Luuk van Middelaar is Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions at the Europa Institute of Leiden University.

More information about Luuk van Middelaar

Luuk van Middelaar (°1973) studied History and Philosophy at the Universities of Groningen and Paris-IV Sorbonne (1991-1999) and Political Theory at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1999-2000). In 1999 he published Politicide: de moord op de politiek in de Franse filosofie (Politicide: The Murder of Politics in French Philosophy) which was awarded the Prix de Paris.

He obtained his doctorate degree cum laude in 2009 at the University of Amsterdam on his work De passage naar Europa: geschiedenis van een begin (Historische Uitgeverij). This book appeared in English (The Passage to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union) (Yale University Press, 2013), French (éd. Gallimard 2012) and eight other languages. It was awarded many prizes including the Socratesprijs, the D.J. Veegensprijs from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Prix du Livre Européen and the Prix Louis Marin from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. In 2017, he published De nieuwe politiek van Europa (Historische Uitgeverij); French and English translation are in preparation. 

Van Middelaar was the speechwriter and advisor of the first permanent President of the European Council, H.A. Van Rompuy (2010-2014); he was Political Secretary for the VVD Party (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) in the Dutch Lower House under J.J. van Aartsen (2004-2006) and worked for the office of European Commissioner for the Internal Market F. Bolkestein (2002-2004).

Since 2015 Van Middelaar writes a column for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He also publishes in other newspapers including Die Zeit and Le Monde.

Ancillary Positions

• Columnist NRC Handelsblad

• Member of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) and Chair of its Committee on European Integration (CEI)

Teaching

• Master European Law: Privatissimum
• Master European Law: Institutional Law and General Principles
• Bachelor 1 and 2: lecture on recent developments in European Law

Area of research

• European constitutional law
• Political developments EU
• Democratic legitimacy EU

Publications