On Monday, January 25, 2010, on the occasion of the visit to Washington of Chairman Wouter Beke and four other members of the Belgian Senate’s Finance and Economics Committee (Fineco), the Embassy organized a Breakfast-Roundtable dedicated to “The Financial crisis and Regulatory Response – Belgian and Transatlantic Perspectives,” with the participation of Senator Berni Collas, Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Jules Muis, former Director General (Audit) at the European Commission, Mr. Peter Kerstens, Financial services counselor with the EU Delegation to the US and Mr. Nicolas Véron, Senior fellow at the Brussels-based Bruegel Institute and a Visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington.

Senator Collas, who was the rapporteur of the Special Parliamentary Committee in charge of reviewing the Financial and Banking Crisis, presented an overview of the way the crisis unfolded in Belgium and of the legislative steps undertaken by the Belgian Congress and Administration to mitigate its impact and prevent a further downturn in the financial sector. Ambassador Matthysen, who was hosting the event, reminded the participants that financial regulatory issues are at the heart of the Eighteen- month program of the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian presidencies of the EU, both as such and has a specific focus of the transatlantic co-operation.