About the Re-Bel initiative

The aim of the Re-Bel initiative is to rethink in depth, in an open, rigorous, non-partisan way, what the institutions of the Belgian federal state - or of whatever else this part of the world needs to become - can and must look like in the longer term, taking full account of the evolving European context.

The activities organized within the framework of the initiative will be open to all academics and researchers whose work is relevant to its purpose. They will generally be conducted in English. An exploratory workshop was organized on December 11th, 2008. The first public event took place on April 30th, 2009.

The initiative is sponsored by the Brussels-based University Foundation, to whose mission it wishes to contribute and which will host all its meetings.

The core-group of the initiative consists of:

Bea Cantillon
Professor of Social Policy at the Universiteit Antwerpen

Bruno De Wever
Professor of Contemporary History at the Universiteit Gent

Paul De Grauwe
Professor of Economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Mathias Dewatripont
Professor of Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management)

François Maniquet
Professor of Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain

Johanne Poirier
Professor of Public Law at the Université libre de Bruxelles

Erik Schokkaert
Professor of Economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Philippe Van Parijs
Professor of Economic and Social Ethics at the Université catholique de Louvain (Chaire Hoover)

The coordinators of the Re-Bel initiative are Paul De Grauwe and Philippe Van Parijs. They can be contacted through the contact form or by email contact@rethinkingbelgium.eu (or personal email addresses available on their personal websites).