Biography

Robert Goebbels was born in April 1944 in Luxembourg. After his studies he started a professional career as a journalist. He was President of the Luxembourgian Association of Journalists from 1972 to 1974. In 1970, he became Secretary General of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party. From 1976 to 1984, as well as from 1999 to 2005, he was a member of the Luxembourg City Council.

After his election to the National Parliament in 1984 he was appointed State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and State Secretary for Economic Affairs. In this context he was Vice-President of the GATT Ministerial Conference at Punta del Este (Uruguay Round), signed the Single European Act on behalf of Luxembourg and chaired the Intergovernmental Conference that concluded the Schengen Agreement.

Re-elected in 1989, Robert Goebbels was nominated Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister for Transport and Minister of Public Works. Under this mandate, he was the representative for Luxembourg at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Economic and Monetary Union. In 1994 he was reappointed Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister for Public Works and Minister for Energy. During 3 Luxembourg EU-presidencies he chaired meetings of the Council of the European Union on the following policies: Internal Market, Development, Industry, Energy, Transport, Regional Development and Research.

Robert Goebbels is a Member of the European Parliament since 1999 (MEP). He was elected Vice-Chairman of the Group of European Socialists, with responsibilities for economic and monetary affairs that same year. He also was the Group’s Coordinator in the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the President of the temporary Committee on Human Genetics in 2001.

Robert Goebbels was re-elected as a MEP and Vice-Chairman of the PSE-Group in 2004. He was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, a substitute of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and since 2007 a member of the temporary Committee on Climate Change.

In his parliamentary work, Robert Goebbels deals with issues which have a direct impact on citizens’ daily life. In this context, he was one of 6 MEP’s who rewrote the so-called “Bolkestein” directive in order to transform it into a decent instrument for the freedom of movement of services within the EU and this without leading to social dumping. He was also one of the signatories of the “REACH” directive and very closely involved in the 2008 EU Climate and Energy Package.

In June 2009, Robert Goebbels started his third mandate as MEP, being a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a substitute member to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In the context of the regulation of the financial markets, Robert Goebbels was one of the main negotiators of the AIFM directive (hedge funds).

Read an interview with Robert Goebbels