Robert Goebbels (born 3 April 1944) is a former Luxembourgish politician, and a former

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

for the

Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (, , ), abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social democratic, pro-European political party in Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Eu ...

, part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...

. Goebbels started his career as one of the editors in charge of international affairs in a Luxembourg daily. From 1972 to 1974 he was elected three times chairman of the Luxembourg Association of Journalists. Goebbels' political career started as president of the Young Socialists in 1969. He was elected secretary general of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party in 1971 and regularly re-elected up to 1984. In 1976 Goebbels was elected to the City Council of Luxembourg, and re-elected later on for three additional mandates. In 1984 Goebbels was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

. He would go on to be re-elected four times. That same year, he was appointed to the Government as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Development Cooperation and as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. From 1984 to 1989 Goebbels attended numerous

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

post-ministerial conferences and co-chaired in 1985 in Bangkok the first ASEAN-EU- Conference on Economic Affairs. In 1985 Goebbels invited to the signature of the first Schengen-Agreement. In the following years he was Luxembourg's negotiator for the Schengen Convention of 1990. In 1986 Goebbels signed for Luxembourg the European Single Act, which launched the European single market. In 1986 Goebbels was also appointed vice-chairman of the GATT-Conference in Punta del Este, which launched the Uruguay Round. In 1989 Goebbels was appointed Minister of the Economy, Minister of Public Works, Minister of Transport. In the latter capacity he chaired the European Conference of Ministers of Transport. In 1994 Goebbels was appointed Minister of the Economy, Minister of Energy, Minister of Public Works. As member of the Ecofin-Council of the EU he was involved in the launching of the

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

. In 1999 Goebbels was elected to the European Parliament, re-elected in 2004 and 2009. From 1999 to 2009 Goebbels served as vice-chair of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, and as spoke-person of his group on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In addition he chaired the Lisbon network on Growth and Investments of the European Socialist Party. In 2001 Goebbels was elected chairman of the Committee on Human Genetics of the European Parliament. In 2006 Goebbels was appointed by the Government as High Commissioner for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the

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2010. In his 15 years in the European Parliament, Goebbels was rapporteur or co-rapporteur of numerous European legislations. Goebbels was a member of the ACP-EU joint Parliamentary Assembly and a member of the EP-Delegation to the ASEAN countries. From 2009 to 2014 he served as first vice-president of the EP-delegation to ASEAN and attended in that capacity most of the meetings of the ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Assembly. In 2014 he was appointed EP-Member of the EU-task force for

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. He served also in 2014 as chair of the EP observation-mission to the presidential elections in Egypt. In July 2014 Goebbels retired from active politics. He continues to publish articles in the national and international press. In March 2016 the Luxembourg Government appointed Robert Goebbels as the Luxembourg representative to the ASEF Board of Governors.

Footnotes

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Goebbels, Robert Ministers for the economy of Luxembourg Ministers for public works of Luxembourg Ministers for transport of Luxembourg Ministers for energy of Luxembourg MEPs for Luxembourg 2004–2009 Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg) from Centre Councillors in Luxembourg City Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party politicians Luxembourgian journalists Luxembourgian male journalists 1944 births Living people Politicians from Luxembourg City Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party MEPs MEPs for Luxembourg 1999–2004 MEPs for Luxembourg 2009–2014