BiographySince July 2019, Niclas Herbst has been a Member of the European Parliament. Following his re-election in May 2024, he assumed the chairmanship of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) in July 2024. Additionally, he is a member of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (DACP), and the Delegation to the EU-Africa Parliamentary Assembly (DAFR). As a substitute member, he is part of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) and the Committee on Fisheries (PECH). Niclas Herbst was born on February 28, 1973, in Ratzeburg, Germany. After completing his Abitur in 1992 at the Lauenburgische Gelehrtenschule in Ratzeburg, he served in the military from 1992 to 1994, completing training as a reserve officer. He then studied political science, public law, and psychology at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel from 1994 to 2000, earning a Master of Arts degree.Herbst's political career began in 1990 when he joined the Junge Union (JU), the youth organisation of the CDU. From 1992 to 1998, he served as district chairman of the JU in Lauenburg, and from 2000 to 2002, he was the state chairman of the JU in Schleswig-Holstein. At the same time, he was a member of the state executive board of the CDU Schleswig-Holstein from 2000 to 2016.Professionally, Herbst started his career in 2000 as a parliamentary advisor for economic policy for the CDU parliamentary group in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament. From 2005 to 2012, he was himself a member of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament, serving as deputy chairman of the European Affairs Committee and spokesperson for education, youth, and sports for the CDU parliamentary group. Between 2008 and 2013, he was the director of the Hermann Ehlers Academy. He then worked as a senior consultant at an international consulting agency from 2012 to 2017 and headed a department in the State Chancellery of Schleswig-Holstein from 2017 to 2019.For his work, he was honored in December 2020 with the "Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries Award" at the annual MEP Awards by The Parliament Magazine.Alongside his parliamentary activities, Herbst has been serving as deputy chairman of the Europa-Union Schleswig-Holstein since 2008.
