Rebecca Harms grew up in the German Wendland in the state of Lower Saxony. This is where the citizen’s movement against the final repository for nuclear waste at Gorleben originated – a movement which has left a clear mark on her life. Her commitment to working towards the phasing out of nuclear power and the phasing in of a sustainable energy economy has been the defining green theme in her life since 1977. The question as to where and how nuclear waste can be disposed of safely is still one of her major concerns.
As the leader of the Green parliamentary group, first in Lower Saxony and now in Brussels, she is responsible for many other areas as well. Top of the list have been, unfortunately, the euro crisis and alternatives for uncompromising, ruthless austerity policy. In Brussels the crisis is increasingly being used as an excuse to put the brakes on environmental policy. Rebecca Harms is one of the vehement champions of ambitious climate policies and a sustainable economy.
| Since 2009 | Co-President of the Greens/EFA (European Free Alliance) group at the European Parliament |
| September 2013 | Nominated for one of the two top candidate posts by Alliance 90/The Greens for the 2014 European Parliament elections |
| 2010-2013 | Regular visits to Greece; trips to Portugal, Spain and Ireland (economic crisis and Green alternatives) |
| 2012 | Trip to Japan, including a visit to the region surrounding the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and publication of the book One Day in Fukushima, One Week in Japan |
| 2011 | Visit to Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine; protest against political exertion of influence in jurisdiction at a European Football Championships match in Kharkiv |
| 2005-2010 | Participation in several UN climate summits e.g. Montreal, Bali, Cancun and Copenhagen |
| 2004 | Many trips to Kiev during the winter to witness the Orange Revolution, including several election observation visits and meetings with Yulia Tymoshenko |
| 2004 | German Green Party’s top candidate for the European Parliament elections |
| Since 2004 | Member of the European Parliament |
| Since 1998 | Member of the Party Council of Alliance 90/The Greens in Germany |
| 1994-2004 | Greens Member of the Lower Saxony State Parliament, Group Chair from 1998 |
| 1988 | First trip to the Chernobyl exclusion zone |
| 1988 | Started working with the Wendland Film Cooperative |
| 1984-1988 | First contact with the EU: Assistant to the Green MEP Undine von Blottnitz |
| 1980 | Spokesperson for the ‘Free Republic of Wendland’, which was declared in protest at the nuclear repository site at Gorleben |
| 1977 | Co-founder of the ‘Citizens’ Action Group against Gorleben’, one of Germany’s first anti-nuclear-power-station initiatives |
| 1974 | Abitur (A-levels) and vocational training in Tree Nursery and Landscape Design |
| 1956 | Born in the village of Hambrock near Uelzen, Lower Saxony, Germany |
