Joachim Wuermeling (born 19 July 1960 in Münster) a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. Between 2005 and 2008, he served as State Secretary for the European Union in the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology. Education 1985: First state law examination 1987: Doctor of law 1989: Second state law examination 1990: Master of comparative, European and international law at the European University Institute in Florence Early career since 1996: Lecturer of the University of Potsdam since 2000: Lawyer 1989-1993: European affairs officer, Bavaria Office, Bonn 1993-1999: Section head, European affairs division, Bavarian State Chancellery, Munich 1993-1995: Staff Member of the Commissioner Schmidhuber's private office, Brussels Political career since 1996: Member of the Upper Franconia CSU District Executive since 1997: Member of the CSU European affairs committee since 1998: Member of the CSU Party Committee since 1999: Member of the CSU Policy and Drafting Commissions since 2000: District Chairman of the Upper Franconia CSU Lawyers Member of the European Parliament, 1999–2005 From 1999 to 2005, Wuermeling was a Member of the European Parliament for Bavaria with the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, part of the European People's Party and served on the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. During his time in the Parliament, Wuermeling was a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, a member of the Delegation to the EU-Bulgaria Joint Parliamentary Committee and a substitute for the Delegation for relations with the Gulf States, including Yemen. Most notably, he was the Parliament’s rapporteur on the Consumer Credit Directive. Other roles included: 1999-2005: Member of the European Parliament 1999-2001: Vice-Chairman of the Delegation to Estonia 2002-2003: Substitute Member of the European Parliament Delegation to the European Convention 2002-2004: EPP Deputy coordinator, Committee on Constitutional Affairs State Secretary, 2005–2008 Following the 2005 German elections, Wuermeling was appointed State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology. under minister Michael Glos in the first cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel. In this capacity, he was primarily in charge of energy issues. He also served as the government’s coordinator for EU policies and held a key role during Germany’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2007. In early 2008, Glos put Wuermeling in temporary retirement from government employment and replaced him with Jochen Homann. Life after politics Between 2005 and 2011, Wuermeling served as member of the Executive Board of