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Wopke Hoekstra

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Wopke Hoekstra
Hoekstra in 2022
European Commissioner for Climate Action
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 October 2023
PresidentUrsula von der Leyen
Preceded byMaroš Šefčovič (acting)
Second Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands
In office
10 January 2022 – 1 September 2023
Prime MinisterMark Rutte
Preceded byKajsa Ollongren
Succeeded byKarien van Gennip
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
10 January 2022 – 1 September 2023
Prime MinisterMark Rutte
Preceded byBen Knapen
Succeeded byLiesje Schreinemacher (acting)
Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal
In office
11 December 2020 – 14 August 2023
Preceded byHugo de Jonge
Succeeded byHenri Bontenbal
Minister of Finance
In office
26 October 2017 – 10 January 2022
Prime MinisterMark Rutte
Preceded byJeroen Dijsselbloem
Succeeded bySigrid Kaag
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
31 March 2021 – 10 January 2022
Member of the Senate
In office
7 June 2011 – 26 October 2017
Personal details
Born
Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra

(1975-09-30) 30 September 1975 (age 49)
Bennekom, Netherlands
Political partyChristian Democratic Appeal
Domestic partnerLiselot Hoornweg
Children4
EducationLeiden University (LLB, LLM)
INSEAD (MBA)
WebsiteGovernment website

Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɔpkə ˈbɑstijaːn ˈɦukstraː]; born 30 September 1975) is a Dutch politician. He served as second Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fourth Rutte cabinet between 10 January 2022 and 1 September 2023. Hoekstra previously served as Minister of Finance in the third Rutte cabinet from 2017 to 2022 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) from 2020 to 2023.[1] In 2023, he was nominated to take on the role of Frans Timmermans as EU Commissioner, being responsible for climate action.[2] On the 22nd of July 2024 it was announced that Hoekstra is nominated for a new term of EU Commissioner on behalf of the Schoof cabinet.

Early life

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Hoekstra was born in Bennekom, Gelderland. He studied law at Leiden University from 1994 and obtained his LLM degree in 2001. He also studied history at this university for one year, in which he received a propaedeutic diploma in 1997.[3] During his student years in Leiden he was president of the fraternity Minerva [nl]. Hoekstra took elective courses in law and economics at LUISS in Rome in 2000, before he obtained an MBA degree at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore in 2005.[4][5]

Before he joined the government, Hoekstra was a partner with the consultancy firm McKinsey. Hoekstra was also chairman of the supervisory board of the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam and ambassador for the Prinses Maxima Centrum for pediatric oncology.[6] Until 2006, he worked for Shell in Berlin, Hamburg and Rotterdam.[7]

Political career

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Early beginnings

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Hoekstra was the treasurer of the CDA-affiliated foundation Eduardo Freistichting and board member of the local CDA association in Amsterdam.[8]

In December 2010, it was announced that Hoekstra was a candidate for the Senate election of 2011, for which he was indeed elected, and sworn in on 7 June 2011 as its youngest member.[6] Membership of the Senate is a part-time position, and therefore Hoekstra continued as consultant with McKinsey. On 6 December of the same year, he gave his maiden speech during the debate on a tax-related topic. In the Senate, he stood out as the party's spokesperson for pensions. He was not reluctant to deviate from the party line on a number of ethical issues: he was the only CDA senator to vote in favour of a ban on civil servants refusing to marry same-sex couples (weigerambtenaar) and to vote in favour of legal status for lesbian parents (meemoederschap). He was reelected in 2015. Ahead of the 2017 general election, Hoekstra helped writing the CDA's manifesto.[9]

Hoekstra was nominated by the parliamentary press in 2013 as 'political talent of the year' and in 2016 he was the second-youngest person in the De Volkskrant top-200 of influential Dutch people. In 2016, he was one of the lead architects of the party platform.[6][4]

Minister of Finance, 2017–2022

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Hoekstra was appointed Minister of Finance in the third Rutte cabinet on 26 October 2017, succeeding Jeroen Dijsselbloem.[8]

At his first meeting with other EU Ministers of Finance in Brussels in 2017, Hoekstra expressed scepticism about eurozone reform, saying that budgetary discipline in other eurozone states was necessary first.[10] Hoekstra reiterated his reluctance on eurozone reform at a meeting of the financial council of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in 2018, warning against reforms initiated by Germany and France without the support of other member states or the public.[11] Furthermore, at a visit to his German counterpart Olaf Scholz in March 2018, Hoekstra explained that he is reluctant about plans for an eurozone budget, an eurozone finance minister and a common deposit insurance scheme.[12] After Germany and France had outlined a series of eurozone reforms in June 2018, Hoekstra led a coalition of twelve other member states in opposition to such reforms, which would later be referred to as the New Hanseatic League.[13] In January 2019, Hoekstra criticised the European Commission for its decision not to launch a disciplinary procedure against Italy over its deficit and debt, stating "It's a missed opportunity to do the right thing for the long run",[14] a concern later repeated by Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum.[15]

During his time in office, Hoekstra oversaw the government's purchase of a stake in Air France KLM equal to that of the French government to increase its influence in the carrier's business operations in 2019.[16] That same year, led negotiations with the German government on the possibility of buying a stake in grid operator TenneT.[17]

Since 2018, Hoekstra has been chairing a newly established, informal grouping of small northern and Baltic EU member states – Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands –[18] to find common cause on the direction of eurozone reforms.[19] Hoekstra has also expressed his opposition to an increase in the Netherlands' contribution to the EU budget as a result of Brexit.[20] In 2019, Hoekstra joined forces with his counterparts of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Latvia in pushing for the establishment of new EU supervisory authority that would take over from states the oversight of money laundering at financial firms.[21]

In March 2020, after a tense meeting with fellow EU national leaders where Hoekstra called for an investigation into southern European countries' proclaimed lack of budgetary capacity to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa referred to his comments as "repugnant",[22] saying that "this recurrent pettiness completely undermines what the spirit of the European Union is."[22]

On 31 October 2020, Hoekstra stated that the Dutch government would not provide further financial assistance to KLM as long as it did not agree with financial sacrifices by all employees for a period of five years. In discussions with KLM, the Dutch Airline Pilots Association (Dutch: Vereniging van Nederlandse Verkeersvliegers) and the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions refused to comply with the five-year period Hoekstra requested.[23] Several days later the parties agreed with the terms and the Dutch cabinet approved the deal with KLM on 4 November.[24][25]

On 11 December 2020, a day after Hugo de Jonge announced his resignation as Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal, the party's board unanimously nominated Hoekstra to succeed him.[9]

On 15 January 2021, Hoekstra stepped down along with the Dutch government, after thousands of families were wrongly accused of child welfare fraud.[26] In April 2021, he joined forces with Sigrid Kaag in putting forward a motion of censure to voice their disapproval of Prime Minister Rutte.[27]

On 2009, leaked documents show that Hoekstra obtained shares in an offshore company, Candace Management Ltd., based in the British Virgin Islands. He acquired more shares in 2013 and 2014, while he was a senator.[28]

On 5 October 2021, Paul Tang, a Dutch centre-left MEP who chairs the European Parliament's tax committee, argued that Hoekstra should symbolically stay out of the EU tax-haven decision. "Hoekstra, who had investments in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), should excuse himself from this decision," Tang added.[29]

Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2022–2023

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Hoekstra with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in April 2022

On 10 January 2022, Hoekstra was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister in the fourth Rutte cabinet.[30]

Hoekstra with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in May 2022

The cabinet fell on the 7th of July 2023 and directy after this Hoekstra announced that he would not lead the CDA party into the 2023 Dutch general election.[31][32]

European Commissioner for Climate Action

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In August 2023, it became known that Hoekstra would receive the Dutch nomination as climate commissioner for the EU to succeed Frans Timmermans, who had withdrawn from the position to become the leader of the joint GroenLinks–PvdA alliance.[33] Although the European environmental committee was not immediately convinced by Hoekstra's plans, it quickly approved of Hoekstra as a candidate.[34] On 5 October 2023, Hoekstra was finally voted into office by a simple majority in the European Parliament.[35] He was the EU's main negotiator at a United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) in Dubai the following month, at which participating countries agreed to shift away from using fossil fuels. According to newspaper NRC, Hoekstra was "relatively invisible" during his tenure, as most of the term's climate legislation had already been finalized.[36] Hoekstra later complained that Chinese state-sponsored manufacturers were flooding the European market for renewable energy products such as solar panels, electric vehicles, and electrolysers, and he said that action had to be taken.[37]

Following the June 2024 European Parliament election, the Schoof cabinet nominated Hoekstra on 22 July to serve as the next Dutch EU commissioner.[38]

Other activities

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European Union organisations

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International organisations

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Non-profit organisations

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  • Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, Member of the Supervisory Board
  • Friends of the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, Member of the Board
  • Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Ambassador

Honours

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Personal life

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Hoekstra lives with his wife, a general practitioner, and four children.[50][9] He is a member of the Remonstrant Brotherhood.[51]

Electoral history

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Electoral history of Wopke Hoekstra
Year Body Party Pos. Votes Result Ref.
Party seats Individual
2021 House of Representatives Christian Democratic Appeal 1 437,240 15 Won [52]

References

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  1. ^ "Wopke Hoekstra (CDA), bezige bij en nu minister van Financiën" (in Dutch). NOS. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Take action for a real EU climate leader". act.wemove.eu. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  3. ^ Curriculum Vitae Wopke Hoekstra - official website of the Government of the Netherlands.
  4. ^ a b Kok, Laurens (29 August 2017). "CDA-kanjer Wopke Hoekstra topkandidaat voor Financiën". www.ad.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  5. ^ "Preses op carrièrepad". www.mareonline.nl. 16 June 2005. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  6. ^ a b c "Wopke Hoekstra (CDA), bezige bij en nu minister van Financiën" (in Dutch). Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  7. ^ "Wopke Hoekstra is een rijzende ster met kwaliteit voor het CDA-leiderschap". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  8. ^ a b "Profiel: Wopke Hoekstra (CDA), minister van Financiën". NU.nl (in Dutch). 25 October 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  9. ^ a b c "Gezinsman Hoekstra gaat alsnog CDA-kar trekken". NOS. 11 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Hoekstra sceptisch over hervormingsplannen eurozone". Elsevier (in Dutch). 8 November 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  11. ^ "De toekomst van de EU: minister 'Dr. No' Hoekstra wil van Frankrijk en Duitsland pas op de plaats". Nieuwsuur (in Dutch). 14 March 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  12. ^ Delamaide, Darrell (16 March 2018). "Dutch minister beats Macron to the punch on euro advice to Germany". Handelsblatt Global. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  13. ^ Brunsden, Jim; Khan, Mehreen (22 June 2018), "Franco-German eurozone reform plan faces growing opposition", Financial Times, archived from the original on 22 June 2018, retrieved 22 June 2018
  14. ^ Chrysoloras, Nikos; Hermse, John (21 January 2019). "Netherlands Blasts Italy Budget Truce, Doubts Numbers Add Up". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  15. ^ Giles, Chris; Rachman, Gideon (24 January 2019). "EU leaders clash on migration, tax and deficits". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  16. ^ Anthony Deutsch (February 26, 2019), "Dutch government takes stake in Air France KLM -finance minister", Reuters.
  17. ^ Toby Sterling (September 13, 2019), "Dutch government in talks with Germany over TenneT stake - letter", Reuters.
  18. ^ Mehreen Khan (November 5, 2018), "The euro's Hanseatic creditor club takes aim at Italy", Financial Times.
  19. ^ Mehreen Khan (November 26, 2018), "France ambushes the EU's New Hanseatic League", Financial Times.
  20. ^ Sterling, Toby (16 January 2018). Evans, Catherine (ed.). "Dutch government says EU countries hurt most by Brexit shouldn't pay more into EU budget". Reuters. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  21. ^ Francesco Guarascio (November 9, 2019), "EU heavyweight states push for joint supervisor against money laundering", Reuters.
  22. ^ a b von der Burchard, Hans; Oliveira, Ivo; Schaart, Eline (27 March 2020). "Dutch try to calm north-south economic storm over coronavirus". POLITICO. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  23. ^ "Kabinet weigert nu staatssteun aan KLM, Hoekstra eist vijf jaar loonoffers" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. 31 October 2020. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020.
  24. ^ "Ook KLM-piloten akkoord met loonmatiging, Hoekstra wil nu vooruitkijken" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. 3 November 2020. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020.
  25. ^ "Kabinet stemt in met herstructureringsplan KLM" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. 4 November 2020. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020.
  26. ^ Dutch government resigns over child welfare fraud scandal Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  27. ^ Eline Schaart (April 2, 2021), Rutte censured after surviving no-confidence vote Politico Europe.
  28. ^ Wopke Hoekstra Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  29. ^ Dutch minister draws fire on EU and tax-havens Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  30. ^ "Alle namen nieuwe kabinet bekend: Hoekstra op Buitenlandse Zaken en Kuipers op VWS". NOS.nl (in Dutch). 2 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  31. ^ "Liveblog kabinetsval: Van der Wal steunt Yesilgöz, lijstje met mogelijke kandidaten steeds korter • Amsterdamse wethouder Moorman denkt na over stap naar Den Haag". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 12 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  32. ^ "Nieuwe CDA-leider mag niet het kabinet in, bestuur wil één kandidaat aan leden presenteren". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 12 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  33. ^ "Minister Hoekstra volgt Timmermans op als Eurocommissaris". nos.nl (in Dutch). 24 August 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  34. ^ Niranjan, Ajit (4 October 2023). "Dutch politician who worked for Shell poised to become EU climate chief". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  35. ^ "Ook Europees Parlement stemt in met Hoekstra als klimaatcommissaris". nos.nl (in Dutch). 5 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  36. ^ Van den Dool, Pim; Van de Wiel, Clara (23 July 2024). "Met Hoekstra als Eurocommissaris kiest Schoof voor zekerheid en continuïteit" [With Hoekstra as EU Commissioner, Schoof chooses for stability and continuity]. NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  37. ^ Hoekstra, Wopke (2 September 2023). "Eurocommissaris Hoekstra: 'Europa heeft een Chinaprobleem'" [European Commissioner Hoekstra: 'Europe has a China problem']. Het Financieele Dagblad (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Mathijs Schiffers. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  38. ^ "Schoof: Hoekstra is zware kandidaat voor stevige positie in Europese Commissie" [Schoof: Hoekstra is a weighty candidate for a substation position in the European Commission]. NOS (in Dutch). 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  39. ^ Board of Governors European Investment Bank (EIB).
  40. ^ Board of Governors: Wopke Hoekstra European Stability Mechanism.
  41. ^ Board of Governors Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
  42. ^ Board of Governors European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
  43. ^ Members Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee.
  44. ^ Board of Governors Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group.
  45. ^ Board of Governors World Bank.
  46. ^ "Image".
  47. ^ "Le onorificenze della Repubblica Italiana".
  48. ^ "Image". Shutterstock. 11 October 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  49. ^ "President of Ukraine met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands". 15 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  50. ^ "De TV Show - thuis bij minister Wopke Hoekstra" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  51. ^ Hoedeman, Jan (2 April 2018). "CDA-minister Wopke Hoekstra: Ik hoop dat God bestaat". AD.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  52. ^ "Proces-verbaal verkiezingsuitslag Tweede Kamer 2021" [Report of the election results House of Representatives 2021] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. pp. 22–60, 162–163. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Finance
2017–2022 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Foreign Affairs
2022–2023 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal
2020-2023 		Succeeded by
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