René Cuperus
director for international relations and senior research fellow, Wiardi Beckman Foundation; former policy advisor; co-founder, Forum Scholars for European Social Democracy

René Cuperus is director for international relations and senior research fellow at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a think tank of the Dutch Labour Party PvdA. Before that, he was policy advisor to two successive party leaders. He is co-founder of the Forum Scholars for European Social Democracy, a European network of centre-left think tanks. He is a member of the British think tank Policy Network and advisor to the Karl Renner Institute in Vienna. He is also a member of the Research Group of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).

René is known for being very critical of the European Union, more specifically of its democratic deficit. He resists the idea of an ‘ever closer union’ and advocates a ‘reset’ of the European project. Cuperus has published a number of books, including in 2009 De wereldburger bestaat niet (‘The myth of world citizenship’), an analysis of the causes and backgrounds of the pan-European revolt of populism; De Politiek van de Euro: biografie van een kwetsbare munt (‘The Politics of the Euro: biography of a vulnerable currency’, 2012) and Het humeur van Nederland (‘The Dutch mood’, 2013).

Cuperus writes a blog for the LSE-linked Social Europe Journal (www.social-europe.eu) and a political column for the Dutch daily de Volkskrant (comparable to The Guardian). He is also a correspondent for the Netherlands for the digital magazine The State of the Left, published by The International Policy Network. He teaches European and international politics at the Universities of Leiden, Tilburg and Nijmegen.

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