Patricia Ceysens (born 5 June 1965) is a Belgian politician from Flanders and member of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) party, being the vice-chairman of the party. She served in the Flemish Government of 2004-2009 as Minister of Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation and Foreign Trade. She is currently a representative in the Flemish Parliament.
She graduated in law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1988 and also obtained a degree in Marketing Management from the CMO (now SYNTRA[nl]) in 1991. From 1989 until 1990, she was an academic assistant at the law school of the university.
Patricia Ceysens started he professional career as a lawyer at the bar in Leuven from 1988 until 1999. From 1990 onwards, she practiced law in Brussels at the office Loeff, Claeys, Verbeke (now Allen & Overy Belgium), specializing in intellectual property rights.
Political career
Since 1995 Ceysens is a member of the city council of Leuven. She briefly served as a member of the provincial council of Flemish Brabant in 1995 until she was elected to the Flemish Parliament in 1995. Re-elected in 1999 and 2004, after a cabinet reshuffle, Ceysens became part of the Flemish Government and served as Flemish minister of Economy, Foreign Trade and E-government from June 2003 to July 2004. After the regional elections of 2004, Ceysens became leader of her parliamentary group in the Flemish parliament.
Upon the resignation of Fientje Moerman on 10 October 2007 in the wake of a public procurement scandal, Ceysens again became part of the Flemish Government, taking over the competences of Moerman.
The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats is a Flemish conservative-liberal political party in Belgium.
Christian Democratic and Flemish is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism (ACV) and trade associations (UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party was named the Christian People's Party.
Marc Maria Frans, viscount Eyskens, known as Mark Eyskens, is a Belgian economist, professor and politician in the Christian People's Party, now called Christian Democratic and Flemish, and briefly served as the prime minister of Belgium in 1981.
The Flemish Parliament constitutes the legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and as a cultural community of Belgium.
Frank Ignace Georgette Vandenbroucke is a Belgian-Flemish academic and politician of Vooruit who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 2020.
Marianne Leonie Petrus Thyssen is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V) who served as European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility between 2014 and 2019.
The Flemish Government is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region of Belgium. It consists of a government cabinet, headed by the Minister-President and accountable to the Flemish Parliament, and the public administration divided into 13 policy areas, each with an executive department and multiple agencies.
The Constitutional Court plays a central role within the federal Belgian state. This is a judicial court founded in 1980. Its jurisdiction was augmented in 1988 and 2003.
Alfons "Fons" Borginon is a Belgian politician and lawyer. He was a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives between 1995 and 2007. Borginon was the last chairman of the Volksunie and Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) floor leader from 2006 until the general election of 2007. He was also granted knighthood in the Belgian Order of Leopold. He is married to Kristin Ex and father of Hendrik, Irene and Margreet.
Geert Albert Bourgeois is a Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which he founded in 2001, who is currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He previously served as the Minister-President of Flanders from 2014 to 2019. Prior to this, he was a member of the federal Chamber of Representatives for the People's Union from 1995 to 2001, and then for the N-VA from 2001 to 2004. He has been involved in local and regional politics in Flanders since 1976.
Luc Van den Brande is a Flemish politician, member of the CD&V and was Minister-president of Flanders from 21 January 1992 until 13 July 1999. He took the initiative to create the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). On 6 February 2008 he became President of the European Union's Committee of the Regions for a period of two years.
Hugo Schiltz was a Belgian lawyer and politician. He was Belgian MP from 1965 to 1988 and senator from 1992 to 1995. He was also twice minister, from 1981 to 1985 in the first Flemish Government and between 1988 and 1991 in the Belgian federal government Martens VIII. He was further president of the Flemish political party Volksunie between 1975 and 1979.
Johan Cyrille Corneel Vande Lanotte is a Belgian politician. He is a member of the SP.A, and became its party president on 15 October 2005. He handed down his leadership positions after the SP.A lost in the 2007 general election. Between 1995 and 2014, he served more than 13 years as Deputy Prime Minister, the longest period for a Flemish socialist after WW II. In his last term he served as the Minister of Economy, Consumer affairs and North Sea in the Di Rupo I Government. With the formation of a new Centre-Right federal government, which excluded his party, Johan Vande Lanotte returned to local politics in October 2014 in Ostend, where he took up his position as alderman for the economy and tourism at Ostend City Council. From August 2015 until the end of 2018 Vande Lanotte was the mayor of Ostend. During his political career he continued to work as a professor at the University of Ghent, specialized in Constitutional Law and Human Rights. Since 2019, he is a lawyer in the law office Van Steenbrugge in Gent. He was the initiator of the Turkey Tribunal held in Geneva in September 2021
Kathleen Van Brempt, is a Belgian social-democratic politician and member of Vooruit. She currently serves as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) as part of the Party of European Socialists and is leader of the local branch of her party in Antwerp.
Joséphine Rebecca Marie Julienne Bertha "Fientje" Moerman is a Belgian liberal politician and currently a judge on the Constitutional Court of Belgium.
Hilde Urbanie Julia Crevits is a Belgian politician from Flanders and member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party who is currently the Flemish minister of Economy, Innovation, Work, Social economy and Agriculture.
State reform, in the context of Belgium, is the ongoing process of seeking and finding constitutional and legal solutions to the problems and tensions in the different segments of the Belgian population, mostly between the Dutch-speakers of Flanders and the French-speakers of Wallonia. In general, Belgium has evolved from a unitary state to a federal state with communities, regions, and language areas.
Steven Vanackere, is a Belgian politician from Flanders and member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). He held the portfolios of Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Institutional Reform in the Leterme II government. He is the son of Leo Vanackere, who, following a political career as a Member of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate of Belgium, became the Provincial Governor of West Flanders in 1979. His grandfather, Remi Wallays, had also been a senator and had been a former Mayor of Wevelgem.
Johan Sauwens is a Belgian politician from the province of Limburg.
Wivina Demeester-De Meyer is a Flemish politician who served as a Member of the Flemish Parliament and its predecessor bodies between 1974 and 1995 and 1999 and 2004; she also held various ministerial posts in the national and Flemish governments.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
