Jules Maaten (born 17 April 1961 in Nieuwer-Amstel) is a Dutch politician and since August 2020 Head of International Regions at the Headquarters in Potsdam of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). Prior to that he was FNF Regional Director for sub-Sahara Africa, based in Johannesburg (2016-2020) and FNF country director in the Philippines (2010-2016), supporting projects for good governance, human rights, free trade and introduced the annual Africa Freedom Prize and in Manila the "It's All About Freedom"-project that includes an annual Freedom Run against corruption. Life From 1999 to 2009 he was a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie), Member of the Bureau of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. He was a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. He was also a member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Jules Maaten was elected as a member of the European Parliament in the European Elections of 10 June 1999, on the list of the Dutch Liberal Party VVD and he joined the Liberal Group in the Parliament. He sat on the Committee for the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Affairs and, from 2002, on the Foreign Affairs Committee. During the first part of the legislature he sat on Economic and Monetary Committee. He has done legislative work on such issues as the Tobacco Directive, the introduction of the euro currency, water quality, AIDS, completion of the EU's internal market in alcohol products, international banking fees, the European Central Bank, safety of children's toys, car exhaust emissions, food safety, and genetically modified organisms and human genetics, homeopathic and pharmaceutical products, Dutch prisoners in Thailand. Jules Maaten MEP was part of the parliamentary delegation maintaining relations with the ASEAN countries and Korea and of a number of parliamentary Inter-Groups including Population & Sustainable Development, and Animal Welfare. He has been active on EU foreign policy issues including human rights, shipments of nuclear material, East Timor, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, the International Criminal Court, death penalty and the war in Chechnya. In 1999 he was also elected board member of the European Liberal Democratic Party. Since the end of