Thijs Berman

Thijs Berman
File:MEP Thijs BERMAN, S&D, Netherlands.jpg
Born	(1957-09-26) September 26, 1957 Coevorden, Drenthe, Netherlands
Residence	Brussels
Citizenship	Netherlands
Education	Psychology
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University
Occupation	Independent Consultant
Employer	Independent Consultant
Political party	Labour Party (Netherlands)

Thijs Berman (born September 26, 1957 in Coevorden) is an independent consultant based in Brussels, Belgium. Between 2004 and 2014, he was a Dutch politician and a Member of the European Parliament. Thijs was also a member of the AWEPA Governing Council.

Biography

Berman was born in the Province of Drenthe and grew up in the Province of Groningen. After initially studying acting in Maastricht, he turned to psychology. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Utrecht University in 1983 and a master's from the University of Amsterdam in 1987. Since, he was a correspondent in Paris and Moscow for Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer, for the Dutch Public Radio (Radio 1), the Dutch Inter-Churches radio and television IKON, the Dutch international radio Wereldomroep, the agrarian daily Agrarisch Dagblad, and magazine Elsevier. He presented many radio and television shows, notably for broadcaster IKON. He was also a regular contributor to TV5, the international French-speaking TV-station.

In June 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament. He is a member of the Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists, and was, between 2004 and 2008, member of the Committees on Agriculture and on Regional Development. In 2008, he joined the Committees on Budget, and on Development and Humanitarian Affairs. Between 2009 and 2014 he was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Development and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. He also was a substitute for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and for the Committee on Budgetary Control. Further he was the chair of the Delegation for relations with Afghanistan.

In 2009 he headed Dutch Labour in the European elections after winning the party primaries, beating Jacques Monasch, Hannah Belliot, and Kris Douma.

In 2009, he terminated the EU Election Observation Mission at the presidential elections in Afghanistan, as the successor of French general and politician Philippe Morillon. In 2010, he was appointed as head of the EU Election Observer Mission to Ethiopia. In 2012, he was the EU Chief Observer to the presidential elections in Senegal. In 2014, he was the EU Chief Observer to the presidential elections in Afghanistan.

Bibliography

• (Dutch) Op zoek naar George Fles, het einde van een Hollandse revolutionair in de Sovjetunie ('Searching for George Fles, the end of a Dutch revolutionary in the Soviet Union'). Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1993. ISBN 90-6012-992-X

External links

• European Parliament biography
• Declaration of financial interests (in Dutch; PDF file)
• Thijs Berman at the Internet Movie Database