Frederik Bolkestein (born 1933; usually known as Nl-Frits Bolkestein.ogg) is a Dutch politician and former EU Commissioner.
He was the leader of the market liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the VVD. In the European Commission, Bolkestein was responsible for Internal Market, Taxation and Customs Union issues. Some of the more politically sensitive items in his portfolio were the draft Community patent regulation and the draft Directives on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions and services in the internal market, the so-called "Bolkestein Directive", which has become the focus of heated debate. Former Irish finance minister Charlie McCreevy succeeded him at this post [1].
Biography
Bolkestein studied mathematics and physics in Amsterdam and in the United States, subsequently he studied philosophy and ancient Greek, also in Amsterdam. Before entering Dutch politics in the 1970s, Bolkstein was a manager at the Royal Dutch-Shell oil company, taking him to various overseas postings. During his first years abroad for the Shell company, he also studied Law at the University of Leiden and Economics at the London School of Economics.
Bolkestein wrote a play in English, under the anagram pseudonym of Niels Kobet: Floris, Count of Holland.
He authored a number of books on politics and related subjects.
During the 1990s, he was very successful as the political frontman of the major Dutch liberal party, the VVD. As an opinion leader, he was known for his daring and controversial positions on such issues as multicultural problems in Dutch society, political dualism between government and parliament, and the structure and expansion of the European Union. He was president of the Liberal International, the world federation of liberal political parties. From the fall of 2004 he is professor at the Dutch universities of Leiden and Delft. Also he is preparing a book on the influence of intellectuals on political life.
Quotes
- "In a radical democracy in which everybody should be able to co-decide, not everyone meets the [criteria of] competence, preparedness to serve the common interest and economic independence. That's why this form should be rejected. Every four years, the citizen can give his judgement on government policy in all openness, and in this manner have influence. For this, it is necessary however that the citizen is well informed. That is a task of the government." Frits Bolkestein (lecture at the University of Amsterdam, 11 March 1997)
- "If we fail in our efforts to achieve harmonisation of patent law relating to computer-implemented inventions in the European Union, we may well be confronted with a renegotiation of the European Patent Convention. The process of renegotiating the European Patent Convention would not require any contribution from this Parliament." (Frits Bolkestein speech to the European Parliament 23 September 2003)
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