Neelie Kroes
Dutch politician (born 1941)
Neelie Kroes (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈneːli ˈkrus]; born 19 July 1941) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessperson who served as European Commissioner from 22 November 2004 to 1 November 2014.
Kroes studied Economics at the Rotterdam School of Economics obtaining a Master of Economics degree. Kroes worked as a researcher at her alma mater from September 1963 to April 1968, and as a corporate director for a transport company in Delft from April 1968 until August 1971, and for the chamber of commerce of Rotterdam from July 1969 until August 1971. Kroes became a Member of the House of Representatives shortly after the election of 1971 on 3 August 1971, and served as a frontbencher and spokesperson for Transport and Education. After the election of 1977 Kroes was appointed as State Secretary for Transport and Water Management in the Cabinet Van Agt–Wiegel taking office on 28 December 1977. After the election of 1981 Kroes returned to the House of Representatives on 25 August 1981, and again served as a frontbencher and spokesperson for Transport. After the election of 1982 Kroes was appointed as Minister of Transport and Water Management in the Cabinet Lubbers I taking office on 4 November 1982. After the election of 1986 Kroes continued her office in the Cabinet Lubbers II. In June 1989, Kroes announced that she wouldn't stand for the election of 1989.
Kroes semi-retired from active politics and became active in the private and public sectors as a corporate and non-profit director and served on several state commissions and councils on behalf of the government, and served as Rector Magnificus of the Nyenrode Business University from June 1991 until January 2000. In October 2004, Kroes was nominated as the next European Commissioner in the First Barroso Commission, and was given the heavy portfolio of Competition taking office on 22 November 2004.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Neelie Kroes” is dutch politician (born 1941). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Neelie, Kroes and Dutch, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “dutch politician (born 1941)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q234485. VIAF identifies the subject as 200733636. The Library of Congress control number is nb2012020955. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2004, 2014 and 1963.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Neelie Kroes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.