Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (born on 7 April 1973 in Heerlen) is a Dutch Member of the European Parliament for the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), which is part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Hennis-Plasschaert sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism.

Life

Life before politics

Hennis-Plasschaert attended a Roman Catholic elementary school in Bodegraven, after which she attended the atheneum of the St-Antoniuscollege in Gouda. She continued her studies at the European Academy, where she took up European Administration.

Between 1995 and 1998 Hennis-Plasschaert worked at the European Commission in Brussels, within the Directorate-General for Enlargement, in the department responsible for relations with Poland and the Baltic states. In 1998 she became a financial offer for the European Committee in Riga, Latvia, to deal with financial matters concerning the Phare-program. In Latvia she also served as correspondent for the Baltic states for the international bureau of the VVD.In 2000 she moved back to the Netherlands and began to work as a subsidy adviser for KPMG Advisory Services. She became secretary of the VVD board in the branch Amsterdam-East. In 2002 she became the political assistant of Mark van der Horst, one of the VVD's aldermen in Amsterdam, who was responsible for infrastructure.

Political Life

In 2004 Hennis-Plasschaert was elected into the European Parliament for the VVD with 44,000 preference votes.

In the European Parliament Hennis-Plasschaert has a seat in the Committee on Transport and Tourism. Furthermore she is a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. She also serves as a member of the Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee and a substitute for the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.

In May 2005 she filed a report for the European Parliament concerning the safety of airports. She argued that safety regulations against terrorist attacks, should only apply for airports, and not for the neighbouring areas. Furthermore the costs and safety regulations should not distort the free competition.

In February 2006 parliament she asked question concerning the code of conduct for the media set up by the European Commission after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. In March 2006 she wanted to enter Belarus to monitor the presidential election as an independent observer. She was refused entry into the country however,

External links

* [http://www.jeaninegoeseurope.nl Personal Weblog]
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