Schuster started his political career in the student council and in the peace movement. In 1982 he joined the
Social Democratic Party(SPD). There he started at the group of the young socialists in the SPD (Jusos), later he got involved in different positions in the SPD. In 1999 Schuster became a deputy in the
Bürgerschaft of Bremen until 2006. First, he was the speaker for environmental issues, afterwards he became speaker for social issues in his parliamentary group. Between 2006 and 2012 he was State Council in Bremen, first for work, youth and social issues, later for health and sciences. In April 2013 the state party conference of the SPD Bremen nominated Schuster as candidate for the elections of the
European Parliament on 25 May 2014, where he then became elected as
Member of the European Parliament. In his political views Schuster is a left-wing politician.
Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present Joachim Schuster is a vice chairman of the SPD group in the Parliament and responsible for the relations to the SPD-Group of the German
Bundestag. He is member of the
Committee on International Trade (INTA) and substitute member of the
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL). His main topics in the INTA are about Africa (especially the southern African states), Ukraine,
CETA and
TTIP, in the EMPL he focuses on digitalization. In addition to his committee assignments, Schuster is substitute member of the EU delegation to the
ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and with the national parliaments of
Ukraine,
Moldova,
Belarus,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan and
Georgia (EURONEST). He is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Trade Unions and the European Parliament Intergroup on
Western Sahara. ==Other activities==