Michael Georg Link | |
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Minister of State in the Federal Foreign Office with Cornelia Pieper |
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In office 2012–2013 |
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Preceded by | Werner Hoyer |
Succeeded by | Michael Roth |
Member of the Bundestag | |
In office 2005 – 2013 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany (now Germany) |
6 February 1963
Political party | Free Democratic Party |
Alma mater |
Michael Georg Link (born 6 February 1963 in Heilbronn, Germany) is the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). From January 2012 to December 2013, he served as First Deputy Foreign Minister in the German Government (Minister of State for Europe).
After graduating from secondary school at the , Link did his military service in the 364th Tank Battalion of the German Federal Armed Forces in , after which he studied Russian, French, political science, public law and Eastern European history at the University of Augsburg, the University of Lausanne and Heidelberg University.
From 1995 to 1999, Link worked as a research assistant in the German Bundestag (study commission on German Unity), assistant to former German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, and then as senior advisor to the FDP Parliamentary Group on International affairs.
Link joined the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in 1986. From 1989 to 1995, he served as the Deputy National Chairman and Treasurer of the and as the representative of the Young Liberals in the Federal Executive of the FDP. In 2003, he became a member of the in the state of , where he served as treasurer from 2006. Michael Link was elected to the Federal Executive of the FDP in 2010.
From 2005 to 2013, Link served as a member of the German Bundestag. In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2009 federal elections, he was part of the FDP delegation in the working group on foreign affairs, defense and development policy, led by Franz Josef Jung and Werner Hoyer.
In 2009, Link became spokesperson on European Union Budget and Finance for the FDP Parliamentary Group. From 2009 to 2012, he was the group’s spokesperson on European Affairs and Chairman of the Parliamentary Group on International Affairs. From 2009 to 2012, Link was Deputy Chairman of the Bundestag’s . During this time, from 2006 to 2013, he was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE.