Etienne Schneider

Etienne Schneider
Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 December 2013
Monarch	Henri
Prime Minister	Xavier Bettel
Preceded by	Jean Asselborn
Minister for Economy and Trade
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2012
Prime Minister	Jean-Claude Juncker Xavier Bettel
Preceded by	Jeannot Krecké
Personal details
Born	29 January 1971 Dudelange, Luxembourg
Political party	Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party
Alma mater	ICHEC Brussels Management School University of Greenwich

Etienne Schneider (born 29 January 1971) is a Luxembourgian politician and economist of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP). He was a municipal councillor in Kayl from 1995 to 2005, and from 1997 to 2004, he was secretary general of the parliamentary group of the LSAP in Parliament.^[1] He was elected first alderman of the municipality of Kayl in 2005, a mandate he held until May 2010.^[1] Schneider was appointed Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade on 1 February 2012.^[1] In the government formed following the 2013 Luxembourg general election he is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy.

Biography

Born in Dudelange, Schneider completed his secondary schooling at the Lycée Technique d'Esch-sur-Alzette before studying at the ICHEC Brussels Management School and at the University of Greenwich in London where he graduated in business and finance in 1995.^[1]

In 1995, Schneider became a councilor in Kayl, a post he maintained until 2005, subsequently becoming first alderman until 2010.^[1] In 1997, he was appointed secretary general of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) until he became chairman of the board of the electricity utility Cegedel, subsequently becoming chairman and Managing Director of the German energy company, Enovos (a grid company), the creation of which is also credited to him. Schneider was also a research assistant at the European Parliament in Brussels between 1995 and 1996. In the Kayl municipal elections in 2005 he was elected as first alderman of the municipality which post he occupied till May 2010. During 1997, he worked in Brussels as a project leader with NATO. In 2010, he also became chairman and managing director of Luxembourg's Société Nationale de Crédit et d'Investissement but resigned all his business appointments when he became Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade in February 2012,^[1] replacing Jeannot Krecké. In this capacity he also co-chaired the Superior Committee for Research and Innovation. His tasks as minister involved private sector research and implementation of the bill of 5 June 2009 relating to assistance in the field of research.^[2]

Although Schneider was frontrunner as the leader for the LSAP in the general election on 20 October 2013, he received only 19,683 votes, far fewer than Jean Asselborn, also an LSAP candidate, who had 38,257.^[3] In the new coalition, he has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy.^[4]

He is openly gay.^[5]

See also

• Bettel-Schneider Ministry (2013 - )

References

1. "Biography of Etienne Schneider". Gouvernement.lu. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
2. "Etienne Schneider appointed as new Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade". Erawatch. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
3. "Juncker the most popular candidate - receives 55,968 votes", Wort.lu, 21 October 2013.
4. Fatima Rougi. "Qui sont les 18 membres du gouvernement?" (in French). L'Essentiel. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
5. "Luxembourg to become first country to have gay prime minister and gay deputy PM". PinkNews. Retrieved 20 December 2015.

External links

• Biography at the Luxembourg government website