
Caroline de Gruyter is a journalist and lecturer based in Oslo. She is a European Affairs correspondent for the leading Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad and a regular contributor to Carnegie Europe and Foreign Policy. She was posted to Brussels twice and spent more than twenty years covering Europe.
articles
In Dutch
- Brexit: crash or compromise, essay NRC Handelsblad, 14.11.2020
- 'Noord tegen Zuid' gaat in de EU niet meer op, essay NRC Handelsblad, 3.4.2020
- Onze nieuwe vrienden, de Fransen, NRC Handelsblad, 29.11.2019
- Voortaan dan maar loten in plaats van stemmen? NRC Handelsblad, 20.9.2019
- Waarom kleine landen steun moeten zoeken, interview Baldur Thorhallsson, NRC Handelsblad, 19.6.2019
- ´De EU is een machtsfactor geworden´, interview Alexander Clarkson, NRC Handelsblad, 1.5.2019
- Misschien is het maar beter dat de Britten gaan, NRC Handelsblad, 8.3.2019
- 'Verbazend hoe snel sommigen hun geloof in de democratie verliezen', interview Frédéric Worms, NRC Handelsblad, 4.1.2019
- Waarom Brexit tot meer cohesie leidt, essay NRC Handelsblad, 26.12.2018
- 'Heel Europa wil zakendoen met Nederland', interview Josef Janning, NRC Handelsblad, 12.3.2018
- De privatisering van alles, column NRC Handelsblad, 2.3.2018
- 'We willen nieuwe energie in Europa brengen', paneuropean party Volt, NRC Handelsblad, 20.2.2018
- 'Populisten denken dat alleen zij het volk zijn', interview Jan-Werner Muller, NRC Handelsblad, 11.11.2016
- Zo versloeg Flavia de Zwitserse populisten, interview Flavia Kleiner, NRC Handelsblad, 14.6.2016
- Wat is er mis met Europa, en wat doen we eraan? essay NRC Handelsblad, 13.2.2016
- In welke uithoek begint de implosie? column NRC Handelsblad, 23.1.2016
- Hoe het linkse verhaal verdwenen is, essay NRC Next, 11.5.2015
- Rechts of links? Dat is allang passé, interview Slawomir Sierakowski, NRC Handelsblad, 6.5.2015
- Over God of je identiteit hoef je geen compromis te sluiten, interview Ivan Krastev, NRC Handelsblad, 5.4.2014
In other languages
- l'Europe s'est dotée de frontières, Le Grand Continent, 2.1.2021
- Europe Doesn't Want Lockdowns. It Wants Government, Foreign Policy, 6.11.2020
- The Dutch Don't Love Europe - and Never Did, Foreign Policy, 16.9.2020
- European values are non-negotiable, EUobserver, 22.7.2020
- Habsburg lessons for Europe's foreign policy, EUobserver, 9.10.2019
- Bewitched by Brexit: Referendums and Modern Democracy, ECFR, 3.9.2019
- De grâce, qu’on enterre cette idée de conférence défendue par M. Macron! Le Monde, 15.7.2019
- Europeans used to ignore their Parliament. Not any longer, The Guardian, 29.5.2019
- Vice Prime Minister, only for Europe, Friends of Europe Vison report 2019, 7.5.2019
- Perhaps they'd better go, NRC Handelsblad, 14.3.2019
- The omnipotent dollar: US sanctions and the euro problem, ECFR, 22.5.2018
- There is Life for the EU after Brexit, Carnegie Europe, 23.3.2018
- The Rise of Europe's Antipopulists, Carnegie Europe, 25.4.2017
- Six columns 'In Europe', NRC Handelsblad, through 2016
- Habsburg Lessons for an Embattled EU, Carnegie Europe, 23.9.2016
- Stopping Migration is Impossible; Managing it is Smarter, ECFR, 9.9.2016
- Integrate Refugees with Help, not Pity, Carnegie Europe, 16.3.2016
- Luxembourg, Europe's Bellwether, Carnegie Europe, 26.1.2016
- The Switzerland Fantasy, Carnegie Europe, 18.6.2015
- Farewell to a Gray Mouse, Carnegie Europe, 28.11.2014
- Austrian Acrobatics in Europe, Carnegie Europe, 5.11.2014
- The Dutch are Trapped in Europe, Carnegie Europe, 25.4.2013
- Wo Globalisierung und Dorftradition sich treffen, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27.4.2013
books

Beter wordt het niet; een reis door de Europese Unie en het Habsburgse Rijk
Uitgeverij De Geus, maart 2021
Europeans often complain that the EU is divided, slow and weak. Believe it or not, the Habsburg Empire was the same. Playing for time, avoiding conflict, working on never-ending reforms and finding ugly compromises were key characteristics of Habsburg governance. By kicking the can down the road – fortwursteln – successive emperors managed to keep many nations, language groups and cultures safe and sound under one roof for about six hundred years. What are the Habsburg lessons for today’s Europe? Could Europe’s weaknesses actually be its strength? And should we finally accept the EU as it is: a benign empire of sorts, in permanent change, unfinished per definition?
Book and e-book available here

Het vervloekte paradijs; waarom politici Europa eindelijk eens serieus moeten nemen
Uitgeverij Athenaeum, november 2016
Prize-winning journalist Caroline de Gruyter is one of the few Dutch journalists writing a weekly column about European affairs, in NRC Handelsblad. Sharp, timeless and unsentimental, they are always full of inside information – sometimes from the Brussels ‘bubble’, often from other corners of Europe. Here is a selection of her best columns from 2014-2016, on globalization, democracy, Brexit and the continuing importance of Franco-German cooperation. “In the 1950s we decided to stop shooting with live ammunition, and start shooting with words instead. It’s never perfect, it’s often messy – but it works.”
Book and e-book available here

Zwitserlevens; de nieuwe politieke realiteit in Europa
Uitgeverij Athenaeum, may 2015
A detailed, personal account of the clash between globalisation and democracy in a tiny Swiss village between 2004 and 2008. Why was the turnout for elections so low? What made those who still bothered to vote, embrace the extreme right in such numbers? And what does this tell us about similar things happening nowadays in many countries of the European Union?
E-book available here

De Europeanen; leven en werken in de hoofdstad van Europa
Uitgeverij De Bezige Bij, 2006
Containing 28 interviews with Europeans living in Brussels - lobbyists, European officials, children at the European school, etc – the book draws a multi-layered portrait of life in the proverbial ‘euro bubble’. It can be read as an accessible, personal introduction to Europe, but it also explores the complex dilemma of European identity.

Het koffiehuis van Mohammed Skaik en andere taferelen uit speelgoedstaatje Gaza
Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1997
This book, which has only been published in Dutch, describes the first years of Palestinian autonomy in the Gaza Strip (1994-1997). Using concrete, moving and sometimes even hilarious concrete examples from daily life, it shows how the Gazans obtained the symbols of statehood – an airport, a flag, passports even – but not the content of sovereignty.
talks
Speeches
- Europa, begrijp eens: soft power is echte macht, Witteveenlezing, Tilburg University, 14.11.2019
- ´Nooit meer oorlog´ is relevanter dan ooit, 4 May Lecture, Utrecht University, 4.5.2019
- How the EU will rebalance its powers after Brexit, Kreisky Forum, Vienna, 19.3.2019
- De Grote Europashow in Paradiso, De Kiesmannen, Amsterdam, 11.2.2019
- Cross-border cooperation in Europe, ITEM Institute, Brussels, 16.11.2018
- Small EU countries after Brexit, Irish Ministery of Foreign Affairs, Dublin, 18.10.2018
- The EU after Brexit, Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, Oslo, 19.4.2018
- European security and tectonic plates moving, Helsinki Comité Nederland, The Hague, 14.3.2018
- Polarization and pacification in Europe, 15th Europe Lecture - Montesquieu Institute, The Hague, 15.9.2017
- How Europe got its future back, keynote European Studies, Maastricht University, 10.6.2017
- Get off the couch, and re-start the European engine, 7th Bronislaw Geremek Lecture, Utrecht, 14.2.2017
- Ben je voor of tegen Europa? Wat een absurde vraag, speech Prix du Mérite Européen, The Hague, 2.6.2016
- Deep throat zit niet op Twitter, acceptance speech Anne Vondeling Prize, The Hague, 26.6.2013
Seminars/Debates
- Fireside chat on Brexit, Clingendael Institute The Hague, 9.12.2020
- The Netherlands-Denmark, frugal friends in the EU? Thinktank Europa, Copenhagen, 28.10.2020
- De EU als het Habsburgse Rijk van onze tijd, podcast Betrouwbare Bronnen, 12.12.2019
- Bewitched by Brexit; referendums and modern democracy, ECFR, Paris, 1.10.2019
- Norden annual diplomatic seminar, Nordic Association Sweden, Biskops Arno, 14.6.2019
- Ireland and the EU, panel discussion European Movement Ireland, Dublin, 2 May 2019
- Why History Matters, Habsburg Lessons for the EU, Diplomatic Academy Vienna, 13.11.2018
- China at the Gates, Public Debate ECFR, Warsaw, 25.1.2018
- State of Europe 2017, Annual Roundtable Friends of Europe, Brussels, 12.10.2017
- Brexit, Britain and the World, St Antony's College, Oxford, 16.5.2017
- Migrants vs Natives and the Death of Europe's Liberal, Secular Consensus, Carnegie Europe, Bonn, 14.6.2016
- On the Future of Europe, European Parliament, Brussels, 6.4.2016
- Je Suis Européen!, Nexus Institute, Amsterdam, 6.6.2015
biography

Caroline de Gruyter is an author and Europe correspondent for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. Her voice and expertise about Europe are well-known in The Netherlands. She is based in Oslo.
Between 2008 and 2013 she covered the euro crisis and European politics from Brussels. In 2013 she was awarded the prestigious Anne Vondeling Prize for her political reporting. The jury called her ,,exceptionally well-informed’’. In 2015 she received the Heldring Prize for best Dutch columnist. The jury found her weekly columns of ,,exceptional quality''. In 2016 she was awarded the Prix du Mérite Européen, and in 2017 the 'EuroNederlander' award.
Caroline has previously lived in the Gaza strip, Jerusalem, Brussels (twice), Geneva and Vienna. She is a regular contributor to Carnegie Europe, a columnist for the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She has written four books - all dealing, in one way or another, with globalization, democracy and the political quicksands of sovereignty. Book number five will have something to do with the EU and the Habsburg Empire.
biography in English (short)
biography in Dutch (short)
biography in Dutch (long)