Preceded by Gert Schutte Succeeded by Hans Hillen Role Dutch Politician | Name Eimert Middelkoop Preceded by Henk Kamp Nationality Dutch | |
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Full Name Eimert van Middelkoop Born 14 February 1949 (age 75)
Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands ( 1949-02-14 ) Education Erasmus University Rotterdam Residence Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands Political party Reformed Political League, ChristianUnion | ||
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende Preceded by Eberhard van der Laan | ||
Eimert van middelkoop about europe s past
Eimert van Middelkoop ( [ˈɛimərt fɑn ˈmɪdəlkoːp]; born 14 February 1949) is a Dutch politician in the ChristianUnion (CU) party. From 2007 to 2010, he was Minister of Defence in the fourth Balkenende cabinet. In 2010, he served as the Minister of Housing, Communities and Integration (Wonen, Wijken en Integratie).
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Early life
After high school, van Middelkoop attended what is now Erasmus University, earning a B.A. in Sociology in 1971. In 1971 and 1972, he was a teacher at the Reformed Social Academy in Zwolle. He was exempt from military draft for being indispensable as staff member of the Reformed Political League in the House of Representatives.
Politics
Van Middelkoop became a member of the House of Representatives in 1989, while affiliated with the Reformed Political League. Since 2000, he has been aligned with the ChristianUnion (ChristenUnie), which was the product of a fusion of the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF) and the Reformatory Political Federation (GPV). He specialised in foreign and military affairs, prepared the inquiry by the House of Representatives into the role of the Netherlands in the fall of Srebrenica. He lost his seat in the House of Representatives in the 2002 elections.
From 2003 until 2007, van Middelkoop was a member of the Senate of the Netherlands. In the 2006 elections, the ChristianUnion party doubled its seats and joined the fourth Balkenende cabinet. Van Middelkoop became Minister of Defence in 2007.
In September 2008, he told the Dutch opinion magazine, Vrij Nederland, that he would have been very unhappy to have joined the army. Because of this and other remarks, he received criticism from military labour unions, who said that Van Middelkoop had lost his credibility.