Nicola Beer

Nicola Beer (born 23 January 1970 in Wiesbaden) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2019.

Beer finished highschool with a bilingual degree in German and French in 1989. She went on to study law at the University of Frankfurt from 1991 until 1997.

Career in state politics

Beer became member of the FDP in 1991. She was first elected as member of the Landtag of Hesse in the 1999 state elections. Between 2008 and 2009, she served as deputy chairperson of the FDP parliamentary group, under the leadership of chairman Jörg-Uwe Hahn.

In the cabinets of minister-presidents Roland Koch and Volker Bouffier, Beer served as State Secretary for European Affairs at the Hessian State Ministry of Justice between 2009 and 2012. In this capacity, she represented Hesse on the European Committee of the Regions. Between 2012 and 2014 she was State Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs in Hesse.

Career in national politics

Beer was a FDP delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2017.

In late 2013, incoming FDP chairman Christian Lindner nominated Beer for the office of Secretary General; on 7 December 2013 she got elected (with 84.3% of all votes. At the political convention of the FDP on 15 May 2015 she got reelected with 88.4% of all votes.

Member of the German Parliament, 2017–2019

Ahead of the 2017 elections, Beer was elected to lead her party’s campaign in the state of Hesse. In the – unsuccessful – negotiations to form a coalition government with the Christian Democrats – both the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) – and the Green Party, she was part of her party's delegation. She later became a member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present

In September 2018, Beer announced that she would lead the FDP list and run for a parliamentary seat in the 2019 European elections. Since becoming a Member of the European Parliament, she has been serving as one of its Vice-Presidents; in this capacity, she is part of the Parliament’s leadership under President David Sassoli. She also joined the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

Since 2019, Beer has been one of the three deputies of Christian Lindner in his capacity as FDP chairman.

• Deutsche Industrieforschungsgemeinschaft Konrad Zuse, Member of the Senate
• International Martin Luther Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2018)
• Deutsche Stiftung Frauengesundheit, Member of the Board of Trustees
• Association of Private Higher Education Institutions (VPH), Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2015)
• Heraeus Bildungsstiftung, Member of the Advisory Board
• Hessenpark, Member of the Advisory Board
• Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Member of the Board of Trustees
• Museum of World Cultures, Member of the Board of Trustees
• World Vision Deutschland, Member of the Board of Trustees
• German-French Lawyers’ Association (DFJ), Member
• German-Israeli Association (DIG), Member
• Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe (JUH), Member
• ZDF, Member of the Television Council (2015-2016)

Beer is a mother of twins. In 2001, she separated from the children's father, fellow FDP politician Volker Stein. Since 2018, she has been married to lawyer Jürgen Illing.

• Beer, Nicola, Internationales Biographisches Archiv 36/2012 from 4 September 2012, in Munzinger-Archive (Beginning of the article available for free)