Eimert van Middelkoop
Minister of Defence
Incumbent
Assumed office  February 22, 2007
Prime Minister	Jan Peter Balkenende
Preceded by	Henk Kamp
Member of the Senate
In office June 10, 2003 – February 22, 2007
Chair of the Parliamentary Party - GPV House of Representatives
In office February 14, 2001 – March 13, 2001
Preceded by	Gert Schutte
Succeeded by	Party Disbanded
Member of the House of Representatives
In office May 14, 1989 – May 23, 2002
Born	February 14, 1949 (1949-02-14) (age 60) Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Birth name	Eimert van Middelkoop
Nationality	Dutch
Political party	GPV (1974-2001) CU (since 2001)
Residence	Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Alma mater	Erasmus University (B.A.)
Occupation	Politician Teacher
Religion	Reformed Protestant
Website	Ministry of Defence

Eimert van Middelkoop (born February 14, 1949) is a Dutch politician of the ChristianUnion and is since February 22, 2007 Minister of Defence in the Cabinet Balkenende IV.

[edit] Biography

After high school Van Middelkoop attended, what is now called, the Erasmus University were he obtained a B.A. in sociology in 1971. In the years 1971 and 1972 he was a teacher at the Reformed Social Academy in Zwolle. He was exempted from military draft on the basis of 'personal indispensability'.

[edit] Political career

In 1989 Van Middelkoop became a member of the House of Representatives. At first for the Reformed Political Alliance and since the year 2000 for the ChristianUnion, a party who came forth out of the fusion between the Reformed Political Alliance and Reformatory Political Federation. As a parliamentarian he was specialised in foreign and military affairs. He did make a good change to lead the investigation of a special committee who would investigate the role of the Netherlands in the fall of Srebrenica. However, Van Middelkoop lost his seat in the House of Representatives because during the 2002 elections the ChristianUnion Tineke Huizinga, the highest-ranked woman on the candidate list did get enough preference votes.

From 2003 until 2007 Van Middelkoop was a member of the Senate. In the 2006 elections the party doubled its seats and joined the fourth Balkenende cabinet. Van Middelkoop became Minister of Defence in 2007.

[edit] Controversies

In September 2008 he told the Dutch opinion magazine Vrij Nederland that he would have been very unhappy if he would have join the army. Because of this - and other - remarks he received a lot of criticism from military labour-unions who said that Van Middelkoop lost his credibility.

[edit] External links

• (Dutch) Official Parliamentary Biography

[edit] References