Koen van Zon

Koen van Zon is historian and expert in the history of the EU.

Whose interests does the EU represent? With every new policy that is developed in Brussels, this question becomes relevant anew, as interest groups lobby EU institutions to get what they want. Some argue that the EU mostly represents the interests of big business and trade, but there are institutions and groups too that have the interests of citizens, the environment and underrepresented groups at heart. So how does the EU mediate between these different interests, and what does this say about the EU as a project?

As a historian, Koen studies these questions from a historical perspective, asking how different institutions and interests have shaped the EU into what we know today.