Hans van den Broek

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Hans van den Broek listen  (born 11 December 1936 in Paris) is a leading Dutch political figure.

He is best known for having served 11 years as the Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1982 and 1993, when he became European Commissioner for Foreign Relations.

Hans Van Den Broek started his career as a lawyer. He joined the Katholieke Volkspartij (KVP) and was member of the municipal council of Rheden between 1970 and 1974. Between 1976 and 1981 he was member of Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, as representative of KVP and later of the Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA).

He was Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs in the governments of Ruud Lubbers three times and was in 1991 one of the EU negotiators of the Brioni Agreement, which ended the ten day war in Slovenia. On 6 January 1993 he became a member of the European Commission, once again with responsibility for foreign relations, especially the Enlargement of the European Union. He remained in that post until March 1999, when he retired from European politics.

Hans van den Broek is president of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael) and also of Radio Netherlands. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation.

Hans van den Broek is married and has two daughters, one of whom is Marilène van den Broek, the wife of Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven.

Preceded by:
Frans Andriessen
Dutch European Commissioner
1993–2000
Succeeded by:
Frits Bolkestein


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