union only can succeed if the living conditions within Europe are comparable. Since July 2012, Wend is the president of EM Germany and thus followed SPD politician

Dieter Spöri Dieter Spöri (born 15 May 1943 in Stuttgart) is a German politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He has been the president of the European Movement Germany since 2006, and was deputy prime minister and minister ...

Public office

From 1994 until 2003, he was mayor of

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region ('' Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wend, Rainer 1954 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Bielefeld University alumni Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany