Biografie

Jules Maaten Parc LeopoldJules Maaten was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Netherlands Liberal party VVD in the European Elections of 1999, re-elected in 2004 and remained a Member until the June 2009 European elections. In May 2010 he was appointed Manila-representative of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fuer die Freiheit (FNF).

(Nederlandse tekst hieronder - Dutch text below)

In the course of his ten years as a Member of the European Parliament he became a leading MEP on environmental issues such as air and water quality and climate change, on public health issues such as food labeling, pharmaceutical legislation, tobacco and cross border health care, on consumer affairs, on economic and monetary affairs such as the euro and the 'Lisbon Strategy', and on international issues such as EU-Asia relations (in particular East and South-East Asia), human rights, children's rights (including preventing child sex tourism), fighting human trafficking, internet freedom and democracy.
He joined the Liberal-Democratic (ELDR, now ALDE) Group in the Parliament and in his ten years in the European Parliament gained first-hand knowledge of the decision-making processes in Europe and has personally been involved in many legislative procedures, including conciliation negotiations between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. From 1999-2009 he was on the Committee for the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (until 2004 also responsible for Consumer Affairs) and, from 2003-2004 and again 2007-2009, on the Foreign Affairs Committee. From 1999-2002 and 2004-2007 he sat on the Economic and Monetary Committee, and 2004-2007 on the Constitutional Affairs Committee. He was a member of the European Parliament's Working Group on the Lisbon Strategy (2005-2009) and sat on the Temporary Committee on Climate Change (2007-2009). He has done legislative work as Parliamentary Rapporteur, steering the Tobacco Sales Directive, the introduction of the euro currency, the EU-Asia Strategy and bathing water quality legislation through Parliament, and worked on such issues as AIDS, completion of the EU's internal market in alcohol products, international banking fees, the European Central Bank, safety of children's toys, car exhaust emissions, food safety, and genetically modified organisms and human genetics, homeopathic and pharmaceutical products, pediatric medicines, air and water quality, environmental and waste legislation, nutritional labeling, alcohol strategy, cross border health care, freedom of information on the internet, and fighting child sex tourism.

Jules Maaten MEP was part of the parliamentary delegation maintaining relations with the ASEAN countries (visiting Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, Indonesia, The Philippines, Cambodia and countries in East Asia) and of a number of parliamentary Inter-Groups including Health and Consumer affairs, Population & Sustainable Development, and Animal Welfare. He has been active on EU foreign policy issues including relations between the EU and Asia as Parliamentary Rapporteur, and on human rights, shipments of nuclear material, East Timor, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, the International Criminal Court, death penalty, Dutch prisoners in Thailand and Indonesia and the war in Chechnya. Since the end of 2001 he has been leader of the VVD-group in the European Parliament. His party's members elected him as leader of their list for the European elections of June 2004, which not only involved extensive media and communications training but also put him in charge of the strategic planning of the election campaign. In October 2008 he announced that he would not seek a third term as Member of the European Parliament.

Before his election as MEP Jules Maaten was Secretary General of the world union of liberal parties, Liberal International (LI), in London (1992-1999), where he provided leadership at a time when the organisation grew from about forty to nearly eighty member parties and expanded its activities across the world. During this time he was involved among others in supporting democratic movements in East and South-East Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa, participated in election observation in Paraguay and Senegal and later in Georgia and East-Timor, co-initiated close cooperation between the different political world unions, and visited the United States on numerous occasions including the Democratic Conventions in San Francisco (1984), New York (1992) and Chicago (1996). He participated in several democracy promotion activities, with organisations such as the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fuer die Freiheit (FNF), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the Westminster Foundation, the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) and International IDEA. He set up a modern communications system (LI was the first international political organisation to use the Internet, and Jules still uses modern communications technologies to publicise his activities, including the World Wide Web, blogs and video blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.), liaised with other NGOs in Europe and at Council of Europe and UN (ECOSOC) level, helped build an independent network of liberal women, set up international cooperation between liberal foundations and think tanks, and produced a Local Politics Toolbox for use in new democracies.

Prior to that (1986-1991) he was a municipal councilor in his hometown Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, where he dealt with public finance, education and social affairs, and was president of the local twin-city organisation for international town twinning projects. As President of the World Union of Liberal Youth IFLRY (1983-1989) he worked on issues of disarmament and east-west co-operation, and organised numerous thematic seminars and training courses.

He began his professional activities in 1979 as Personal Assistant of a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands (1979-1981). He was on the staff of the Netherlands Committee for the UN International Youth Year (1983-1986) where he organised programmes on such issues as unemployment and youth culture, and gained experience in acquiring grants and subsidies. As Treasurer of the European Liberal Party ELDR (1999-2003) he had the ultimate responsibility for the discharge of a budget of around €450,000.

He was a Member and Chairman of the European Youth Policy group of the Dutch International Youth Council, in which Dutch youth organisations discussed their views on the future of European unification. A year later Jules Maaten became national Board Member of the Dutch Young Liberals JOVD (1980-1984) and in 1981 joined the board of IFLRY. In 1982 he joined the executive committee of the Youth Forum of the European Communities in Brussels (a Europe-wide body of youth organisations). From 1985-1989 he was a member of the executive committee of Liberal International. In 1987 he co-authored a book on Dutch liberalism, and he published numerous articles. In 1990 he did a six week Marshall Memorial Fellowship in the United States, with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In 2001 he did a lecture week at Wabash College (United States) at the invitation of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

In the course of his career Jules Maaten specialised in international networking and relations, public affairs and government relations particularly in Europe, NGO management, organising international campaigns and events, communication skills and media relations, motivating people, getting results. His political party awarded him the Stikker Plaquette in February 2009, and in September 2009 he received a Knighthood (Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau).

After leaving the European Parliament he was involved in political strategy work for the Berlin-based Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF) in such countries as Senegal, Ghana and Burundi, and did advisory work in Brussels and in the Netherlands amongst others for the The Hague-based Public Matters. He also was board member of ther European Foundation for Financial Inclusion (EFFI) and of the Netherlands Institute for Multi Party Democracy (NIMD) until May 2010 when he was appointed Projektleiter (Project Director and resident representative) in Manila (Philippines) for the FNF, to be responsible for the democracy promotion projects of the Foundation in the Philippines and for their regional projects in SE Asia regarding human rights and economic freedoms and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD).

Jules Maaten was born in April, 1961 in Nieuwer-Amstel (the Netherlands) and divides his time between Berlin, Rotterdam and Brussels. He is married to Eva Horstmann, and together they have a daughter Anna (2002).

Jules Maaten was tot juli 2009 lid van het Europees Parlement, en werd gekozen in de Europese verkiezingen op 10 juni 1999, op de lijst van de Nederlandse Liberale Partij VVD en werd lid van de Liberale Fractie in het Europees Parlement. Van 1999-2009 was hij lid van de Commissie voor Milieu, Volksgezondheid en Voedselveiligheid (tot 2004 ook Consumentenzaken). Van 2002 tot 2004 en vanaf 2007 maakt hij deel uit van van de Commissie Buitenlandse Zaken en Defensie. Van 1999-2002 en 2004-2006 maakte hij deel uit van de Commissie Economische en Monetaire Zaken en 2004-2006 van de Commissie Constitutionele Zaken. Hij heeft zich onder meer bezig gehouden met de volgende zaken: de tabaksrichtlijn, invoering van de Euro, kwaliteit van het zwemwater van meren en aan de kust, alcohol accijnzen, internationale banktarieven, AIDS, de Europese Centrale Bank, veiligheid van speelgoed, voedselveiligheid, vrijheid van informatie op het internet, grensoverschrijdende gezondheidszorg en patientenrechten, consumentenzaken, strijd tegen kindersekstoerisme, en medicijnen voor pediatrisch gebruik.

Hij was ook lid van de parlementaire delegatie die contacten onderhoudt met de ASEAN landen en van meerdere parlementaire Intergroepen waar men zich onder meer bezig houdt met consumentenbescherming, volksgezondheid en met dierenbescherming. Hij was actief betrokken bij debatten over mensenrechten, bijvoorbeeld betreffende Oost-Timor, Birma, Cambodja, Indonesië, het Internationale Strafhof, de doodstraf en de oorlog in Tsjetsjenië. Ook zette hij zich in voor het lot van Europese gedetineerden in buitenlandse gevangenissen. In 1999 werd hij ook verkozen als lid van de Europese Liberale Democratische Partij. Sinds eind 2001 was hij voorzitter van de VVD-fractie in het Europees Parlement. In oktober 2008 kondigde hij aan geen kandidaat te zullen zijn bij de Europese Verkiezingen van juni 2009.

Voor hij werd gekozen als lid van het Europees Parlement werkte Jules Maaten als Secretaris-Generaal bij de Liberale Internationale in Londen (1992-1999). Gedurende deze tijd was hij vooral betrokken bij het ondersteunen van democratische bewegingen in Azië, Latijns-Amerika, Afrika en Centraal- en Oost Europa. Daarvoor (1986-1991) was hij gemeenteraadslid in zijn woonplaats Amstelveen, waar hij zich vooral bezig hield met Financiën, Onderwijs en Sociale Zaken. Als voorzitter van de Wereldfederatie van Liberale Jongeren (IFLRY) van 1983-1989 werkte hij aan zaken zoals ontwapening en oost-west samenwerking. Hij begon zijn politieke loopbaan in 1979 als persoonlijk medewerker van een lid van de Tweede Kamer (1979-1981) en was lid en voorzitter van de commissie Europees Jeugdbeleid van het Nederlands Platform Internationale Jongerenwerk. Een jaar later werd Jules Maaten Internationaal Secretaris in het hoofdbestuur van de JOVD (1980-1984) en in 1981 tevens bestuurslid bij de Wereldfederatie Liberale Jongeren. In 1982 nam hij ook plaats in de raad van het Jeugdforum van de Europese Gemeenschappen in Brussel. Hij was stafmedewerker bij de Nationale Werkgroep voor het VN Jongerenjaar 1985 waar hij zich richtte op thema's als werkloosheid en jongerencultuur, vrede en ontwikkeling en discriminatie. Van 1985 tot 1989 was hij algemeen bestuurslid van de Liberale Internationale. In 1987 was hij mede-auteur (met Jan van Zanen) van het boekje: "Vrij Opwindend" over het liberalisme. Hij publiceerde verschillende politieke artikelen. In 1984 werd hij Lid van Verdienste van de JOVD, en in 2009 ontving hij de Stikker Plaquette van de VVD.

Na zijn vertrek uit het Europese Parlement werd hij politiek adviseur bij de Duitse liberale Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF), waarvoor hij workshops organiseerde in landen zoals Burundi, Senegal en Ghana, en verrichte advieswerk in Nederland en Brussel met name voor het Nederlandse bureau Public Matters. Hij was ook bestuurslid van de European Foundation for Financial Inclusion (EFFI) en van de Netherlands Institute for Multi-party Democracy (NIMD). In mei 2010 werd hij benoemd als vertegenwoordiger in Manilla van FNF, verantwoordelijk voor de projecten van de stichting ter bevordering van democratie en liberalisme op de Filippijnen, en regionale projecten in ZO Azië betreffende o.m. mensenrechten en economische vrijheden en de samenwerking van de Aziatische liberale partijen (CALD).

In Amsterdam heeft hij enige jaren geschiedenis en rechten gestudeerd.

Jules Maaten is geboren in april 1961 in Nieuwer-Amstel en verdeelt zijn tijd tussen Brussel, Berlijn en Rotterdam. Hij is getrouwd met Eva Horstmann, en samen hebben zij een dochter Anna (2002).

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