Jean Hilgers, Director of the National Bank of Belgium and President of the Belgian Financial Forum has the honour of inviting you to the conference of Veerle Nuyts and Xavier Vanden Bosch, European Semester Officers from the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium.

About the theme:
Since last December, there is a new European Commission. This time, in addition to new Commissioners, and a new political cycle, it is different. With the European Green Deal, the von der Leyen Commission’s vision is for Europe to become the first carbon-neutral continent in 2050. The Green Deal also introduces a new economic narrative: putting people and the planet first. The progress of this green transition, which goes hand in hand with the digital transition, at the level of individual Member State economies is being monitored in the annual economic, budgetary and social policies surveillance framework, the European Semester.
During this event, Veerle Nuyts and Xavier Vanden Bosch, European Semester Officers for Belgium whose task it is to build bridges between the European Commission and Belgian stakeholders, will be engaging with the audience on what challenges the European Commission has identified for Belgium under this new systemically different economic growth model. Belgium’s progress in terms of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and more generally, the trade-offs and synergies between different policy areas to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth in Belgium according to the European Commission will also be explained.

About the speakers:
Veerle Nuyts works for the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium as European Semester Officer. Previously, she was a State aid case handler at DG Competition. She also served as a Référendaire at the European Court of First Instance. Prior to joining the European Commission, Veerle obtained a broad corporate experience, heading the strategy and regulation department at bpost, the Belgian postal incumbent operator. She gained insights in a wide range of industry sectors while working in private practice for law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Brussels and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York. Veerle holds a Master of Laws from the Catholic University of Leuven (with Erasmus at the University of Zurich) and a Master of Laws from the University of Chicago, where she was a Belgian American Educational Foundation Fellow.

Xavier Vanden Bosch has worked for the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium as European Semester Officer since 2018. He previously worked in the Chief Economist team in DG Research and Innovation. Prior to joining the European Commission, he was Research Fellow in the European Affairs programme at Egmont – the Royal Institute for International Relations, where his work focused on the evolution of the Economic and Monetary Union and on the economic policies of the European Union. In his early professional life, Xavier notably worked as consultant for Accenture on projects for several major firms in Belgium. Xavier holds a Master in Business Engineering from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and a Master in European Economic studies from the College of Europe in Bruges.

Practical information:

Date: Friday 20 March 2020, welcome from 11.15 a.m.
Venue: Auditorium of the National Bank of Belgium
Warmoesberg 61 – rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères 61
1000 Brussels
Language: Presentation in English. There will be no simultaneous translation.
Free of charge.
Sandwich lunch will be offered after the conference.

Please note that the parking facilities at the National Bank are no longer available.