Derk Jan Eppink

Derk Jan Eppink
Eppink in February 2014
Vice-Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Dutch Delegation
In office 11 December 2011 – 12 June 2014
Chairman	Martin Callanan
Served alongside	Ryszard Legutko Geoffrey Van Orden Jan Zahradil
Personal details
Born	(1958-11-07) 7 November 1958 (age 58) Steenderen, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Political party	National: Libertarian, Direct, Democratic European: Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists 2014: People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
Occupation	Journalist Politician

Derk Jan Eppink (born 7 November 1958) is a Dutch journalist, politician in Belgium and the Netherlands, and former cabinet secretary for European Commissioners Bolkestein (1999–2004) and Kallas (2004–2007). In 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament for List Dedecker and sits on the European Conservatives and Reformists Group Executive.

Eppink was born in Steenderen, Gelderland. He studied Dutch law at the VU University in Amsterdam (1977–1981) and thereafter European law and International Politics at the University of Amsterdam. In 1984 he moved to Brussels to become trainee at the European Commission. Thereafter he worked for 3 years as assistant to Members of the European Parliament.

In 1987, Derk Jan Eppink joined the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad where he was assigned to the foreign desk. He covered South Africa, worked as correspondent in Poland and became political editor reporting on Dutch politics in The Hague. In 1995, he moved to the Flemish newspaper De Standaard where he reported on Belgian politics. He wrote two books on his experiences in Belgian politics: Vreemde Buren (Odd neighbors), Avonturen van een Nederbelg (Adventures of a Nederbelg ()).

In October 1999, he started working as member of cabinet of Dutch European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein. He was Bolkestein’s liaison with the European Parliament, speechwriter and also assigned to liberalization of postal markets. In 2004, in co-operation with Bolkestein, he published the book The Limits of Europe. In October 2004 Eppink joined the cabinet of Siim Kallas, European Commissioner from Estonia, responsible for administration, audit and anti-fraud. In March 2007 Eppink published his book Life of a European Mandarin describing his experiences in the European Commission. A lecture he gave about this subject and about the European Union in general, at the Roosevelt Academy on 14 November 2007. The book has been published in Dutch, French, English, Estonian, and Czech.