Didier Reynders

Didier Reynders
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 December 2011
Prime Minister	Elio Di Rupo Charles Michel
Preceded by	Steven Vanackere
Minister of Finance
In office 12 July 1999 – 6 December 2011
Prime Minister	Guy Verhofstadt Yves Leterme Herman Van Rompuy Yves Leterme
Preceded by	Jean-Jacques Viseur
Succeeded by	Steven Vanackere
Personal details
Born	6 August 1958 Liège, Belgium
Political party	Reformist Movement
Alma mater	University of Liège

Didier J.L. Reynders (born 6 August 1958) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Mouvement Réformateur (MR). He was Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister for Finance and Institutional Reforms in the Van Rompuy I Government, which took office on 30 December 2008.^[1] Since 2011 he has been Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[2]

Life and career

He was born in Liège as the youngest in a family of three children. He studied law at the University of Liège. He served as Chairman of the NMBS / SNCB from 1986 to 1991. He served as Minister of Finance from 1999 to 2011; in 2002, he chaired the G-10 which is the meeting of the main creditor states (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States).^[3] He became Deputy Prime Minister in 2004. He was the chairman of the Mouvement Réformateur from 2004 to 2011.

Reynders led the MR to a victory in the 2007 election, with the MR becoming the largest Francophone party of Belgium. The Belgian King appointed Reynders as informateur, i.e. to start off the informal coalition talks for a new federal government.^[4]

Stalemate followed the 2010 general election. The King appointed a succession of people to negotiate a coalition from June 2010 onwards, but none succeeded in the task of forming a new government during the following seven months. Reynders was appointed informateur by the King on 2 February 2011. He reported on 16 February 2011, and his brief was extended through 1 March 2011.

References

1. "20 March 2008 – Royal Orders. Government – Dismissals – Appointments" (PDF) (in Dutch and French). The Belgian Official Journal. 2008-03-21. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
2. Gianasso, Alexandre (2 February 2015). "6 questions with Didier Reynders, Belgium’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister". Affairs Today. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
3. HEC Europe Symposium: Didier Reynders HEC Europe Institute, Paris.
4. "King picks Mr Reynders as "informateur"". VRT Nieuws. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-13.

External links

• Official site