Camiel Eurlings


Camiel Martinus Petrus Stephanus Eurlings is a Dutch politician and businessman. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal, he served as Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management from 2007 to 2010.
A corporate director by occupation, Eurlings was elected as a member of the House of Representatives at the general election of 1998, serving from 19 May 1998 until 20 July 2004, when he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the European Parliament election of 2004, serving from 20 July 2004 until 22 February 2007. After the general election of 2006, Eurlings was asked to become Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management in the Fourth Balkenende cabinet, serving from 22 February 2007 until 14 October 2010.
Eurlings retired from active politics at the age of 37 and became a corporate director and later President and CEO of KLM, serving from 1 July 2013 until 16 October 2014.

Biography

Eurlings is the eldest son of Martin Eurlings, a former member of the provincial-executive of Limburg, who has been the Mayor of Valkenburg aan de Geul since 2007. After grammar school in Maastricht, Eurlings began to study Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven in 1991. He was also politically active in his hometown, and on 12 April 1994, at age 20, was elected councillor of his hometown. This made him the youngest councillor at that time.

Politics

Eurlings was a former Member of the European Parliament, and sat on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He also chaired the delegation to the European Union–Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, and was a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights, the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and the delegation for relations with Israel. From March 2006 to March 2007 he served as Vice President of the European People's Party. From 2007 to 2010 he was Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management in the Fourth Balkenende cabinet.

Business career

Eurlings became a corporate director for KLM, leading the freight department. On 1 July 2013 he succeeded Peter Hartman as the President and CEO of the KLM. In 2014, fellow Dutch executives elected Eurlings as 'Best Manager 2014', followed by Frans van Houten and Dick Boer.
On 15 October 2014 he announced that he would be leaving KLM. Initially KLM announced that his departure had been mutual decision, yet subsequently a KLM spokesperson stated that Eurlings had been unilaterally dismissed by the Supervisory Board.
In June 2015 Eurlings announced on his LinkedIn page that he had been working as a non-executive director of the board of directors of American Express Global Business Travel since January 2015. He resigned from this position in January 2017.

Sports

Eurlings became an IOC Member at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September 2013. In January 2018 he resigned after a public outcry related to the disclosure of the assault of his former girlfriend and statements that he then made which were interpreted as trivialising domestic assault.

Assault

Eurlings was prosecuted for assaulting his former girlfriend Tessa Rolink. According to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, Rolink sustained injuries including concussion and a broken elbow. The case was not brought before the court because a settlement was reached between Eurlings and the Dutch public prosecution service, but details of the settlement have not been officially released. The transaction formally constituted an act of prosecution and hence Eurlings now has a criminal record.

Decorations