Frits Bolkestein

Frederik Bolkestein (born 1933; usually known as Frits Bolkestein) is a Dutch politician and EU Commissioner.

He was the leader of the market liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. In the European Commission, Bolkestein is responsible for Internal Market, Taxation and Customs Union issues. Some of the more politically sensitive items in his portfolio are the Community patent regulation and the Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions. Former Irish finance minister Charlie McCreevy will succeed to him at this post .

Biography

He studied philosophy in Leiden and economics in Utrecht. Before entering politics in the 1990s, Bolkstein was a manager at the oil company Royal Dutch-Shell, taking him to various overseas postings.

Bolkestein wrote a play in English, under the pseudonym of Niels Kobet: Floris, Count of Holland.

Quotes

"In a radical democracy in which everybody should be able to co-decide, not everyone meets the [criteria of] competence, preparedness to serve the common interest and economic independence. That's why this form should be rejected. Every four years, the citizen can give his judgement on government policy in all openness, and in this manner have influence. For this, it is necessary however that the citizen is well informed. That is a task of the government." Frits Bolkestein (lecture at the University of Amsterdam, 11 March 1997)

"If we fail in our efforts to achieve harmonisation of patent law relating to computer-implemented inventions in the European Union, we may well be confronted with a renegotiation of the European Patent Convention. The process of renegotiating the European Patent Convention would not require any contribution from this Parliament." (Frits Bolkestein speech to the European Parliament 23 September 2003)