In 2005, Freund joined the political party the Alliance 90/The Greens. From 2013 to 2019, he became active in the party's working group on European affairs as a coopted member and later as deputy spokesperson and cooptee of the German Association for European Affairs.[4]
Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present
During his party's federal congress in November 2018 in Leipzig, Freund was elected to the 20th position on its list for the European Parliament elections of 2019.[5] His party, which is a member of the Greens / EFA Group, won 20.5% of the votes in the elections (21 of the 96 German mandates).[6]
Freund has been working on the establishment of an independent ethics body to track and sanction conflicts of interests in all EU institutions.[13] On 16 September 2021, the European Parliament adopted the report on "Improving transparency and integrity in the EU institutions through the establishment of an independent EU ethics body". This proposal by Freund in his role of rapporteur passed by 377 to 87 votes, with 224 abstentions. Greens/EFA, Socialists, Liberals (Renew), and Left voted in favor. The Christian Democrats decided to abstain shortly before the German federal election instead of rejecting the draft as they had previously done in the vote in the Constitutional Affairs Committee.
In addition to his committee assignments, Freund is part of the parliament's delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee. He co-chairs the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption (alongside Roberta Metsola)[14] and is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.[15] Since 2021, he has also been chairing the Spinelli Group.[16]