Thijs Berman

(Coevorden, 1957) worked as a correspondent in Paris and Moscow for among others Dutch Radio 1 Journaal and the weekly Elsevier before being elected in 2004 as a Dutch labour party politician in the European Parliament. In 2009 he was Dutch labour party leader in the elections for the European Parliament. In the Euro-parliament he is a member of the development aid and human rights commissions. He chairs the delegation for the relations with Afghanistan. In his career as a politician the former Eastern bloc continues to play a role. In 2007 he was successful in his resistance against the projected construction of the Via Baltica through the Rospuda Valley, a unique nature reserve. In 2004 he was an observer in the presidential elections in Ukraine and in 2010 headed the EU observers’ mission to the elections in Ethiopia. Berman was at drama school in Maastricht before deciding to study psychology in 1983. His maternal grandfather, Marinus van der Goes van Naters, was the first parliamentary leader for the Dutch labour party in the Lower House.