Education
Eickhout attended high school at the Cobbenhagen College in Tilburg. Between 1994 and 2000 he studied chemistry and environmental science at the Radboud University.
Eickhout attended high school at the Cobbenhagen College in Tilburg. Between 1994 and 2000 he studied chemistry and environmental science at the Radboud University.
He was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 election. During his studies he was an intern at the science store Nijmegen and in the United States. From 2000 he worked as a researcher at the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.
He worked on several projects which had to do with transnational environmental problems such as climate change.
He co-authored the IPCC report on climate change. He was the organizations spokesperson on the sustainability of biofuels.
In early 2009 he was one of five candidates for the top position on the GreenLeft list for the European Parliament. Other contenders were Senator Tineke Strik, Amsterdam city counselor Judith Sargentini, former Member of the European Parliament Alexander de Roo and Niels van den Berge, assistant to Kathalijne Buitenweg.
Eickhout campaigned on environmental issues.
With 25% of the votes he lost to Judith Sargentini. His candidacy for the party list was supported by former MPs Arie van den Brand and Wijnand Duyvendak On the party congress he was placed second on the GreenLeft list for the European Parliament.
Since the 1990s Eickhout has been active in the GreenLeft, he co-authored the 2006 election manifesto and he was a candidate in the 2004 European Parliament election (#6, the party got only two seats).
He also chaired the Nijmegen Association of Chemistry Students Sigma and he was a member of the Nijmegen University Council. Between 2008 and 2009 he was a member of the committee chaird by Bram van Ojik which wrote the new party platform. He is a member of the GreenLeft delegation to the European Green Party.
After his election to the European Parliament, Eickhout became a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.