There is no one who has followed the events in the directly elected representation of the EU citizens from the beginning until today as closely as Bernd Posselt. He was there when the first directly elected EU Parliament met in Strasbourg on July 17, 1979. At that time he was 23 years old and assistant to Otto von Habsburg, the long-time MEP for the CSU and son of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor. Posselt himself moved into the European Parliament for the CSU in 1994 and was involved in the Foreign Affairs Committee and security policy issues.