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Ex-Chancellor Schroeder
Photo: Jens Schicke / IMAGO
Gerhard Schröder's lobbying for Russian state-owned companies is now also occupying the EU.
In a resolution due to be passed on Thursday, the European Parliament is calling on EU states to impose sanctions on the former SPD chancellor if he does not stop working for Russian companies.
Prominent politicians such as the former heads of government of France and Austria, François Fillon and Wolfgang Bowl, have already given up similar jobs, according to the draft available to SPIEGEL.
Others, such as Schröder or the former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, are "urgently urged" by Parliament to do the same.
At the same time, MEPs are calling on the Council of Member States to expand the list of people who have been sanctioned so far – to include European board members of large Russian companies and “politicians who continue to receive Russian money”.
Also Brussels SPD people for resolution
A broad alliance of Christian Democrats, Liberals, Greens and Social Democrats supports the draft resolution.
Schröder's behavior was "unacceptable," SPD politician Bernd Lange, head of the EU Parliament's powerful Foreign Trade Committee, told SPIEGEL.
The fact that the traffic light coalition wants to delete Schröder's appointments as former chancellor shows that people in Berlin think similarly.
The CSU MEP Markus Ferber made a similar statement.
Schröder has "become Vladimir Putin's chief lobbyist in Germany" and "shamelessly promotes the Kremlin's political agenda."
That must also have political consequences.
The draft says nothing about the nature of the sanctions.
Since Schröder is an EU citizen, financial measures such as the freezing of assets would probably be an option.
Attempt to increase the pressure on Schröder
However, it is questionable whether this will happen, as the hurdles for sanctions against Schröder are high.
First of all, the member states would have to ask the European External Action Service to check whether Schröder's actions deserve sanctions.
In the end, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell would have to decide whether to propose that the member states include Schröder in the sanctions list.
This must be passed unanimously by the EU countries.
The fact that Schröder actually ends up on the list is apparently not considered particularly likely, even in the EU Parliament.
The resolution is more of an attempt to "increase the pressure on Schröder to finally give up his posts," says Rasmus Andresen, spokesman for the German Greens in the EU Parliament.
SPD man Lange also considers the approval of the member states to be uncertain.
At the moment one hopes that with Schröder "perhaps an understanding is still possible".
Schröder joined the pipeline company Nord Stream in 2005, shortly after the end of his chancellorship.
He is still chairman of the shareholders' committee at the company, which is 51 percent owned by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.
At the same time, Schröder heads the supervisory board of the energy giant Rosneft and has been nominated for the supervisory board of the Russian Gazprom group.
Despite the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Schröder is sticking to his post for Russian companies.
That brought him a lot of criticism, and members of the SPD initiated exclusion proceedings against him.
