Martin Schulz is an important thought leader of Europe. His views have deeply influenced his party's pro-European politics and his enthusiasm for Europe has shaped his political career. The German politician is fluent in English, Dutch and French. Martin Schulz is a convinced European and an ardent EU supporter who considers the European unification as being civilization's greatest achievement over the past century. After attending a private Roman Catholic school in Würselen, Martin Schulz (*1955) trained to be a bookseller and worked for a number of publishing houses and bookshops. In 1982 he opened his own bookshop in Würselen. In 1974 he joined the SPD and in 1984 he was elected to the Würselen Municipal Council remaining a member for just over two electoral terms, to 1998, from 1987 onwards as mayor. Aged 31 he was then the youngest mayor in North Rhine-Westphalia. He held that office until 1998. From 1994 to 2017 Martin Schulz was Member of the European Parliament. For some years he was chair of the SPD delegation and he served on a number of committees. He was elected group leader of the PSE Group in 2004 and also acted as the representative for European Affairs for Germany's SPD party. From 2012 to 2017 Martin Schulz was President of the European Parliament and has also set national economic policy milestones. For example, in budgetary policy. Schulz supported the course of promoting growth, trade and change through investment and rejected the austerity policy as neoliberal. From 1999 to 2018 Martin Schulz has been part of the SPD leadership and from 2017 to 2018 he was leader of his party. In 2017 he stood as the SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship and impressed with a clear economic policy profile, among other things. After the electoral defeat of his party Martin Schulz declared to resign as SPD chairman. From 2017 until 2021 he was a member of the Bundestag and since December 2020 he is the President of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. For his political engagement Martin Schulz has received numerous honours like the Federal Cross of Merit (First Class), the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen and he is Officer of the French Légion d'honneur.