State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations in The Netherlands
Ms Bijleveld-Schouten has been State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations since February 2007. From 1986 to 1989 she worked for the municipality of Hengelo in the Policy Planning Section. From 1986 to 1989 Ms Bijleveld-Schouten was a member of the municipal council of Enschede for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) and, from 1989 to 2001, member of the House of Representatives of the States General. From 2001 to 2007 she was mayor of Hof van Twente. As mayor Ms Bijleveld-Schouten held a number of public positions, including: deputy crown-appointed member of the Social and Economic Council; member of the supervisory board of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC); chair of the Dutch Probation Service and member of the Election Process Committee (Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations); the Safety Region executive committee and the Municipalities and Constitution Committee (both Association of Netherlands Municipalities, VNG).