Diederik Samsom

Diederik Samsom     (politician)
Born	Diederik Maarten Samsom 10 July 1971 Groningen, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	Delft University of Technology
Children	2
Spouse	Tineke Samsom
Party	Labour Party (Netherlands)
Dutch euro-politician and Bilderberger. As senior EU bureaucrat, forced through €1 trillion+ "green" buildings directive making home ownership unaffordable.  Head of Cabinet In office November 2019 - February 2024 Employer Vice-President of the European Commission Appointed by Frans Timmermans Bilderberger  Leader of the Labour Party (Netherlands) In office 20 March 2012 - 10 December 2016 Attended Bilderberg/2014  Netherlands/Member of the House of Representatives In office 30 January 2003 - 14 December 2016 Preceded by Annemarie Jorritsma

Diederik Maarten Samsom is a Dutch politician who went on to become a senior EU bureaucrat.

Already in May 2020, Samsom saw the Covid state of emergency as an opportunity to "accelerate efforts towards climate neutrality". As Head of Cabinet for Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, he was one of the main drivers for getting a through a €1 trillion+ "green" buildings directive, making home ownership unaffordable by forcing through expensive renovations.

He attended the 2014 Bilderberg meeting.

Activities

Open borders

During the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union in early 2016, Diederik Samsom is credited with masterminding a key provision in the deal between the EU and Turkey. The deal aimed to mitigate the mounting humanitarian crisis in the refugee camps on the Greek islands. Under the provision, for every Syrian refugee being returned to Turkey from the Greek islands, another Syrian would be resettled from Turkey to the EU.

Covid as opportunity - EU building directive

Already in May 2020, Samsom saw the Covid state of emergency as an opportunity to "accelerate efforts towards climate neutrality".

According to a person familiar with discussions inside the European Commission, Samsom, the Dutch environmentalist and former politician who runs Timmermans’ cabinet, told colleagues: "What we need to deliver on now is real things. The words, the rhetoric, the narrative, that's fine. We need to recover green. Yes, yes, yes. But what are we actually going to do?" Commission staff looked at the huge set of Green Deal measures they had been nowhere near ready to start rolling out and picked a few winners.

A plan that leaked just weeks before the European Commission published its proposal in May 2020 for a revised €1.8 trillion 2021-2027 budget-and-recovery program, envisaged money for electric charging points, renewable schemes and green railway projects. A Commission strategy to speed up renovations of inefficient buildings across the EU — dubbed the Renovation Wave — was "immediately pulled forward" and "blew up to incredible proportions." The plan involves renovating 200 million buildings in the EU

His plan met strong opposition, as it would involve a cost of 15,000 to 100,000 euros for the worst-performing homes. In Italy, this would be 60% of homes. The file is "crazy and beyond the reach of most" EU countries, said one of the diplomats, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. The proposal from the Parliament is detached from reality," they added.

The building renovation plan was approved in 2024, and is meant to be implemented by 2030. Targets have been set to renovate the 16% worst-performing buildings by 2030, and the 26% worst-performing buildings by 2033. The Directive provisions to progressively phase-out fossil fuels from heating in buildings and boost the deployment of solar power installations.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2014	29 May 2014	1 June 2014	Denmark Copenhagen Marriott Hotel	The 62nd Bilderberg, with 136 guests, held in Copenhagen

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