Michael Georg Link, a parliamentarian and German Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation, will discuss “Transatlantic Relations from a German Perspective” during a luncheon event presented by the Alabama World Affairs Council on July 21.

The luncheon and discussion will begin at noon and will be held in the Gold Room in Whitley Hall on the Troy University Montgomery Campus. The event is sponsored by Alabama Supreme Court Justice Will Sellers. The event is free to Alabama World Affairs Council members and $20 for guests. Registration is available online at https://alwac.org/event-5334768.

Link was appointed to his present post at the Federal Foreign Office by the Cabinet on March 9, 2022. His focus as Coordinator is on deepening political relations with the U.S., on both the federal and state level, as well as with Canada. He also works to increase transatlantic people-to-people contacts, especially by promoting exchange programs for young people from all walks of life.

Link has been responsible for transatlantic relations as Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office (2012-2013) and was Head observer for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at the U.S. general elections in 2020.

Now in his fourth legislative term in the Bundestag, the German national parliament, Link represents the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and his home electoral district, Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg. Link is a member of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union and a substitute member of the Budget Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is the spokesperson on Europe of the FDP parliamentary group. He is also a Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, where he collaborates closely with the U.S. Helsinki Commission. As a member of his hometown Heilbronn’s city council, he has remained politically active at the local level.

In addition, he is a member of the party council of the European Liberals (ALDE) and of the FDP national executive board in his capacity as party treasurer.

From July 2014 to July 2017, Link was Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), based in Warsaw. Before being elected for the first time as a parliamentarian in 2005, Link held various functions in the German Bundestag, including that of advisor on international affairs to the FDP group in the Bundestag and that of assistant to former Federal Minister Dr. Klaus Kinkel.

Link was born in Heilbronn in 1963. After gaining his high school diploma (Abitur) and performing his military service, he studied Russian and French at the universities of Augsburg, Lausanne, and Heidelberg.

The Alabama World Affairs Council is a nonprofit organization that sponsors lectures and programs on current and recent events of national and international interest. Through these programs, which take place at Troy University’s Montgomery Campus, the Alabama World Affairs Council aims to promote public awareness and understanding of international affairs as they relate to U.S. interests in the context of political, economic, cultural, historical, and military issues.