Born in 1979, Franziska Brantner was elected to the European Parliament in 2009. She is spokeswoman for foreign affairs of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and Parliament’s standing rapporteur for the Instrument for Stability. She has also been her group’s chief negotiator for the establishment of the European External Action Service, the EU’s new foreign ministry. She serves as Member and coordinator on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and as substitute member on the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and on the Committee on Budgets.
Franziska Brantner graduated in 2004 with a dual degree (M.A. and diplôme) from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York and Sciences Po in Paris, where she graduated top of her class. In 2010, she received a Doctorate (magna cum laude) from the University of Mannheim for her research on the reformability of the United Nations.
Before joining the European Parliament, Franziska Brantner worked for the Bertelsmann Foundation consulting on EU foreign policy issues. As a consultant for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), she helped design a European action plan for the UN Security Resolution 1325, the first resolution ever passed by the Security Council that specifically addressed the impact of war on women, and women’s contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. In 2007-08, Franziska co-authored with Richard Gowan a study for the European Council on Foreign Relations on EU Human Rights Policies at the United Nations and she was a member of the Peace and Security Commission of the German Greens. She holds a teaching position in Political Science at the University of Mannheim. Living today in Tübingen and Brussels, Franziska Brantner studied and worked in Freiburg, Tel Aviv, Washington, D. C., Paris, New York and Berlin. She was born in Lörrach in southwest Germany.
