Philippe LAMBERTS

Philippe  LAMBERTS,  born  in 1963 in Brussels, Belgium, was elected in May 2006  as Co-Spokesperson  of the European Green Party. He had already been a member of its committee since 2003, after having represented his home party, Ecolo, at EGP Councils from1999 to 2003. During that same period,  he was adviser on international affairs and defence to the Belgian federal  Vice-Prime  Minister  Isabelle  DURANT, where he got his first taste of national politics, negotiating government positions on topics such as the European foreign and security policy, export of weapons, defence budgets, the Belgian response to 9/11 and to the war in Iraq .  He had previously assumed responsibility for those topics for seven years within Ecolo until the party entered the governing coalition at federal level.

At local level, he was a member of the city council of Anderlecht (Brussels) from 1994 until 2006.

During  his  initial  term  in  the  EGP Committee,  Philippe  focused  on  the area of international  peace  and  security  , later assuming leadership of the working groups which produced the charter of European Greens, which defines our  identity  as  well as the position paper on the Future of Europe, both adopted in Geneva in October 2006. Subsequently, he chaired EGP working groups on the economy and on social affairs, resulting in policy papers voted ahead of the 2009 campaign.

At the national level, Philippe LAMBERTS has been a member of Ecolo's political council, since 1993;

Philippe Lamberts will be the number 2 on the Ecolo list for the elections to the European Parliament in June this year and his ambition is to bring home again a second seat for his party. In the European Parliament, Philippe, with his background in the business world, will be a strong advocate of a Green New Deal that must position Europe at the leading edge of the new industrial revolution, while sucessfully fighting climate change in a socially just society.

In parallel with his political activities, Philippe LAMBERTS pursues a career in the private sector.  He was hired in 1987 by a leading information technology & services company, where he has held a number of positions. After an initial stint in finance and planning, he soon moved on to the sales and distribution division of the company, where he assumed responsibility (from local to global level) for clients in the industrial sector, initially from Brussels,  then  from  Paris,  France.  From  October  2005 until March 2008,  he led the commercial  teams in  charge  of  industrial  and  distribution  clients in the Benelux. He currently leads his company's dealings with large automotive, aerospace and defence clients in the south-western half of Europe.

At the moment, Philippe is focussing his energy on the response of the Greens to the global "multi-crisis" (financial, economic, environmental), which he sees as a not-to-be-missed chance to put our planet and the development of our societies on a sustainable track.

Philippe also has a keen interest in education, which he sees as crucial for the personal development of individuals and as the foundation of our society's future. Being vice-president of the board of a school that provides  primary  and secondary education to almost 2000 pupils and students allows him to have a direct involvement in that field.

Philippe Lamberts is a qualified engineer, having graduated in 1986 magna cum laude from the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the Catholic University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve).

His personal interests range from simple family life to travelling in order to discover new people and places, from reading to walking and biking. His favourite authors include Tolkien, Jared Diamond, John Grisham, Isaac Asimov, Iain Pears and Frédéric Lenoir. His favourite music ranges from Dire Straits to I Muvrini, from Vivaldi to Enya, from Klezmer to Paolo Conte, from Jean-Jacques Goldman to Tryo and Bénabar. He won't miss a show by the Cirque du Soleil and eagerly looks out for the latest Hobbit movie(s). Finally, apart from home, his favourite places are Tuscany, the Causses and Cévennes in France, a small place called Nollevaux in Belgium as well as Taizé in Burgundy. His first question to you is most likely to be "where are you from?" as he deeply feels our roots define part of our identity.

Philippe LAMBERTS has been married to Béatrice VELDEMAN since 1986; They have four children : Anne-Sophie (1988), Olivier (1990), Emmanuelle (1991) and Xavier (1995). He lives in Brussels.