Norbert Alois Röttgen (born 2 July 1965) is a German lawyer and politician who served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2009 to 2012.

[1] Also, in November 2010 he was formally elected as party chair of the CDU in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia after he had successfully bet Armin Laschet in a membership ballot.

Following the dissolution of the state's Landtag on 14 March 2012, Röttgen confirmed his intention to run in the subsequent election as the CDU's candidate for the office of Minister-President against the incumbent, Hannelore Kraft of the SPD.

[19] In February 2014, Röttgen accompanied German President Joachim Gauck on a state visit to India – where they met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, among others – and Myanmar.

[23] In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Röttgen was part of the working group on foreign policy, led by Ursula von der Leyen, Gerd Müller and Sigmar Gabriel.

[28] Following the 2016 referendum on European Union membership in the United Kingdom, Röttgen co-authored a paper with Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir, Paul Tucker and Guntram Wolff which lays out a proposal of a "continental partnership" between the EU and the UK.

"[31] When Russian state-run energy group Gazprom conducted an asset swap with its long-term German partner BASF, under which it increased its stake in Wingas, Röttgen raised concerns about the deal.

"[32] In late 2015, Röttgen called for a review of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, saying it was a "highly-political subject which carried the risk of splitting Europe" and may "contradict the aims of the agreed European energy policy.

"[33] Röttgen supported the European Union leaders' decision to impose sanctions on 21 individuals after the referendum in Crimea that paved the way for Putin to annex the region from Ukraine.

[34] By August 2014, he demanded that Europe respond to the escalation of violence in Ukraine by agreeing to further sanctions against Russia, saying that "[a]ny hesitation would be seen by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as European weakness that would encourage him to keep going.

In 2016, Röttgen was quoted by Der Spiegel as saying that Germany might end its unconditional support for Israel due to increasing frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies.

"[37] In 2019, Röttgen warned that Germany would alienate its European partners if it continued to insist on maintaining a temporary moratorium on arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia.

In an open letter published in prominent newspapers across Europe – including El Mundo, Corriere della Sera, Svenska Dagbladet, Tagesspiegel, and The Guardian – on 5 November 2014, he joined Javier Solana, Ana Palacio, Carl Bildt, Emma Bonino, Jean-Marie Guéhenno and Robert Cooper in urging the EU3+3 countries (the UK, Germany and France and the US, China and Russia) and Iran to reach agreement on a comprehensive nuclear deal, arguing "that there may never again be an opportunity as good as this one to seal a final nuclear deal.

"[39] In a speech to parliament in April 2015, Röttgen urged his fellow parliamentarians to call the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under Turkish rule in 1915 genocidal and to acknowledge that German actions at the time were partly to blame, adding that this recognition was overdue.

[42] Both Angela Merkel and Röttgen, the chief architects of the government's energy transition plan, are thought to have pushed for a rapid nuclear phase-out with a view to raising the prospects for a possible future national coalition with the Green Party.

[45]In a joint letter initiated by Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, some 70 legislators from Europe and the US called upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.