Career
Ahead of the 2009 elections, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier included her in his shadow cabinet of 10 women and eight men for the Social Democrats’ campaign to unseat Merkel as chancellor. Since the 2009 federal elections, Evers-Meyer has been the Social Democratic Party of Germany parliamentary group’s deputy spokesperson on defense policy. In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2013 federal elections, Evers-Meyer was part of the Social Democratic Party of Germany delegation in the working group on foreign affairs, defense policy and development cooperation, led by Thomas de Maizière and Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
In late 2014, Evers-Meyer was considered as successor of Hellmut Königshaus as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces but withdrew her candidacy when Hans-Peter Bartels emerged as her parliamentary group’s nominee.
She would have been the first woman to hold that office. Relations with the African continent
Evers-Meyer has in the past voted in favor of German participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as in Somalia – both Operation Atalanta (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015) and EUTM Somalia (2014 and 2015) –, Darfur/Sudan (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), South Sudan (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), Mali – both EUTM Mali (2014 and 2015) and MINUSMA (2014 and 2015) –, the Central African Republic (2014), and Liberia (2015).
In 2013, she abstained from the votes on extending the mandate for participation in EUTM Somalia and EUTM Mali, and she voted against the participation in Operation Atalanta in 2012 and 2013.
