Sabine Verheyen


Sabine Verheyen is a German architect and politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2009. She is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party.

Education and personal life

From 1983 to 1988, Verheyen studied architecture at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. She is married and has three children.
In Brussels, Verheyen has been sharing an apartment with fellow parliamentarian Monika Hohlmeier since 2009.

Political career

Verheyen joined the Christian Democratic Union in 1990. Since 2001 she is a member of CDU Regional Executive Committee of North Rhine-Westphalia and since 2002 member of the Regional Executive Committee of the CDU Municipal Policy Association.
From 1994 to 2009 Verheyen was member of the city council of Aachen. From 1999 to 2009 she was mayor of Aachen and member of the Euregio Council.

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–present

In the 2009 elections, Verheyen was elected to the European Parliament. She has since served as member of the Committee on Culture and Education; since 2019, she has been its chairwoman. On the committee, Verheyen serves as the European People's Party Group’s coordinator from 2014 until 2019. Alongside Petra Kammerevert, she was selected in 2016 as co-rapporteur on the audio-visual media services directive, which sought to introduce levies and cultural quotas on services like Netflix. In 2020, she also joined the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union.
In addition to her committee assignments, Verheyen is a member of the Parliament's delegation for relations with South Africa. Between 2009 and 2014, she also served as a substitute member on the Committee on Regional Development and the Delegation for relations with Iran. She is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Digital Agenda and of the European Parliament Intergroup on Children's Rights.

Other activities