Erik van der Kooij, director Feeling EUROPE Foundation (*), is living and educated in the Netherlands and worked for decades in several professions and business at financial institutions, mainly in the sector control.
Changing moral values, norms and capacities round about the millenium, brought Erik in 2004 into touch with the Dutch government’s notion to bring this challenge to the notice of the public through the international conference ‘Europe, a Beautiful Idea?’, organized by the NEXUS Institute. Erik was also abled to participate the follow-up conference ‘The Sound of Europe’, organized in 2006 by the Austrian government. These experiences triggered to share European values and affairs through Feeling EUROPE Foundation and this website, all with the intent to foster and guide the values and affairs as to do prosperity and well-being good. 'Feeling EUROPE' acts as an independent observer, fosters and guides European values and affairs, takes position as nexus between citizens, institutions, Europe, her identity and everything that is related in wider sense, mainly concerning cultural, philosophical and political fields. But also economical and technical fields are at stake. Furthermore, the desk delivers resonance, provides presentations and does research work.
If Europe wants to be a global player, it has to satisfy values that can serve widely, to have the disposal of a strong economy, a solid foreign policy and of a proper policy for security, equipped with instruments to prevent conflicts, and is a further integration of Europe needed to keep and to increase our prosperity and well-being. Therefore, Erik is not only interested in development of citizen’s involvement in the process of European integration and processes within EU institutions, but also focussed on how EU-institutions operate in order to be able to act collective and to perform strong and smart policies for the benefit of the citizens. |
(*) from April 2011 till 2018 associate member Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Leiden University / Faculty Governance and Global Affairs (program European Politics ended).
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Required knowledge was obtained through formal and informal settings, autodidactism, and instruction and guidance from experts and community, as well as the opportunity to participate (summit) events. Training on EU organization, decision-making and governance, international politics, geopolitics, music history, history of art (colloquium) and getting acquainted with philosophy was taken in conventional manners. In order to keep up to date and to increase knowledge, several centres are engaged: in relation to art, culture and philosophy with Nexus Institute, concerning European policies with CEPS (Center for
European Policy Studies), EBN (European Movement Netherlands) and NGIZ (Dutch Society for International
Affairs), due to economics with Global Blockchain Business Council, KVS (Royal Society for Political Economy) and SMO (Society and Enterprise Foundation), Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism and Council for Inclusive Capitalism. On innovation Odyssey |
