22 Facts About Bart Groothuis

Bart Groothuis was born on 1 January 1981 and is a Dutch politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2020.

Bart Groothuis is a member of the Dutch conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, which are both part of the European political group Renew Europe.

Bart Groothuis worked for politician Henk Kamp and as a cybersecurity expert at the Ministry of Defence before receiving a seat in the European Parliament as a result of Brexit in February 2020.

Bart Groothuis studied economics and history at Radboud University Nijmegen, graduating in 2006, and international relations at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in 2006.

Bart Groothuis joined the Afghanistan team of the Ministry of Defence thereafter.

Bart Groothuis's party won four seats, and Groothuis himself received 21,353 preference votes, enough to meet the preference threshold.

However, Liesje Schreinemacher, who was fifth on the party list, rose one spot, because she had more votes, resulting in Bart Groothuis not being elected.

When news publications including The New York Times reported in April 2020 that conclusions about Chinese disinformation had been toned down in a European report under Chinese pressure, Bart Groothuis wrote a letter to Josep Borrell asking for an explanation.

Bart Groothuis's letter was signed by a number of other MEPs.

Bart Groothuis was appointed the parliament's cybersecurity rapporteur to work on a revised NIS Directive, a set of cybersecurity regulations, called NIS2.

Bart Groothuis told that they can be reluctant to share threats because of the General Data Protection Regulation.

In March 2022, Bart Groothuis was one of the lead authors, along with Bill Woodcock, Eva Kaili, Steve Crocker, Marina Kaljurand, Jeff Moss, Runa Sandvik, John Levine, Moez Chakchouk and some forty other members of the Internet governance and cybersecurity community, of an open letter entitled Multistakeholder Imposition of Internet Sanctions.

In early 2023, Bart Groothuis was among a number of people and organizations that were sanctioned by the Iranian government for supporting and encouraging terrorism.

Bart Groothuis had advocated designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

Bart Groothuis was re-elected in June 2024 as the VVD's second candidate, when the party secured four seats.

Bart Groothuis's focus has since been on technology, cyber, defense, economic resilience, Iran, and the ASEAN countries.

Bart Groothuis has voiced the opinion that European legislation surrounding digitization is lagging behind the innovations and that the European tech sector has fallen behind those of other parts of the world.

Bart Groothuis opposes becoming technologically dependent on countries like China in a time when power is determined increasingly by technology.

Bart Groothuis has called for European investments to reverse course.

Bart Groothuis has been living in the South Holland town Voorburg since the late 2000s.

Bart Groothuis has a wife, who he met in 2004, and two daughters.

Bart Groothuis is a member of a local chapter of Lions Club.