Rijk van DamRijk van Dam

Rijk van Dam, member of European Parliament 1999-2004, President of the European Coalition for Israel 2004-2006

Rijk van Dam (1952) studied fiscal law at Leiden University. In 1981 he and his wife led the campaign for the national parliament for the Reformed Political Federation (one of the predecessors of the ChristenUnie. After the elections he became chief assistent to the parliamentary group of the RPF. His policy areas were Justice, Home Office and Finance. After the elections in 1986 he worked at the fiscus, where he held several management functions. For several years he was member of the national board of the RPF and president of the RPF in his hometown of Barneveld. In 1989 he became member of the Provincial Council of Guelders, as chair of the RPF/GPV group, which had at that point 2 members on the council. He led RPF/GPV in the elections of 1991 and 1995 in which the RPF/GPV won 3 and 4 seats respectively. From 1994 till 1998 he was also member of the town council of Barneveld.

In 1984, 1989 and 1994 Rijk van Dam led the RPF in the elections for the European Parliament and he was member of the advisory committee for the RPF/SGP/GPV group in the European Parliament. After the summer of 1997 he became Member of the European Parliament on behalf of RPF/SGP/GPV. During the first two years he was member of the Committee on Transport and replacing member of the Committee for External Economic Relations. In the 1999  elections the RPF/SGP/GPV group grew from 2 to 3 members. Since then he was vice-chair of the Committee for Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism and replacant with the Budget Committee. In 2002 he became member of the Committee for Budget Controll. He was member of the permanent parlementary delegations for Israel and for South Asia.

When Rijk van Dam was not re-elected as MEP in 2004, he became president of the just founded European Coalition for Israel untill december of 2006.

Since 1977 Rijk van Dam has been married to Geke and has three children Rita, Wilbert and Gerhard. Van Dam is member of the Dutch Reformed Church.