Profile Helmuth Markov: The social engineer

16. Juli 2007

By Jennifer Rankin

Helmuth Markov is tired of talking about the past. “It is more
interesting what I am doing now than what I thought in 1983 or 1985,”
says the MEP, a member of Germany’s Left party.

Markov now chairs the European Parliament’s international trade
committee. In the mid-1980s he was a member of Socialist Unity Party
(SED), the ruling party of communist East Germany. Despite Markov’s
protestations, his political journey is interesting.
Markov took the helm of the international trade committee last January,
following a typical Brussels deal where the Socialists and GUE/NGL
decided to barter chairmanships. The trade chair fell to Markov, a
member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green
Left – to give it its full title – a group of radical leftists and
communists. Many in the committee had misgivings about having a chairman
opposed to free trade. As one Socialist MEP, who was opposed to Markov,
remarks: “It is like putting a person on the internal-market committee
who argues against the internal-market principle.” Markov is well
liked by his colleagues, praised as hard-working and non-partisan, but
mixed feelings remain about his role.
Daniel Caspary, a German MEP from the centre-right EPP-ED group, says
that “he really tries hard to be chairman and not to bring in his own
opinion”. “The weakness is that he is not representing the majority
of the parliament. But he tries to bring all participants in and
doesn’t misuse the chairmanship.” An official at the parliament
says he is “very respectful of the rules”, “very just” and
promotes “a good atmosphere”. Erika Mann, a German Socialist MEP, is
more circumspect. “He is a really nice guy, he tries to understand and
be helpful, but his perceptions about how trade should be are certainly
problematic. He is 90-95% against a role he is supposed to play,” she
says.
Markov insists that he is not entirely against free trade. He says he
is for fair trade, a differential approach to open markets for rich,
poor and middle-income countries. For instance, he believes the impasse
in the Doha round of world trade talks could be solved if the European
Union and America gave up demands for reciprocity on market opening,
leaving developing countries free to decide when they open their markets
and for which products. This view is shared by many others in the
committee who are sceptical about the European Commission’s emphasis
on reciprocity and concerned about the slow progress of the round.
As well as traditional trade talks, the committee is also grappling
with new issues such as climate change, an area where Markov is keen
that trade should play its part. He would like to see all countries
setting common environmental standards under a revised Kyoto Protocol to
stop unfair competition.
Despite one chairmanship, he finds time to be an active member of the
transport committee. As rapporteur on the Commission’s road safety
directive, he is arguing for an expansion of the scope of the directive
to smaller roads, which he forecasts would save hundreds more lives a
year. He says that on such issues, MEPs from all political groups work
together.
Although the European Parliament thrives on cosy coalitions, there is
clear red water between Markov and Brussels’s centrist consensus.
Markov would like to scrap the Lisbon Agenda (on growth and
competitiveness), tear up the Stability and Growth pact, abandon
liberalisation, expand the public sector, harmonise corporate taxes and
set EU-wide rules on inheritance tax. He recognises that he stands
against the prevailing political winds and says he is not optimistic for
change. “The liberal mainstream is today’s society. It takes time
[to change].” Although he dismisses talk of individual achievements,
saying that “one person never has such a big influence to change
anything”, he thinks he has helped to build a strong left.
When he articulates his vision for trade or political values, Markov is
passionate, like a well-rehearsed podium speaker. But talking about his
political upbringing, he is hesitant.
He joined the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in his student days, while
studying engineering in Kiev. He explains “we have to fight for more
justice in this world and I was sure that the SED was working in this
field. I did believe it”.
In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and the SED became the Party of
Democratic Socialism. A few name changes later, it joined forces with
the West German left to try to secure a national base. But the radical
left is out of power in Germany and has yet to shake off a reputation as
a protest party, although it still does well in Berlin and
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Looking back at the 1980s, Markov says he knew that “there were a lot
of wrong decisions in my party”. Then he had hoped that top-down
perestroika would arrive in East Germany, as it did in the Soviet Union.
But party bosses resisted change until communism was literally crumbling
around them.
“I am also responsible for this wrong way we have done things in the
GDR [the German Democratic Republic],” he says. “We [the members]
decided to stay in, but it was too late. I regret that I didn’t stand
up in the 1980s in the GDR that I waited much too long.”
It was the collapse of the Berlin Wall that brought Markov into active
politics, because he wanted to play a part in his country’s
democratisation. Between 1990 and 1999 he served in the Brandenburg
Land. During this time, he also ran his own business designing and
building electrical equipment. He opposed unification in 1990. Asked if
he still regrets this, he replies: “Yes and no. In the GDR we had
mostly social rights, but not individual rights. My dream is to have a
society with social rights and individual rights.”
Now he believes that social rights are in retreat, reserving his
strongest criticism for the Social Democrat government of Gerhard
Schröder.
After two terms in German regional politics, he was elected to the
European Parliament in 1999. He enjoys the congenial spirit, where all
parties work together and all parties – even his own – enjoy a taste
of power.

Quelle:
European Voice, Volume 13 Number 27, 12 July 2007