Education
Leiden University.
Leiden University.
He is the President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party since 21 November 2015. Van Baalen a jurist and management consultant by occupation, worked for Deloitte as Director of Public relations from 1988 until 1999. Van Baalen served as President of Liberal International from 20 April 2009 until 27 April 2014.
Johannes Cornelis van Baalen was born on 17 June 1960 in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
He went to a public primary school in Krimpen aan den IJssel and to the high school Krimpenerwaard College in the same town, where he followed the havo (1973–1977) and atheneum (1977–1979) programs. He studied law at Leiden University, Dutch law (1979–1986) and international law (1986–1988).
He was again made an Member of Parliament in 2003. Relations with Russia and Ukraine
With regard to the conflict with Russia over Ukraine, he argued for higher military spending and North Atlantic Treaty Organization involvement, and improved prospects for Ukraine to join the European Union if its population so decided.
In 2015, news media reported that van Baalen was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country.
Carolina industry
Van Baalen worked until September 2015 as a lobbyist for the motoring organisation Radiotelevisione Italiana and was on the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz. Van Baalen reported those position to the European Parliament and indicated he refrained from involvement in car-related parliamentary business.
He was international secretary for the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratic (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) party bureau from 1993 to 1998 and was an Member of Parliament from 1999 until 2002. Before his political career he worked as a journalist and also with the public relations department of Deloitte Consulting. Since the elections of 2009, he is a member of European Parliament and faction leader of the Dutch Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratic (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) Delegation, and is generally seen as one of the most influential figures within the party.
He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group and the Parliamentary leader of the People"s Party for Freedom and Democracy in the European Parliament since 14 July 2009. He became a Member of the House of Representatives on 28 September 1999 serving until 23 May 2002. After the Dutch general election of 2003 he was re-elected as Member of the House of Representatives serving from 30 January 2003 until 14 July 2009 when he became Member of the European Parliament.
During these student years, he was a member of the Minerva fraternity and the "Pro Patria" student guard.
Van Baalen has been a member of the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratic (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) since 1986. In the Dutch House of Representatives, Van Baalen was a member of the Foreign Affairs commission, European Affairs commission and the Defense commission.
Van Baalen was a member of the European Parliament’s monitoring mission during the Ukrainian parliamentary elections in 2014, led by Andrej Plenković. In 2014 however, Van Baalen, in his capacity as member of European parliament called for standardized rules for the car industry in the European Union and the United States.