Stientje van Veldhoven-van der Meer (born 22 June 1973) is a Dutch politician serving as Minister for the Environment and Housing in the Third Rutte cabinet since 2019. A member of the

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; D66) is a social liberal and progressive political party in the Netherlands, which is positioned on the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Li ...

(D66) party, she served as State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management from 2017 to 2019.

Career

A diplomat and civil servant by occupation, Van Veldhoven studied

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an or ...

and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

in international organisations at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

. She worked at the

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy The Ministry of Economic Affairs (; EZ) is the Netherlands' ministry responsible for international trade, commercial, industrial, investment, technology, space policy, as well as tourism. The Ministry was created in 1905 as the Ministry of ...

and for the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

in Brussels. She was elected political talent of the year 2012/2013 by the Dutch national radio and television broadcaster,

Nederlandse Omroep Stichting The (; NOS or rarely ; ) is one of the broadcasting organisations making up the Dutch public broadcasting system. It has a special statutory obligation to make news and sports programmes for the three Dutch public television channels and the ...

(NOS). She was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 17 June 2010 until her appointment as State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management. As a parliamentarian, she focused on matters of

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts ...

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

and

development aid Development aid (or development cooperation) is a type of aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political International development, development of developing countries. It is distinguishe ...

. In 2019, she was appointed minister without portfolio at the

Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (; BZK) is the Ministries of the Netherlands, Netherlands' ministry responsible for domestic policy, civil service, public administration, elections, relations with local governments, intelligen ...

. She announced her departure from politics as of July 19, 2021, to assume the role of Vice President/Director at the

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. Subsequent presidents include Jonathan Lash (1993– ...

Europe starting from September 1 of that year.

Electoral history

References

*
Parlement.com biography

External links

*
House of Representatives biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Veldhoven, Stientje Van 1973 births Living people Democrats 66 politicians 21st-century Dutch civil servants Dutch women civil servants Dutch women diplomats 21st-century Dutch diplomats Dutch MPs 2017–2021 Dutch MPs 2010–2012 Dutch MPs 2012–2017 State secretaries for infrastructure of the Netherlands Women government ministers of the Netherlands Politicians from Utrecht (city) University of Groningen alumni 21st-century Dutch women politicians