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Coreper II prepares four of the 10 formations of the Council of Ministers. It is responsible for general affairs, external relations including international trade, economic and financial affairs, as well as justice and home affairs. It is also responsible for preparing the European Councils of heads of state and government.
Besides preparing these Councils, Coreper II is also responsible for the regular follow-up of legislative work in these areas. Coreper II meets once a week, usually on Wednesdays.
The Permanent Representative, Willem van de Voorde, is assisted by the so-called Antici, currently Hendrik Roggen. The Antici group, which meets every Tuesday to prepare Coreper II meetings, was first convened under Italian chairmanship in 1975 by Italian diplomat Paolo Antici.
Biography: Ambassador Willem van de Voorde, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Union
Ambassador van de Voorde will chair Coreper II during the 2024 Belgian Presidency drawing on his experience during the two previous Belgian Presidencies since he started his diplomatic career at the Permanent Representation of Belgium during the 1993 Presidency and was Deputy-Director for European Affairs in 2010.
Ambassador van de Voorde has extensive diplomatic experience, having served in various positions in Brussels and in bilateral and multilateral postings abroad. In 1994, he joined the Royal Palace where he served as the Secretary to Her Majesty Queen Paola of Belgium for six years. From 2000 to 2004, he was Deputy Head of Mission of the Belgian embassy in Berlin, and after that, he held the same position for four years in Tokyo. In 2008, he worked as the Deputy-Director for European Affairs, where he coordinated the 2010 Belgian Presidency. In 2011, he started as Deputy Chief of Cabinet for European Affairs for the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Subsequently, from 2014 to 2018, Ambassador van de Voorde served as Belgian Ambassador to Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Slovenia, and to the UN institutions in Vienna. Prior to assuming his current role as Permanent Representative of Belgium to the EU in 2020, he held the position of Belgian Ambassador to Germany for two years.
The Ambassador holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Leuven (KUL) and Londen School of Economics (LSE), a Master’s degree in Political Science from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University Faculties St Aloysius (UFSAL) in Brussels. He is married and has four children.
Ambassador Van de Voorde speaks fluently Dutch, French, English and German, and has acquired a basic knowledge of Japanese.