Jürgen Linden, Speaker of the Board of Directors Charlemagne Prize, Armin Laschet, Premier of NRW, Javier Solana, Felipe-VI. Picture by EU.
15 August 2018, Düsseldorf, NRW, Germany: As per 1 January 2019 the Premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, shall take over the rotating role as Cultural Plenipotentiary in the framework of the Franco-German cooperation as per decision of the German Federal Government. The office lasts till 31 December 2022.
Franco-German cooperation was sealed through the Élysée Treaty from 1963. The Cultural Plenipotentiary is appointed by the Federal Government at the suggestion of the premiers’ conference.
Accordingly he or she acquires the rank of a federal minister without portfolio, and represents the federal and state interests in issues of education and culture vis-à-vis France.
Moreover coordinates with the Foreign Ministry all matters of cultural policy in relation to France. Before the French Republic, the Plenipotentiary takes the fourth highest protocolary rank after the Federal President, the Federal Chancellor and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
NRW has only exercised the function of Cultural Plenipotentiary once between 1969 and 1970 during the premiership of Heinz Kühn.
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