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Contemporary History and Institutions of the Mediterranean Series and Patrick McCarthy Memorial Series on Intellectuals and Politics supported by the Patrick McCarthy Fund



hosted by Professor Mark Gilbert


Luuk van Middelaar is Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, at the Europa Institute of Leiden University.

Van Middelaar studied History and Philosophy at the Universities of Groningen and Paris-IV Sorbonne (1991-1999) and Political Theory at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1999-2000).

In 1999 he published Politicide: de moord op de politiek in de Franse filosofie (Politicide: The Murder of Politics in French Philosophy) which was awarded the Prix de Paris. Van Middelaar's international breakthrough came with The Passage to Europe (2009) which was translated into ten languages. The book was awarded among others the Socrates Prize 2010 for the best Dutch philosophy book, the European Book Prize 2012 and the Prix Louis Marin of the French Academie des Sciences morales et politiques. He just published De nieuwe politiek van Europa, a groundbreaking account of the Union's new politics.

He obtained his doctorate degree cum laude in 2009 at the University of Amsterdam with his work De passage naar Europa: geschiedenis van een begin (Historische Uitgeverij). The book was published in English (The Passage to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union, Yale University Press, 2013), in French (éd. Gallimard 2012) and in five other languages. It was awarded many prizes, including the Socratesprijs, the D.J. Veegensprijs from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Prix du Livre Européen and the Prix Louis Marin from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

Van Middelaar was the speechwriter and advisor to the first permanent President of the European Council, H.A. Van Rompuy (2010-2014). He was Political Secretary for the VVD Party (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) in the Dutch Lower House under J.J. van Aartsen (2004-2006) and worked for the office of the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frits Bolkestein (2002-2004).

Van Middelaar has been writing a column for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad since 2015. He also publishes in other newspapers including Die Zeit and Le Monde.