Jan Marinus Wiersma

Jan Marinus Wiersma is Senior Research Associate at the Clingendael Institute. For fifteen years he served as Member of the European Parliament and its Committee for Foreign Affairs. He was rapporteur for the accession of Slovakia to the EU and chairman of the EP delegation for relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. His work focuses on enlargement issues, EU neighbourhood policy, economic and social policies of the EU and institutional issues. He is an authority on democracy promotion and minority policies.  He is currently monitoring  the EU enlargement process,  assessing the state of play in the Western Balkans, following events in the EU neighbourhood and is working on issues related to the democratic legitimacy of the EU.

In addition to his work at Clingendael, he is senior political advisor of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Chairman of the Advisory Council of Mitrovica International Business School, Vice President of the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity, Research Fellow at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation and chairman of the Central and Eastern Europe Book Project (CEEBP). He graduated from the University of Groningen (NL) with an MA in History.

He has (co-) authored and (co-edited) several books dealing with issues such as the future borders of the EU, the Muslim neighbours of the EU, Roma integration, history and politics,  EU–US relations and nuclear non-proliferation.

Expertise:  EU institutions, EU enlargement, EU neighbourhood policies.