Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem (; born 29 March 1966) is a Dutch politician and economist serving as Mayor of

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,John Jorritsma Johannes Arnoldus "John" Jorritsma (born 16 September 1956) is a Dutch politician serving as Mayor of Eindhoven from 13 September 2016 to 13 September 2022, and succeeded by Jeroen Dijsselbloem ( PvdA). A member of the People's Party for Freedom ...

( VVD). A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he has also been Chairman of the supervisory board of Wageningen University since 1 April 2019. Dijsselbloem was Minister of Finance in the Second Rutte cabinet, serving from 5 November 2012 to 26 October 2017. He also served as President of the Eurogroup from 21 January 2013 to 12 January 2018 and President of the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) from 11 February 2013 until 12 January 2018. He was successively Chairman of the Dutch Safety Board from 1 May 2019 to September 2022.

Early life and education

Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem was born on 29 March 1966 in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Netherlands. His parents were both schoolteachers. He was raised as a Roman Catholic.Ir. J.R.V.A. (Jeroen) Dijsselbloem
parlement.com; retrieved 3 February 2013. Dijsselbloem went to a Roman Catholic primary school in Son en Breugel and the Catholic

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

Eckartcollege (1978–85) in Eindhoven. He studied at the Wageningen University between 1985 and 1991, where he obtained an

engineer's degree An engineer's degree is an advanced academic degree in engineering which is conferred in Europe, some countries of Latin America, North Africa and a few institutions in the United States. The degree may require a thesis but always requires a non-a ...

(" ingenieur") in

agricultural economics Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specif ...

in 1991, majoring in business economics, agricultural policy, and social and economic history. Dijsselbloem subsequently did research in business economics at the University College Cork (1991) in Ireland, but he did not graduate from this university.Οι ...μέθοδοι χρηματοδότησης Ιρλανδικών γαλακτοκομείων του κ. Ντάισελμπλουμ

Kathimerini ''Kathimerini'' (Greek: Η Καθημερινή, pronounced kaθimeriˈni meaning ''The Daily'') is a daily, political and financial morning newspaper published in Athens. Its first edition was printed on September 15, 1919. and it is considered ...

, 31 March 2013; retrieved 1 April 2013."Dutch Finance Minister amends Cork University degree error"
''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...

'', 14 April 2013; retrieved 1 February 2015.

Political career

Dijsselbloem’s interest in politics began in 1983, spurred by the mass protests against U.S. Pershing cruise missiles that drew hundreds of thousands of Dutch youth into leftwing movements.Matt Steinglass and Peter Spiegel,
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, eurozone reformer
, '' Financial Times'', 2013. In 1985, he became a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). From 1993 to 1996 he worked for the parliamentary group of the Labour Party. From 1994-96 he was a member of the municipal council of Wageningen. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fishery under Minister

Jozias van Aartsen Jozias Johannes van Aartsen (. born 25 December 1947) is a retired Dutch politician who served as Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy from 2004 to 2006. A native of The Hague, he attended the Christelijk Gymnasium Sorghvliet ...

and State secretary

Geke Faber Geesje Hendrika (Geke) Faber (born 5 August 1952, 's-Graveland) is a Dutch politician who was mayor of Zaanstad from 2007 until 2016. Between 1990 and 1998 she was mayor of Zeewolde, she served as interim mayor in Wageningen between 2002 and 20 ...

. From 2000 to 2012, Dijsselbloem was elected to the House of Representatives for the Labour Party, with a brief interruption after the 2002 general elections where the Labour Party suffered a major defeat. He reentered the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

in November that year due to

Peter Rehwinkel Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

's resignation. In 2007, he led a parliamentary inquiry on education reform. He focused on matters of youth care, special education and teachers. Following the resignation of

Job Cohen Marius Job Cohen (; born 18 October 1947) is a retired Dutch politician and jurist who served as Mayor of Amsterdam from 2001 to 2010 and Leader of the Labour Party (PvdA) from 2010 to 2012. Cohen studied Law at the University of Groningen obt ...

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a political ...

and parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives on 20 February 2012, he became the interim parliamentary leader, serving until 20 March 2012 when

Diederik Samsom Diederik Maarten Samsom (; born 10 July 1971) is a Dutch environmentalist and retired politician who served the Labour Party (''Partij van de Arbeid'' PvdA) from 2012 to 2016. He was the first leader in the 70-year history of the PvdA to have b ...

was elected as the next party leader of the Labour Party.

Minister of Finance (2012–2017)

On 15 November 2012, Dijsselbloem was appointed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to serve as Minister of Finance in the Second Rutte cabinet. From the start, Dijsselbloem emphasised his commitment to fiscal discipline. On 1 February 2013, he nationalized the financial institution SNS Reaal, preventing its

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. Shareholders and owners of subordinated debt are expropriated with no compensation and others banks of the country have to contribute to the takeover up to one billion euros. By December 2013, Dutch press named Dijsselbloem politician of the year, describing him as "intelligent, balanced and good at finding compromises". In a response, he said that he was surprised about winning the prize because he "does not work on the forefront". In the Netherlands, he was later named as a possible European Commissioner following the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

; the post instead went to Foreign Minister

Frans Timmermans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diploma ...

. He was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Wopke Hoekstra ( Christian Democratic Appeal) on 26 October 2017. He resigned from the House of Representatives the day before, while having been reelected during the

2017 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands on Wednesday 15 March 2017 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. The incumbent government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the first to serve a full term since 2002. The previo ...

in March;

William Moorlag William Moorlag (born 17 April 1960) is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 25 October 2017. He was a member of the States of Groningen in 2003, member of the Provincial-Executive ...

entered the States General to fill the vacancy.

President of the Eurogroup (2013–2018)

On 21 January 2013, Dijsselbloem took office as President of the Eurogroup, a grouping of the Ministers of Finance of the Eurozone, those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency; he succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker. Spain was the only country not to back his candidacy. Dijsselbloem struggled early in his two and a half-year term and faced criticism for his handling of the " Cyprus bail-in." In March 2013, he took the lead in the negotiation, conclusion and subsequent public promotion of the bailout. He attracted criticism for the precedent of taking depositors' balances as part of bank rescues but said "I am pretty confident that the markets will see this as a sensible, very concentrated and direct approach instead of a more general approach... It will force all financial institutions, as well as investors, to think about the risks they are taking on because they will now have to realise that it may also hurt them." On 24 March 2013, the '' Financial Times'' and Reuters reported that Dijsselbloem saw the Cyprus bail-in as a template for resolution of a bankruptcy. However, it was the interviewer that had used the word "template" and not Dijsselbloem himself. On 26 March 2013, Dijsselbloem said explicitly that he did not consider the Cyprus case to be a template. As Eurogroup head, Dijsselbloem later represented European creditors in negotiations with Greece over its bailout packages following

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...

's victory in the January 2015 legislative election. Initially the Greek government formed by Syriza and the

Independent Greeks The Independent Greeks - National Patriotic Alliance ( el, Ανεξάρτητοι Έλληνες (ΑΝΕΛ), ''Anexartitoi Ellines'', ANEL) is a national-conservative political party in Greece. The party was the junior coalition partner to the ...

pursued bilateral talks with creditors and later the Eurogroup agreed on an extension of the bailout for four months. The negotiations for a new bailout package failed to meet the deadline for a €1.1 billion repayment to the

IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

on midnight 1 July 2015 (Athens time). After the 5 July Greek referendum in which the then outstanding bailout offer from the Eurogroup was rejected by 61% of voters, a crisis summit was held on 12 July to negotiate Greece's new bailout request. Ahead of the summit, Dijsselbloem questioned whether the Greek proposals were credible. A deal for a new bailout package between the parties was finally agreed on Monday 13 July. During the debate on the third bailout agreement in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands on 15 July, Dijsselbloem criticised the Syriza government as ideologues, saying that their "every sentence had ideological baggage". He also received criticism for subterfuge in return from Greece's chief negotiator, the Finance Minister

Yannis Varoufakis Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...

, who published this account in his book Adults in the Room: "From my first Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem began an intensive campaign to bypass me altogether. He would phone

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...

, my prime minister, directly – even visiting him in his hotel room in Brussels. By hinting at a softer stance if Tsipras agreed to spare him from having to deal with me, Dijsselbloem succeeded in weakening my position in the Eurogroup – to the detriment, primarily, of Tsipras". In August 2014, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her backing to Spain's Economy Minister,

Luis de Guindos Luis de Guindos Jurado (born 16 January 1960) is a Spanish politician serving as Vice-President of the European Central Bank since 2018. He previously served as Spain's Minister of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness from 2011 to 2018. Early ...

, in his bid to succeed Dijsselbloem as head of the Eurogroup from 2015; De Guindos is a member of the same center-right political

European People’s Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Fo ...

political bloc. Meanwhile, on 5 June 2015, Dijsselbloem announced he would seek a second term, prompting de Guindos saying he would mount a challenge. In a subsequent letter requesting that he be reappointed to serve another two-and-a-half years as Eurogroup chair, Dijsselbloem pledged that he would push for eurozone-wide social and fiscal reforms designed to promote the smooth functioning of the currency union. Once he picked up 10 votes at a Eurogroup meeting in July 2015, the remaining countries decided to vote unanimously for a second term. In June 2015, Dijsselbloem, alongside Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Juncker at the European Commission and Donald Tusk at the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...

, issued the so-called "Five Presidents' Report" on the future of the European Monetary Union, including proposals that mostly echoed calls by Germany and other northern eurozone countries to enforce spending rules across the eurozone. On 4 December 2017,

Mário Centeno Mário José Gomes de Freitas Centeno (born 9 December 1966) is a Portuguese economist, university professor, and politician. From 2015 to 2020, he was Minister of Finance of Portugal in the government cabinet of Prime Minister António Costa o ...

was elected as his successor as President of the Eurogroup. Following the resignation of Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019, Dijsselbloem and Kristalina Georgieva were the final candidates considered by European governments as potential successors; Dijsselbloem was supported by a group of countries led by the Netherlands and Germany. Georgieva eventually got the backing of 56% of EU states which however represented only 57% of the bloc’s population, falling short of one requirement. However, Dijsselbloem conceded defeat.

Interview controversy

In March 2017, he told the German newspaper '' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' "As a Social Democrat, I attribute exceptional importance to solidarity. But those who call for it also have duties. I cannot spend all my money on drinks and women and then hold my hand up for help. That principle applies on a personal, local, national and also on a European level" while referring to Southern European countries affected by the European debt crisis. This statement led to strong reactions by many European figures, as

Gianni Pittella Giovanni Saverio Furio Pittella (born 19 November 1958) is an Italian politician who served as Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Group from 2014 to 2018 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Italy from 1999 ...

, head of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament (to which Dijsselbloem's party belongs) said "there is no excuse or reason for using such language, especially from someone who is supposed to be a progressive". Manfred Weber, leader of the European People's Party Group, tweeted "Eurozone is about responsibility, solidarity but also respect. No room for stereotypes". The Portuguese Prime Minister,

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa GCIH (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician serving as the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal since 26 November 2015, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and ...

, said his words were "racist, xenophobic and sexist" and that "Europe will only be credible as a common project on the day when Mr. Dijsselbloem stops being Head of the Eurogroup and apologises clearly to all the countries and peoples that were profoundly offended by his remarks". Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi also called on Dijsselbloem to quit, saying that "if he wants to offend Italy, he should do it in a sports bar back home, not in his institutional role". In response, Dijsselbloem said: "Everyone knows that I did not say that all southern Europeans spend their money on drinks and women. That is not what was in the interview and it was not my message. The anger about the interview is anger about eight years of policies to deal with the crisis. ..I would have rephrased it otherwise probably. But it was my way of making clear that solidarity is not charity. It is not for nothing that the aid programs of the European emergency fund are accompanied by strict conditions: You get very cheap loans provided you take action to restore order. That is an important principle. For the ones who keep zooming in on those two words my message might be inconvenient. ..It will not end well with the Eurozone if we keep breaking our previous agreements. ..My choice of words was not right, I am sorry if you took offense, but I am still behind the message."

Other activities

International organizations

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia. The bank currently has 105 members, including 14 prospective members from around the world. The br ...

(AIIB), ''ex officio'' member of the Board of Governors (2016–2017) *

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focus ...

(EBRD), ''ex officio'' member of the Board of Governors (2012–2017) *

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions ...

(EIB), ''ex officio'' member of the Board of Governors (2012–2017) * Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, ''ex officio'' member of the Board of Governors (2012–2017) * World Bank, ''ex officio'' member of the Board of Governors (2012–2017)

Non-profit organizations

* World Economic Forum (WEF), Member of the Europe Policy Group (since 2017)

Personal life

Dijsselbloem and his partner live together in Wageningen. They have a son and a daughter.How Jeroen Dijsselbloem became Mr Euro from being virtually unknown
, '' The Economic Times'', 13 July 2015

References

External links

;Official *
Ir. J.R.V.A. (Jeroen) Dijsselbloem
Parlement.com , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Dijsselbloem, Jeroen 1966 births Living people 20th-century Dutch civil servants 20th-century Dutch economists 20th-century Dutch engineers 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch civil servants 21st-century Dutch economists 21st-century Dutch engineers 21st-century Dutch male writers 21st-century Dutch politicians Agricultural engineers Dutch academic administrators Dutch agronomists Dutch columnists Dutch expatriates in Ireland Dutch officials of the European Union Dutch political consultants Dutch Roman Catholics Eurogroup Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Mayors of Eindhoven Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Ministers of Finance of the Netherlands Municipal councillors in Gelderland People from Eindhoven People from Wageningen Wageningen University and Research alumni Academic staff of Wageningen University and Research World Bank people