55 Facts About Hans Vijlbrief

Johannes Alexander "Hans" Vijlbrief was born on 17 August 1963 and is a Dutch civil servant, economist, and politician, currently serving as a member of parliament for the social-liberal party Democrats 66.

Hans Vijlbrief previously served as State Secretary for the Extractive Industries in the Fourth Rutte cabinet.

Hans Vijlbrief was appointed Treasurer-General of the Ministry of Finance in 2011, and occupied that post until he became president of the advisory body Eurogroup Working Group six and a half years later.

Hans Vijlbrief had been a member of that group while serving as Treasurer-General, assisting Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

Just after he had been re-elected at the working group, Hans Vijlbrief was appointed State Secretary for Finance together with Alexandra van Huffelen in January 2020.

Hans Vijlbrief succeeded Menno Snel, who had resigned as a result of the childcare benefits scandal, and became responsible for the Tax Administration and tax affairs.

Hans Vijlbrief was elected to the House of Representatives in 2021, but he left this position upon his appointment as State Secretary for the Extractive Industries as part of the new fourth Rutte cabinet in January 2022.

Hans Vijlbrief was again elected to the House in November 2023, and his term as state secretary ended in July 2024.

Hans Vijlbrief was born on 17 August 1963 in Voorschoten, a village in South Holland close to Leiden.

Hans Vijlbrief's father, Johan, was a sales manager at beverage company Riedel and would later found his own bottler.

Hans Vijlbrief attended the high school Visser 't Hooft Lyceum in Leiden, earning his atheneum diploma in 1981.

Hans Vijlbrief continued studying at the university, receiving his doctorate in economics in 1992.

Hans Vijlbrief's dissertation was titled Unemployment insurance and the Dutch labour market.

Minister Hans Vijlbrief Wijers appointed him as interim director of that division in 1997.

Hans Vijlbrief left the Ministry to work as deputy director at the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis in 1999.

Hans Vijlbrief has told that he later came to regret the move, calling the agency "too quiet" and lacking in pressure.

Hans Vijlbrief became an endowed professor in 2000 at the Vrije Universiteit, his alma mater, specialized in economic policy, and he simultaneously quit his job in Rotterdam.

Hans Vijlbrief returned to the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2001 in the position of director of General Economic Policy.

Hans Vijlbrief, who had been a member of D66 since 2008, became more politically involved, helping write the party's election program for the 2010 general election.

Hans Vijlbrief served as the Treasurer-General of the Ministry of Finance starting in July 2011, after he was appointed by the Council of Ministers.

Besides, Hans Vijlbrief was chairman of the Economic Policy Committee, a European advisory body, between 2012 and 2014.

Hans Vijlbrief managed the two campaigns to get Dijsselbloem elected Eurogroup president.

In March 2014, Hans Vijlbrief was chosen to chair the board of the European Financial Stability Facility, the eurozone's emergency fund to address government debt.

Hans Vijlbrief had been a member of the body's board since 2011 and was serving on its Risk Committee.

That same month, Hans Vijlbrief became a member of the board of the European economic think tank Bruegel.

Hans Vijlbrief left the ministry, the EFSF, and Bruegel in 2018 to become the President of the Eurogroup Working Group starting on 1 February, succeeding Thomas Wieser.

Hans Vijlbrief simultaneously became president of the Economic and Financial Committee.

Hans Vijlbrief started working as endowed professor at the University of Amsterdam specialized in European economic and financial policy in September 2018.

When his two-year term as president was about to end, Hans Vijlbrief was reappointed for another term in December 2019.

Hans Vijlbrief became responsible for tax affairs; Tax Administration ; financial relations between the national government and decentralized governments; export credit insurance and facilities; Holland Casino and the Dutch Lottery; currency; and Domains Movable Property.

Hans Vijlbrief is in charge of working out plans for aviation and carbon taxes.

Shortly before his term started, Hans Vijlbrief declared that he was planning "to make the Tax Administration boring again".

One week after his appointment as State Secretary, Hans Vijlbrief announced that the organization would start working with construction and health care trade associations in order to tackle pseudo self-employment.

Hans Vijlbrief said that the organization would work with trade associations in other sectors later on.

Hans Vijlbrief sent a letter to the House of Representatives disclosing the blacklist two days after it had been revealed.

Hans Vijlbrief told the House that officials at the Tax Administration had unjustly blacked out a paragraph about the blacklist in a document that the organization had been forced to disclose earlier in order to cover up the story.

Hans Vijlbrief's predecessor had repeatedly denied the existence of such a list.

Hans Vijlbrief called the list an unpleasant surprise and called the problems of the Tax Administration "enormous".

Hans Vijlbrief subsequently told that he was looking into compensating victims.

Hans Vijlbrief ran for member of parliament in the March 2021 general election, appearing as the twelfth candidate on D66's party list.

Hans Vijlbrief vacated his seat when he became state secretary in January 2022.

Hans Vijlbrief became State Secretary for the Extractive Industries on 10 January 2022, when the fourth Rutte cabinet was sworn in by the king.

Hans Vijlbrief was part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, and he was mainly concerned with damage and problems in the province of Groningen caused by earthquakes induced by natural gas extraction from the Groningen field.

Hans Vijlbrief decided to work from Groningen a few days a month to connect with its citizens.

Hans Vijlbrief clarified that the Groningen gas field would not be used to compensate except for in the most extreme of conditions.

Hans Vijlbrief cited a report by the National Mines Inspectorate, which stated that it would be dangerous for Groningen inhabitants due to the threat of earthquakes, but ignored another report by the Mijnraad, which stated that not preparing for additional extraction could threaten a reliable supply of gas.

Hans Vijlbrief reaffirmed that gas extraction would be lowered to the amount necessary to maintain the possibility of scaling up in October 2022 and that extraction would be halted entirely in 2023 or 2024.

Hans Vijlbrief declared that "the people of Groningen had been right all along".

Hans Vijlbrief had been questioned by the committee for his roles starting as Director-General for Energy, Telecommunications, and Markets.

Hans Vijlbrief introduced a bill to make the wells unusable, and he threatened to resign when the Senate voted to postpone its treatment.

The collapse of the fourth Rutte cabinet triggered a November 2023 general election, and Hans Vijlbrief was appointed chair of the committee tasked with writing D66's program.

Hans Vijlbrief decided to run for the House of Representatives despite having before mentioned he would retire.

Hans Vijlbrief was elected as D66's third candidate, while the party won nine seats in total.

Hans Vijlbrief met his wife, Manouche Hetzler, while he was studying at the Vrije Universiteit.

Hans Vijlbrief currently resides in the South Holland village of Woubrugge, and he is a supporter of football club Feyenoord.