Werner Langen

Werner Langen (born 27 November 1949) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994 until 2019.

He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

Between 1990 and 1991, Langen served as State Minister for Agriculture in the cabinet of Minister-President Carl-Ludwig Wagner of Rhineland-Palatinate.

From 1992 until 1993, he was a member of the CDU executive board under the party's then-chairman, Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Langen first became a Member of the European Parliament in the 1994 elections.

Throughout his time in office, he served on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Between 1999 and 2009, Langen was a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, where he served as the European People's Party rapporteur for public services whose remit included competition cases.

Between 2006 and 2012, Langen chaired the CDU/CSU delegation to the European Parliament.

In this capacity, he once again served as a member of the CDU executive board, this time under the party's then chairwoman, Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In 2010, he was a CDU delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany.

From 2014 until 2019, Langen was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Biodiversity, Countryside, Hunting and Recreational Fisheries.

In this capacity, he was in charge of steering key financial reforms through the European Parliament, including the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD 2) in 2015.

In July 2016, Langen was elected to chair the Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) that investigated the Panama Papers revelations and tax avoidance schemes more broadly.