Hans van Baalen

Johannes Cornelis "Hans" van Baalen (born 17 June 1960) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group and the Parliamentary leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the European Parliament since 14 July 2009. He is the President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party since 21 November 2015.

Van Baalen a jurist and management consultant by occupation, worked for Deloitte as Director of Public relations from 1988 until 1999. He became a Member of the House of Representatives on 28 September 1999 serving until 23 May 2002. After the Dutch general election of 2003 he was re-elected as Member of the House of Representatives serving from 30 January 2003 until 14 July 2009 when he became Member of the European Parliament. Van Baalen served as President of the Liberal International from 20 April 2009 until 26 April 2014.

Early life and education
Johannes Cornelis van Baalen was born on 17 June 1960 in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

He went to a public primary school in Krimpen aan den IJssel and to the high school Krimpenerwaard College in the same town, where he followed the havo (1973–1977) and atheneum (1977–1979) programs.

He studied law at Leiden University, Dutch law (1979–1986) and international law (1986–1988). During these student years, he was a member of the Minerva fraternity and the 'Pro Patria' student guard.

Political career
Van Baalen has been a member of the VVD since 1986. He was international secretary for the VVD party bureau from 1993 to 1998 and was an MP from 1999 until 2002. He was again made an MP in 2003. Before his political career he worked as a journalist and also with the public relations department of Deloitte Consulting. In the Dutch House of Representatives, Van Baalen was a member of the Foreign Affairs commission, European Affairs commission and the Defense commission.

Since the 2009 European elections, van Baalen has been a member of European Parliament and faction leader of the Dutch VVD Delegation, and is generally seen as one of the most influential figures within the party. He been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Subcommittee on Security and Defence since 2009. On both committees, he serves as his parliamentary group’s coordinator. As substitute, he has been serving on the Committee on International Trade since 2014.

In addition to his committee assignments, van Baalen serves as chairman of the parliament’s delegation relations with South Africa. He was previously a member of the delegations with Afghanistan (2010-2014), the United States (2010-2014) and Japan (2009-2014).

Relations with Russia and Ukraine
Van Baalen was a member of the European Parliament’s monitoring mission during the Ukrainian parliamentary elections in 2014, led by Andrej Plenković. With regard to the conflict with Russia over Ukraine, he argued for higher military spending and NATO involvement, and improved prospects for Ukraine to join the EU if its population so decided.

In 2015, news media reported that van Baalen was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country.

In 2016 he received the Ukrainian Order of Merit Third Class, bestowed upon him by president Petro Poroshenko.

Car industry
Van Baalen worked until September 2015 as a lobbyist for the motoring organisation RAI and was on the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz. Van Baalen reported those position to the European Parliament and indicated he refrained from involvement in car-related parliamentary business. In 2014 however, Van Baalen, in his capacity as member of European parliament called for standardized rules for the car industry in the European Union and the United States.

Distinctions

 * Order_of_Merit_3rd_Class_of_Ukraine.png Order of Merit (Ukraine), Third Class.