In the early 1980s, Verheugen mapped out a principled policy towards South Africa's apartheid regime, embarrassing many of Germany's major companies, including Mercedes-Benz and Deutsche Bank, by exposing their efforts to get round international sanctions in a book published in 1986.

Ahead of the 1994 elections, Scharping included Verheugen in his shadow cabinet for the party's campaign to unseat incumbent Helmut Kohl as Chancellor.

[2] Within Gerhard Schröder's campaign team for the 1998 federal elections, he served as his external affairs advisor and accompanied him on his trips to Washington and Warsaw.

During Germany's presidency of the Council of the European Union in 1999, he led the negotiations on the Agenda 2000 package of EU policy reforms.

Shortly after, he was in talks to be nominated as Germany's candidate for the European Union's newly created High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy; the post eventually went to Javier Solana.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty in 2003, the EU Commissioners of Germany and France, Verheugen and Pascal Lamy, jointly presented the so-called Lamy-Verheugen Plan that proposed a factual unification of France and Germany in some important areas – including unified armed forces, combined embassies and a shared seat at the United Nations Security Council.

As a Commissioner, Verheugen stated a desire to cut red tape, especially in order to make it more favourable to SMEs.

[7] In response to the refusal of countries to sign the Kyoto protocol, such as the United States and Australia, Verheugen asked President Barroso to look into whether the EU could implement taxes on products imported from those countries not taking low-carbon policies on board (Border Tax Adjustments).

Verheugen is a foreign policy man; he was one with the FDP (Germany's free-market liberals) and then the SPD (Social Democrats).

[15] Verheugen led the Agency's sectoral division for the institutional reforms recommendations aimed at the integration of Ukraine into the EU and civil society building.

Verheugen regards the Ukrainian government as a "puppet regime"; he claims that the Maidan movement was a planned coup d'etat; and that Russia could not be blamed for waging a war against Ukraine;[18] he also called Svoboda members of the Ukrainian government richtige Faschisten ("true fascists").