Udo Bullmann

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Udo Bullmann

|honorific-suffix = MEP

|image = 1718611534385 20240614 BULLMANN Udo DE 028.jpg

|caption = Bullmann in 2024

|office = Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats

|term_start = 20 March 2018

|term_end = 1 July 2019

|predecessor = Maria João Rodrigues (acting)

|successor = Iratxe García

|term_label1 = Acting

|term_start1 = 31 January 2018

|term_end1 = 7 March 2018

|predecessor1 = Gianni Pittella

|successor1 = Maria João Rodrigues (acting)

|office2 = Member of the European Parliament
for Germany

|term_start2 = 1 July 1999

|term_end2 =

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|6|8|df=y}}

|birth_place = Giessen, West Germany (now Germany)

|death_date =

|death_place =

|party = Social Democratic Party

|education = University of Giessen

|website = {{url|udo-bullmann.de|Official website}}

}}

Udo Bullmann (born 8 June 1956) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1999. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), part of the Party of European Socialists. He has been re-elected to serve as a member until 2029. In the 10th legislation he is the coordinator for his political group in the Committee on Development and a member in the Committee on International Trade. He is furthermore serving as chair of the Delegation for relations with South Africa.https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4267/UDO_BULLMANN/home

Personal life

Udo Bullmann is married and has 3 children.

Academic career

Bullmann studied political science, sociology, public law, as well as economics. In 1982 he received a M.A. in political science and 1988 the doctorate in social science. From 1989 to 1996 he was a research assistant at the University of Giessen. He held a scholarship of the German Research Council from 1994 to 1997, and was a visiting research fellow at the Department of Government at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland, from 1994 to 1998. The year before being elected to the European Parliament in 1999, he was a university lecturer and Jean Monnet Professor for Studies in European integration at the University of Giessen.

Political career

Since his entry into the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1975, Bullmann was mostly engaged with the Young Socialists branch until 1991. He was the chair of the Hesse regional association of the Young Socialists.

=Member of the European Parliament, 1999–present=

In 1999 Bullmann was elected to the European Parliament. From 2003 to 2012, he served as deputy chair of the SPD group in the European Parliament, before taking on the role as its chair from 2012 to 2017.

Bullmann's political work in that position focused on economics and employment, the Lisbon Strategy, the European financial service sector, as well as development politics and regional policy. From 1999 to 2018, he was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Between 1999 and 2014, he was also a member of Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific states and an alternate member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. In addition to his committee assignments, Bullmann serves as member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Trade Unions[https://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/files/organisation-and-rules/organisation/intergroups/list-of-members-trade-unions.pdf Intergroup on Trade Unions] European Parliament. and the European Parliament Intergroup on Western Sahara.[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/intergroupes/VIII_LEG_26-Western%20Sahara.pdf Members] European Parliament Intergroup on Western Sahara.

In early 2014, the SPD chose Bullmann to be the party list’s number 3 for the 2014 European elections, following Martin Schulz and Birgit Sippel.Dave Keating (27 January 2014), [http://www.politico.eu/article/german-parties-select-european-parliament-candidates/ German parties select European Parliament candidates] European Voice. He also led the German delegation within the S&D Group until 2018.

In March 2018, the S&D Group chose Bullmann as their new leader; he received 86 votes, while his competitor Kathleen Van Brempt got 61 votes.Maïa de La Baume (20 March 2018), [https://www.politico.eu/article/socialists-sd-pick-germanys-udo-bullmann-as-leader-european-parliament/ Socialists pick Germany’s Udo Bullmann as leader] Politico Europe.Maïa de La Baume (6 June 2019), [https://www.politico.eu/article/udo-bullmann-and-iratxe-garcia-to-run-for-socialist-group-leadership/ Udo Bullmann and Iratxe García to run for socialist group leadership] Politico Europe. Following the poor performance of his own party in the 2019 elections, Bullmann decided not to run again for the leadership; instead, the position went to Iratxe García.David M. Herszenhorn, Lili Bayer and Maïa de La Baume (17 June 2019), [https://www.politico.eu/article/bullmann-concedes-socialist-group/ Bullmann concedes race to lead Socialist group] Politico Europe. Bullmann subsequently became a member and S&D coordinator of the Committee on Development. In 2020, he also joined the Committee on International Trade. He is also a member in the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America and the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4267/UDO_BULLMANN/home], on the European Parliament website.

In February 2023, Bullmann was elected chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights following the resignation of the subcommittee's previous chair Maria Arena in January 2023.[https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230206IPR72105/udo-bullmann-elected-chair-of-the-subcommittee-on-human-rights], on the Committee website.

In the European Parliament elections 2024 Bullmann was re-elected to the Parliament. He was listed on number 8 of his party's national voting list. [https://www.spd.de/europa/kandidierende]

=Role in national politics=

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 German elections, Bullmann was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on banking regulation and the Eurozone, led by Herbert Reul and Martin Schulz. He also participated in similar negotiations following the 2017 elections.[http://www.zeit.de/news/2018-02/02/die-grosse-hauptverhandlungsrunde-von-cdu-csuund-spd-180202-99-901904 Die große Hauptverhandlungsrunde von CDU, CSU und SPD] Die Zeit, 2 February 2018.

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Bullmann led his party's delegation in the working group on European affairs; his co-chairs from the other parties are Franziska Brantner and Nicola Beer.Andreas Apetz and Thomas Kaspar (22 October 2021), [https://www.fr.de/politik/ampel-koalition-verhandlung-spd-gruene-fdp-arbeitsgruppen-scholz-lindner-baerbock-91069532.html Ampel-Koalition: Alle Verantwortlichen, AGs und Themen im Überblick] Frankfurter Rundschau.

Other activities

Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Member of the Political Advisory Board (since 2020)[https://www.spd-wirtschaftsforum.de/news/neukonstituierung_politischer_beirat-20200701/ Bernd Westphal und Anke Rehlinger koordinieren neu konstituierten Politischen Beirat des SPD-Wirtschaftsforums] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420002356/https://www.spd-wirtschaftsforum.de/news/neukonstituierung_politischer_beirat-20200701/ |date=20 April 2022 }} Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, press release of 1 July 2020.
Europäische Akademie der Arbeit, Member of the Board
German United Services Trade Union (ver.di), Member
Brussels Branch of the Labour Party