Brussels (Belgium) - German Marshall Fund of the United States

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Accommodation Thon Hotel EU
The German Marshall Fund has paid for your stay and breakfast are included with your room. Complementary wifi is available
in public areas of the hotel. You are responsible for incidental charges such as phone calls, laundry, or room service. The hotel
may ask you for a credit card or deposit when you check in.
Coordinators Stephanie Vertongen, Program Coordinator
Megan Doherty, Program Officer
Transatlantic Center, German Marshall Fund of the US
Saturday, June 15
Dress: Casual
7:15 am Arrival
Stephanie will meet you at the airport exit. Look for a GMF sign.
Transfer to the hotel
9:30 am Welcome and Introduction to GMF Brussels
10:30 am Hotel check-in and refresh
11:30 am Leave the hotel for a walking tour of Brussels with GMF staff
(Good walking shoes)
2:00 pm Lunch
Location: Museum of Musical Instruments
3:30 - Free time
8:00 am Breakfast at the hotel
Sunday, June 16
Dress: Casual during the day; business casual for the reception
9:00- 10:00 am Overview of Belgian politics
Location: Thon Hotel EU
10:00 am Transfer to train station for a trip to Antwerp
10:37 am Train from Brussels Central – arrival in Antwerp at 11:22
11:30- 12:30 Tour of Antwerp
Tour guide TBC

12:30- 2:00 pm Lunch
Location: De Kaai
2:30- 4:00 pm Transatlantic and European Trade: The importance of the Port of Antwerp for Belgium
Meeting at the Port of Antwerp
4:30- 5:00 Transfer to train station
5:08 Train back to Brussels Central
7:00 pm Meet GMF staff at hotel lobby and transfer to reception
7:30 pm Welcome Reception with local MMF
Location: TBD
PLEASE BRING YOUR PASSPORT!
Monday, June 17
Dress: Business attire
8:20 am Meet GMF staff in hotel lobby for buses to NATO
EU Thon Hotel
9:00 am Arrival at NATO
NATO is a political and military alliance created in the aftermath of the Second World War and at the beginning of the Cold
War whose primary goals are the collective defense of its members and the maintenance of a democratic peace in the North
Atlantic area. All 28 Allies have an equal say, the Alliance’s decisions must be unanimous and consensual, and its members
must respect the basic values that underpin the Alliance, namely democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. The Alliance
is committed to protecting its members through political and military means. It promotes democratic values and is dedicated to
the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capability needed to undertake collective defense
and crisis-management operations alone or in cooperation with partner countries and international organizations. The following
countries are members of the Alliance: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
9:30- 10:30 am NATO: Its Transformation and New Strategic Concept
Mr. Jonathan Parish, Senior Planning Officer& Speechwriter, Office of the Spokesperson,
Public Diplomacy Division, NATO
Jonathan Parish was educated at Sandbach School, and at university in Sheffield, Aix-en-Provence and Hamburg. He was
commissioned into the British Army and trained as a helicopter pilot. His command tours at flight and squadron level were in
Germany and at regimental level in the UK. During his regimental command, operational commitments included deployments
to Bosnia (twice) and Kosovo. He also trained at the Army Staff College, and his staff appointments included a tour as a Military
Assistant at SHAPE, Belgium; Head of the concepts, doctrine, digitization and operational requirements team at the British
Army Headquarters Land Command; and Chief of operational support at the NATO Joint Headquarters in Madrid. His final
tour in the Army was in the International Military Staff at Headquarters NATO, where he was responsible for the military
aspects of NATO Enlargement and Combating Terrorism. In September 2004 he took early retirement from the Army in order

to assume his current post as Senior Policy Planning Officer and Speechwriter to the NATO Secretary General. Parish is
married to Laurence, who is French, and they have 3 children.
10:30- 10:45 Break
10:45- 11:45 Irene Maria Plank, Deputy Director, Secretary General Private Office, NATO
Irene Plank was born in 1961 in Frankfurt, Germany, into a family of musicians. She studied law in Frankfurt and Berlin and
worked as a lawyer and at the Federal Cartel Office in both cities. In 1989, she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has
enjoyed her work there ever since. Her postings have included the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco,
Jordan and Lebanon. She first came to NATO as a member of the German delegation in 2009, Russia being the main part of her
portfolio. Since 2012, she has worked in the Private Office of the Secretary General as Deputy Director with a portfolio that, once
again, includes Russia, but also China and Japan and all matters of internal management. She has three children (20, 16 and 14)
and likes to bike to work, read almost everything, and improve her Arabic language skills.
12:00- 1:30 Lunch at NATO
1:30- 2:30 Transfer from NATO to next meeting
2:30- 3:30pm The Future of Carbon Markets
Speakers TBC
4:00- 5:30pm Immigration and Integration in Belgium
Location: GMF offices
Naim Charkaoui, Director, Minderhedenforum
Marco Martiniello, Director, Center for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM)
Moderator: Lode Draelants (MMF Director, International Committee)
Naima Charkaoui has served as the director of the Minderhedenforum (Minority Forum) since 2001. Minderhedenforum is an
advocacy organization that brings together most grassroots organisations of minority groups (people from migrant backgrounds,
refugees, and trailer dwellers) in Flanders and Brussels (Belgium). Its seventeen member associations regroup some 1,600 local
organisations. Minderhedenforum works on issues such as education, employment, and discrimination, and is represented in
several consultative bodies in these domains. The Forum has a small staff of 25 people. As director, Charkaoui is the head of staff,
as well as the representative and spokesman of the organization.
Marco Martiniello is Research Director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS), as well as the
director of the Center for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM) at the University of Liège. He teaches Sociology and Politics
at the University of Liège and at the College of Europe (Natolin, Poland). He was visiting scholar and a visiting professor in
different universities around the globe including Columbia University, University of Malmö (Sweden), Sciences Po Paris,
University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia), University of Kwazulu Natal (South Africa), and European University
Institute (Italy). He is the author, editor or co-editor of numerous articles, reports and books on migration, ethnicity, racism,
multiculturalism and citizenship in the European Union and in Belgium with a transatlantic comparative perspective. His most
recent publications include “La Démocratie Multiculturelle” (Presses de Sc Po, 2011), and “An Introduction to International
Migration Studie,” European Perspectives (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2012) (with Jan Rath).
Lode Draelants (MMF 2011) currently works as Director at the International Committee in Brussels and Flanders. The
International Committee (IC) is a civil society organisation; a democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural federation of 265
immigrants' organizations. By uniting immigrants' organizations the IC aims at the enhancing of leadership, social
participation, emancipation and community building of immigrants and ethnic –cultural minorities. As a federation, IC focusses
on education, employment and political and cultural integration.

5:30 – your dinner Return to the hotel for a refresh
PLEASE BRING YOUR PASSPORT!
Host dinners with local MMF
Tuesday, June 18
Dress: Business attire
Breakfast at the hotel
9:00 am Meet in the hotel lobby
9:30 am Briefing: EU history and challenges
By John Richardson, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, GMF
GMF Brussels Office
John Richardson joined GMF in 2008. Previously, he was an economist with Unilever for four years, before joining the
European Commission in 1973. From 1978 to 1996, he occupied various posts, including EU negotiator for trade in services
during the Uruguay Round, and Unit Head, first for relations with the U.S., and then for relations with Japan. In October 1996,
Richardson became the deputy head of the Commission’s delegation to the U.S. in Washington DC, and in May 2001, the head of
delegation to the UN in New York. From 2005 to 2008, he headed the task force which developed the integrated maritime policy
for the EU, adopted by the European Council in December 2007. Richardson is chairman of the ESPO award committee, a
member of the board of trustees of Sail Training International, and a member of the board of the Salzburg Global Seminar. He
also provides consultancy services through FIPRA.
10:30- 11:00 am Walk to European Parliament
Security Check-in
11:30 am- 1:00 pm Introduction to the European Parliament
Mr. Marcus Scheuren, Administrator, European Parliament, Economic and Monetary
Affairs Committee (ECON) – Secretariat (MMF 2012)
The European Parliament is the only directly-elected EU body and one of the largest democratic assemblies in the world. Its
754 Members are there to represent the EU's 500 million citizens. They are elected once every five years by voters from
across the 27 Member States. Founded in 1952 as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC) and renamed the European Parliamentary Assembly in 1958, it became the European Parliament in 1962. The first
direct elections took place in 1979. The current MEPs were elected during the 2009 elections and will serve until 2014. The
evolution of the Parliament is closely linked to a succession of treaties culminating in the current Lisbon Treaty. These
treaties define the rules and scope of the Union and have turned the ECSC of old into what is now known as the European
Union. Over the years, milestones like the introduction of the euro and European enlargement have left their mark on the
European Parliament, its powers and its composition. The European Parliament has three main roles: i) debating and
passing European laws with the Council; ii) scrutinizing other EU institutions, particularly the Commission, to make sure
they are working democratically; iii) debating and adopting the EU's budget with the Council.
1:00 – 5:00 pm Individual appointments

7:00 pm Meet in the hotel lobby
7:30 pm Closing Dinner
Dinner venue TBD
Wednesday, June 19
Departures
Please consult your flight manifests and share taxis to the airport where possible.