Belgian vs. Flemish diplomacy. Conflict or Cooperation?

To all those who expressed interest in the Re-Bel initiative:
 

We are pleased to invite you to our next Re-Bel event, to be held on Thursday 16 January 2025 from 5.30 to 7 pm concurrently at the University Foundation (11 rue d'Egmontstraat, 1000 Brussels) and online. The event will be bilingual Dutch-French.

The event will be devoted to the international representation of Belgium’s complex federal system. The relations between federal and regional representatives are sometimes characterized by loyal cooperation and mutual coordination, at other times by confrontation and conflict. Where do opportunities for synergies lie to enhance Belgium's international impact? Is institutional reform needed to ensure a strong, unified representation of Belgium on the global stage?

The panel consists of three speakers.

• Axel BUYSE was General Representative of the Government of Flanders at the Permanent Representation of Belgium at the EU.

• Johan VERBEKE was Belgian Ambassador in London and Washington and Permanent Representative at the UN. He teaches at VUB and ULB and is a senior researcher at the Egmont Institute.

• Sofia VANDENBOSCH is a postdoctoral researcher in Constitutional Law at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and affiliated researcher at UCLouvain.

The conversation will be moderated, as usual, by

• Béatrice DELVAUX (Le Soir)

• Karel VERHOEVEN (De Standaard).

To register for the event, please fill in the form you can find HERE. All those registered — including those who indicated a preference for in-person attendance — will be sent the Zoom link before the meeting. 

A video recording of many previous Re-Bel events can be watched online.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Best wishes,

Karel Reybrouck, Céline Romainville & Willem Sas

Coordinators of the Re-Bel initiative