Eimert van Middelkoop
Eimert van Middelkoop in 2007
Minister for Housing, Communities and Integration
In office 23 February 2010 – 14 October 2010
Prime Minister	Jan Peter Balkenende
Preceded by	Eberhard van der Laan
Succeeded by	Office discontinued
Minister of Defence
In office 22 February 2007 – 14 October 2010
Prime Minister	Jan Peter Balkenende
Preceded by	Henk Kamp
Succeeded by	Hans Hillen
Member of the Senate
In office 10 June 2003 – 22 February 2007
Parliamentary group	Christian Union
Leader of the Reformed Political League
In office 14 February 2001 – 13 March 2001
Preceded by	Gert Schutte
Succeeded by	Office discontinued
Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives
In office 14 February 2001 – 13 March 2001
Preceded by	Gert Schutte
Succeeded by	Office discontinued
Parliamentary group	Reformed Political League
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 14 May 1989 – 23 May 2002
Parliamentary group	Reformed Political League
Personal details
Born	Eimert van Middelkoop (1949-02-14) 14 February 1949 (age 74) Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Political party	Christian Union (from 2002)
Other political affiliations	Reformed Political League (1973–2002)
Children	3 sons and 1 daughter
Residence(s)	Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Alma mater	Erasmus University Rotterdam (Bachelor of Social Science)
Occupation	Politician · Civil servant · Political consultant · Nonprofit director · Teacher

Eimert van Middelkoop (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛimərt fɑˈmɪdəlkoːp];^[1] born 14 February 1949) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Union (CU) party and teacher. He is the chairman of the Institute for Multiparty Democracy since 20 January 2018.

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.^[2]

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.^[3][4]

Decorations

Honours
Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
	Ghazi Mir Bacha Khan Medal	Afghanistan	2010
	Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau	Netherlands	3 December 2010	Elevated from Knight (23 May 2002)