Political groups

2009-2014: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance

National parties

2009-2014: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen

Biography

Gerald Häfner was born in Munich, Germany. From 1978 to 1984 Häfner studied Germanic Studies, Waldorf Educational Methods, Sociology and Philosophy in München, Witten und Bochum. Before entering politics, he worked as a Waldorf teacher, author and journalist. 

In 1980, he became one of the founding members of Die Grünen (Green Party). He represented Munich and Bavaria as a Member of the German Bundestag and was Chairman and CEO of the Greens in Bavaria. During his time in office (1987-1990, 1994-1998, 2001-2002) he was particularly involved in legal affairs, constitutional affairs and European affairs and was a member of the Special Committee on Unification. 

Gerald Häfner was a Member of the European Parliament for Alliance '90/The Greens between 2009 and 2014, aligned to the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. He was Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula and a member of the committees for Constitutional Affairs, Legal Affairs and the Petitions Committee. In addition to his committee assignments, Häfner was a member of the European Parliament's Advisory Committee on the Conduct of Members from 2012 until 2014.

18th EU-Republic of Korea Inter-Parliamentary Meeting Working Session. Roger Helmer (L), Herbert Reul (C), Gerald Häfner (R) © European Union 2014 - European Parliament

He has co-authored significant legislative texts, including a draft for a new German Constitution after German unification, a Constitution for Lower Saxony that has been adopted and has authored laws on transparency, participation, deliberative democracy, fairer elections, initiatives, referenda, and more and better European democracy.

Gerald Häfner is the co-founder of several foundations. He was one of the central figure involved in the foundation of Democracy International, an international democracy NGO in 2011, which he served on as a board member. Häfner also established Democracy International’s partner organisation Mehr Demokratie e.V., an NGO for citizen participation and direct democracy. Other organisations he has founded include Federal Foundation for the study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany, the Petra Kelly Foundation, Democratic Europe Now and ReThink Europe. He also was an initiator, author and rapporteur of European Citizens’ Initiative, the first instrument for transnational citizen participation in the EU and worldwide. He co-created the Check the Democracy Navigator for all instruments of direct democracy available in Germany.

Citizens first! Ideas for improving and extending the European Citizens' Initiative. L-R: Hans J. Lietzmann, Gerald Häfner, Sandrine Bélier © European Union 2013 - European Parliament

Häfner is also a consultant on democracy, on citizen-participation and on constitution-making to various parliaments and civil society organizations in different countries. He has been Head of the Social Sciences Section at the Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft Goetheanum since June 2016 in Dornach, Switzerland. 

Häfner's accolades include winner of the speech-competition of the members of the German Bundestag and the National Leadership Award for Political Innovation from the Economic Forum Germany in 2005.

For more information on his time as an MEP, click here. 

What's in the Archives

The fonds are mainly related to documents concerning the Citizens' Initiative, a tool introduced in the Lisbon Treaty, whereby EU citizens can petition the EU Commission to consider legislation in an area of EU competency, being one important innovation in the democratic functioning of the European Union. The files contain different types of documents related to the legislative work for implementing the “Citizens' initiative” (e.g. correspondence, contributions, analyses for implementation, working documents).