Marietje Schaake | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Schaake during theWEF 2019 | |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 1 July 2009 – 2019 | |
| Constituency | Netherlands |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1978-10-28)28 October 1978 (age 46) Leiden, Netherlands |
| Political party |  DutchDemocrats 66  EUAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Alma mater | University of AmsterdamWittenberg University |
| Website | www |
Maria Renske "Marietje"Schaake (Dutch pronunciation:[maːˈritɕəˈsxaːkə]; born 28 October 1978) is aDutchpolitician who served asMember of the European Parliament (MEP) from theNetherlands between 2009 and 2019. She is a member ofDemocrats 66, part of theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.[1]
Schaake has been named international director of policy atStanford's Cyber Policy Center, as well as an International Policy Fellow at the University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.[2]
The Wall Street Journal called her "Europe's most wired politician",[3] whileCNN called her a "rising Dutch star" who makes an increasingly rare "passionate and public case for liberalism and globalization".[4] She was selected as one of the "Politico 28" in 2017. During her last months in office in 2019,Politico also called her one of the 40 MEP's who mattered in 2014–2019.[5] According toPolitico, Schaake is the "ultimate digital MEP" whose name has been floated as a potential candidate for theforeign ministry".[6] The magazine also called her a "lead MEP on cybersecurity".[7] In 2017 she was invited as a 'civic leader' to address theObama Foundation summit.[8] She publishes op-eds in theFinancial Times,[9]The Guardian[10] andBloomberg.[11] She writes a column for theFinancial Times[12] and the DutchNRC newspaper’s economic section twice a month.[13]
Schaake was raised in Leiden and attended the Haags Montessori Lyceum (high school) inThe Hague. She then left for the United States to studyliberal arts atWittenberg University inOhio. She then studied sociology, American studies and new media at theUniversity of Amsterdam. After an internship with theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Schaake was granted the Lantos Fellowship of theUnited States House of Representatives, where she focused on international relations and human rights issues.[14]
Before her political career, Schaake served as an independent advisor to, amongst others, theUnited States Ambassador to the Netherlands and to the president of theLeadership Conference on Civil Rights inWashington, D.C. Other assignments included consulting the DutchMinistry of Foreign Affairs, as well as cultural institutes and companies. Schaake specialized in issues such as transatlantic relations, diversity, integration, civil rights and Muslims in the West. In 2007 she received the Barney Karbank Memorial Award 2007 for outstanding leadership on the issue of human rights.[14]
In the autumn of 2008, Schaake was nominated as candidate for the European Parliament for the Dutch political partyDemocrats 66 (D66). In theEuropean Parliament elections of 2009, Schaake was elected at age 30 when D66 won three seats. In the2014 elections, she was re-elected for a second term.[14]
In the European Parliament, Schaake was the ALDE Coordinator of theInternational Trade committee (INTA). She was also the spokesperson for the ALDE Group on the Canada-EU Trade Agreement[15]Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).[1] In 2016, she served as the parliament'srapporteur on a ban on trade in certain goods which could be used forcapital punishment,torture or other treatment or punishment.[16] She then pushed for stricter export controls for cybersurveillance technologies through her work on the dual-use legislation.[17] Schaake also advanced stronger oversight over the trade in cultural goods from conflict areas.
Schaake additionally served on thecommittee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), where she focused on strengthening Europe as a global player. She worked on the EU's neighbourhood policy, notably Turkey, Iran and North Africa and the broader Middle East. In thesubcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), she spoke on human rights and coordinated the monthly human rights resolutions for ALDE.[1]
During her period in parliament, Schaake took several initiatives to promote digital freedoms and to include them inEuropean Union foreign policy. She was the vice-president of the delegation for relations with the United States and served in the delegation for relations withIran, and in the delegation for theArab peninsula. Schaake pushed for completing Europe'sDigital Single Market and copyright reform. She supports an open internet in discussions about internet governance and digital (human) rights.[1]
Schaake established the Intergroup on the Digital Agenda for Europe. In this group members of the European Parliament, cross-party and cross-nationality, work together in strengthening the digital agenda for Europe.[18]
In March 2011, the European Parliament adopted Schaake's report on the Cultural Dimensions of the EU's External Actions.[19] This was followed by the adoption of Schaake's report on a Digital Freedom Strategy in EU Foreign Policy in December 2012[20] and her report on Freedom of the Press and Media in the World in June 2013.[21] Furthermore, in April 2014 the European Parliament supported Schaake's amendments to enshrine net neutrality into European telecommunications legislation.
In 2017,Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and vice-president of the European Commission, appointed Schaake as chief observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission toKenya.[22] In 2017, she was also appointed to represent the European Parliament to the board of the Madad fund. This European Commission Trust Fund concentrates the financial support of different EU institutions, member states and other donors under one heading to more effectively distribute aid to those within Syria and its surrounding countries.
In 2017, Schaake was appointed to theGlobal Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace,[23] and served on the commission until its successful conclusion in 2019, participating in the drafting of its eight norms related tonon-aggression incyberspace.
In September 2018, Schaake announced that she would not seek a third term and would not participate in the2019 European elections. This decision followed her loss in theprimary election to become thelead candidate for D66, where she received 45% of the vote, compared to 55% forSophie in 't Veld, in the final round of voting.[24][25]
On 25 September 2020, Schaake was named as one of the 25 members of the"Real Facebook Oversight Board", an independent monitoring group overFacebook.[26] In 2022 she also joined the International Center for Future Generations, a Brussels-based think tank, as senior fellow for Tech Governance.[27]
Schaake was also a candidate to becomeUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres's first-ever Envoy on Technology in 2021; instead, the role went to Chilean diplomat Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond.[28][29] In 2023, Guterres appointed Schaake to his Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body on risks, opportunities and international governance of artificial intelligence, co-chaired byCarme Artigas andJames Manyika.[30]
Schaake has several unpaid additional positions, including the following:
Schaake is also a member of the board of advisors at the EU-funded research project 'Media, Conflict and Democratisation'. In September 2013, Schaake joined the steering committee of the "Transatlantic Dialogues on Security and Freedom in the Digital Age" project of theNew America Foundation. Earlier she was a commissioner at the Global Commission on Internet Governance and a member of the board of directors at the Flemish-Dutch House deBuren. All additional positions are unpaid.
 |
| Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party seats | Individual | |||||||
| 2014 | European Parliament | Democrats 66 | 3 | 41236 | 4 | Elected | [35] | |
| 2021 | House of Representatives | Democrats 66 | 77 | 363 | 24 | Lost | [36] | |
| Christian Democratic Appeal | |
|---|---|
| Democrats 66 | |
| Party for Freedom | |
| People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | |
| Labour Party | |
| Socialist Party | |
| Christian Union – Reformed Political Party | |
| GroenLinks | |
| Party for the Animals | |
† Hans Jansen died on 5 May 2015. He was replaced by Auke Zijlstra on 1 September 2015. | |
| Christian Democratic Appeal | |
|---|---|
| Party for Freedom | |
| Labour Party | |
| People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | |
| Democrats 66 | |
| GroenLinks | |
| Socialist Party | |
| Christian Union – Reformed Political Party | |
| Independent (members who left their parties) | |