ANPFrans Timmermans
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 15:03
Frans Timmermans has a long track record as a politician. He has been a member of the European Commission since 2014, but now that he will almost certainly become the leader of the new PvdA/GroenLinks combination, he seems to be returning to The Hague.
Timmermans from Limburg is known as very driven, ambitious and eloquent. In that sense, the leadership of a new political movement suits him well, as does his aspiration to become prime minister. When he registered as party leader, he said that “in the Netherlands we have to grow closer together instead of apart”. According to him, the “massive challenges to be faced can only be solved if we work shoulder to shoulder”.
Timmermans (62) has been dealing with foreign policy for a long time. In a way, this started in his childhood: his father worked as a chancellor in the diplomatic service and the young Frans spent part of his childhood abroad. Perhaps partly because of this, he is extremely proficient in languages; he speaks many different languages, including Russian.
Timmermans, who also attended a secondary school in Rome, studied French, history and European law. After his studies he worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also second secretary at the embassy in Moscow, an employee of European Commissioner Hans van den Broek and secretary of the High Commissioner for National Minorities, Max van der Stoel.
European constitution
In 1998 he became a member of the House of Representatives for the PvdA. As a Member of Parliament, he was mainly concerned with foreign affairs and defence. Timmermans, a convinced European, was closely involved in drawing up a European constitution and he was also one of the initiators of the referendum in the Netherlands on this. When that plebiscite was held in 2005, the majority of the participants turned against the constitution.
Timmermans remained a Member of Parliament until 2012, a period that was interrupted for three years when he was State Secretary in the fourth Balkenende cabinet. As State Secretary, he devoted himself, among other things, to increasing public support for European integration.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he built up authority at home and abroad. In 2014, his emotional speech at the UN Security Council after the MH17 disaster earned him both admiration and criticism.
Climate Pope
Timmermans has been Vice-President of the European Commission since 2014. In that role, he sharply criticized Hungary and Poland, which he said were taking measures that undermine the rule of law. In his current position at the Commission, Timmermans is known as a “climate pope”: he was the driving force behind the Green Deala series of greening and sustainability initiatives.
For example, it is laid down in law that the European Union will emit 55 percent less greenhouse gases in 2030 than in 1990. Only recently, the Commission cleared an important hurdle: the European Parliament then approved the Nature Restoration Act, which stipulates that Member States must make efforts to prevent natural areas from deteriorating. Incidentally, the law had to be weakened in order to gain enough support for it.
In the 2019 European elections, Timmermans was ‘Spitzenkandidat’ for the European Social Democrats. That means he was their candidate for the presidency of the European Commission. Under the leadership of party leader Timmermans, the PvdA surprisingly became the largest Dutch party in Europe, but to his deep disappointment, Timmermans missed out on the ‘grand prize’ after complicated negotiations: he did not become Commission chairman, but remained first vice president. He will soon be relinquishing that position.
This is an earlier report from Nieuwsuur about the career of Frans Timmermans:
Timmermans wants to become party leader of ‘United Left’
Timmernans has also regularly interfered in internal party affairs in the PvdA. In 2012, as a Member of Parliament, he played an important role in the discussion about the functioning of then party leader Cohen. He then wrote in an e-mail to fellow party members that Cohen and party chairman Spekman were driving the PvdA too much in the direction of the SP.
He argued for a more traditional social-democratic approach. The mail caused a stir in the party and eventually contributed to Cohen’s resignation.
The intended PvdA party leader often and likes to seek publicity. His supporters praise him for his engaged eloquence, but he is also regularly accused of vanity. In public, he often professes his love for cycling and football. Timmermans is a fan of Roda JC (from Kerkrade) and AS Roma.
2023-08-11 13:03:25
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