Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem (born 29 March 1966) is a Dutch politician and economist serving as Mayor of Eindhoven since 13 September 2022, succeeding John Jorritsma (VVD). A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), he has also been chairman of the supervisory board of Wageningen University since 1 April 2019.
Dijsselbloem was Minister of Finance in the Second Rutte cabinet, serving from 5 November 2012 to 26 October 2017. He also served as president of the Eurogroup from 21 January 2013 to 12 January 2018 and president of the board of governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) from 11 February 2013 until 12 January 2018. He was successively chairman of the Dutch Safety Board from 1 May 2019 to September 2022.
Early life and education Jeroen René Victor Anton Dijsselbloem was born on 29 March 1966 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. His parents were both schoolteachers. He was raised as a Roman Catholic.Ir. J.R.V.A. (Jeroen) Dijsselbloem, parlement.com; retrieved 3 February 2013.
Dijsselbloem went to a Roman Catholic primary school in Son en Breugel and the Catholic secondary school Eckartcollege (1978–85) in Eindhoven. He studied at the Wageningen University between 1985 and 1991, where he obtained an engineer's degree (ingenieur) in agricultural economics in 1991, majoring in business economics, agricultural policy, and social and economic history."Jeroen Dijsselbloem, President of the Eurogroup" , eurozone.europa.eu; retrieved 4 April 2013.
Dijsselbloem subsequently did research in business economics at University College Cork (1991) in Ireland, but he did not graduate from this university. Οι ...μέθοδοι χρηματοδότησης Ιρλανδικών γαλακτοκομείων του κ. Ντάισελμπλουμ, Kathimerini, 31 March 2013; retrieved 1 April 2013."Dutch Finance Minister amends Cork University degree error", Irish Independent, 14 April 2013; retrieved 1 February 2015.
Political career Dijsselbloem's interest in politics began in 1983, spurred by the mass protests against U.S. Pershing cruise missiles that drew hundreds of thousands of Dutch youth into leftwing movements.Matt Steinglass and Peter Spiegel, "Jeroen Dijsselbloem, eurozone reformer", Financial Times, 2013. In 1985, he became a member of the Labour Party (PvdA).
From 1993 to 1996 he worked for the parliamentary group of the Labour Party. From 1994-96 he was a member of the municipal council of Wageningen. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fishery under Minister Jozias van Aartsen and State secretary Geke Faber.
From 2000 to 2012, Dijsselbloem was elected to the House of Representatives for the Labour Party, with a brief interruption after the 2002 general elections where the Labour Party suffered a major defeat. He reentered the lower house in November that year due to Peter Rehwinkel's resignation. In 2007, he led a parliamentary inquiry on education reform. He focused on matters of youth care, special education and teachers. Following the resignation of Job Cohen as party leader and parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives on 20 February 2012, he became the interim parliamentary leader, serving until 20 March 2012 when Diederik Samsom was elected as the next party leader of the Labour Party.
Minister of Finance (2012–2017)
On 15 November 2012, Dijsselbloem was appointed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to serve as Minister of Finance in the Second Rutte cabinet. "'Alle ministers zijn nu bekend'", NOS.nl; accessed 28 August 2017."Rutte II: 'alle namen van het nieuwe kabinet'", RTL.nl; accessed 28 August 2017. From the start, Dijsselbloem emphasised his commitment to fiscal discipline.
On 1 February 2013, he nationalized the financial institution SNS Reaal, preventing its bankruptcy.David Jolly & Jack Ewing, "Dutch Government Takes Control of SNS Reaal", The New York Times; retrieved 3 February 2013. Shareholders and owners of subordinated debt are expropriated with no compensation and others banks of the country have to contribute to the takeover up to one billion euros. By December 2013, Dutch press named Dijsselbloem politician of the year, describing him as "intelligent, balanced and good at finding compromises". In a response, he said that he was surprised about winning the prize because he "does not work on the forefront".Anouk van Kampen, ""Dijsselbloem verkozen tot politicus van het jaar", NRC Handelsblad, 15 December 2013.
In the Netherlands, he was later named as a possible European Commissioner following the 2014 European elections; the post instead went to Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans.Marc Peeperkorn, ""Hoe Juncker wraak nam op Dijsselbloem na opmerking over drankgebruik", Volkskrant.nl; accessed 28 August 2017.
He was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Wopke Hoekstra (Christian Democratic Appeal) on 26 October 2017. He resigned from the House of Representatives the day before, while having been reelected during the 2017 Dutch general election in March; William Moorlag entered the States General to fill the vacancy.
President of the Eurogroup (2013–2018)
On 21 January 2013, Dijsselbloem took office as President of the Eurogroup, a grouping of the Ministers of Finance of the Eurozone, those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency;Juncker hints Dijsselbloem will replace him as Eurogroup chief , Europolitics.info, 10 January 2013.Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a tough chairman for the Eurogroup , Presseurop.eu, 21 January 2013 he succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker. Spain was the only country not to back his candidacy.
Dijsselbloem struggled early in his two and a half-year term and faced criticism for his handling of the "Cyprus bail-in."Robin Emmott, "Spain to bid for euro zone chair in challenge to Dijsselbloem", Reuters, 2015. In March 2013, he took the lead in the negotiation, conclusion and subsequent public promotion of the bailout. He attracted criticism for the precedent of taking depositors' balances as part of bank rescues but said "I am pretty confident that the markets will see this as a sensible, very concentrated and direct approach instead of a more general approach... It will force all financial institutions, as well as investors, to think about the risks they are taking on because they will now have to realise that it may also hurt them."Murphy, Paul, "Dijsselbloem, do remember that careless talk costs lives ...", ftalphaville.ft.com, 25 March 2013. The footnote to the headline read "*See classic Fougasse cartoons for an illustration of this point"; the ellipsis in the headline was completed with "... and it’s really about time it cost you your job.**"; and the second footnote read "**Though it’s unlikely that he’s going to lose it, so long as he has Germany’s support." The post was "[p]art of the A Cypriot Precedent series"; retrieved 25 March 2013.
On 24 March 2013, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that Dijsselbloem saw the Cyprus bail-in as a template for resolution of a bankruptcy.Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief, The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 March 2014. However, it was the interviewer that had used the word "template" and not Dijsselbloem himself."Dijsselbloem en de blauwdruk/template", Mrwonkish.nl; retrieved 13 September 2015. On 26 March 2013, Dijsselbloem said explicitly that he did not consider the Cyprus case to be a template."Cyprus Program Isn't Template for Euro-Area Rescues, EU Says", Bloomberg; retrieved 3 March 2014.
As Eurogroup head, Dijsselbloem later represented European creditors in negotiations with Greece over its bailout packages following Syriza's victory in the January 2015 legislative election.Toby Sterling, "Eurogroup President Dijsselbloem still seeking re-election", Reuters, 9 July 2015. Initially the Greek government formed by Syriza and the Independent Greeks pursued bilateral talks with creditorsThe Guardian, "Greece's Yanis Varoufakis begins European talks in France", 1 February 2015; retrieved 12 October 2015. and later the Eurogroup agreed on an extension of the bailout for four months.Suzanne Lynch, "Greece, Eurogroup agree to four month bailout extension", Irish Times, 20 February 2015; retrieved 12 October 2015. The negotiations for a new bailout package failed to meet the deadline for a €1.1 billion repayment to the IMF on midnight 1 July 2015 (Athens time)."Greece debt crisis: IMF payment missed as bailout expires", bbc.com, 1 July 2015; retrieved 12 October 2015. After the 5 July Greek referendum in which the then outstanding bailout offer from the Eurogroup was rejected by 61% of voters,"Greece debt crisis: Greek voters reject bailout offer", bbc.com, 6 July 2015; retrieved 12 October 2015. a crisis summit was held on 12 July to negotiate Greece's new bailout request. Ahead of the summit, Dijsselbloem questioned whether the Greek proposals were credible.Andreas Rinke and Francesco Guarascio, "Greece's bailout plan might not be good enough for a deal", Business Insider, 12 July 2015; retrieved 12 October 2015.
A deal for a new bailout package between the parties was finally agreed on Monday 13 July.BBC News, "Greece debt crisis: Eurozone summit strikes deal", 13 July 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2015. During the debate on the third bailout agreement in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands on 15 July, Dijsselbloem criticised the Syriza government as ideologues, saying that their "every sentence had ideological baggage".Merijn Oudenampsen, "Dit zijn de verzwegen dogma's van Jeroen Dijsselbloem, pragmaticus pur sang", 21 July 2015; retrieved 12 October 2015. He also received criticism for subterfuge in return from Greece's chief negotiator, the Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis, who published this account in his book Adults in the Room: "From my first Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem began an intensive campaign to bypass me altogether. He would phone Alexis Tsipras, my prime minister, directly – even visiting him in his hotel room in Brussels. By hinting at a softer stance if Tsipras agreed to spare him from having to deal with me, Dijsselbloem succeeded in weakening my position in the Eurogroup – to the detriment, primarily, of Tsipras".
In August 2014, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her backing to Spain's Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, in his bid to succeed Dijsselbloem as head of the Eurogroup from 2015;"Merkel backs Spain economy minister to lead Eurogroup", RTÉ News and Current Affairs, 25 August 2014. De Guindos is a member of the same center-right political European People’s Party political bloc. Meanwhile, on 5 June 2015, Dijsselbloem announced he would seek a second term, prompting de Guindos saying he would mount a challenge.Toby Sterling, "Netherlands' Dijsselbloem seeks second term as Eurogroup president", Reuters, 2015. In a subsequent letter requesting that he be reappointed to serve another two-and-a-half years as Eurogroup chair, Dijsselbloem pledged that he would push for eurozone-wide social and fiscal reforms designed to promote the smooth functioning of the currency union.Thomas Escritt, "Dijsselbloem promises closer EMU integration if re-appointed", Reuters, 16 June 2015. Once he picked up 10 votes at a Eurogroup meeting in July 2015, the remaining countries decided to vote unanimously for a second term.Zeke Turner, "Dijsselbloem secures second term", Politico Europe; accessed 28 August 2017.