John Wante is advisor on environment policy for the Belgian federal minister of Environment, Climate, Sustainable Development and Green Deal. He works on product policy, the circular economy and critical raw materials. Before that he worked as policy officer with OVAM, the Flemish Public Waste Agency, on waste and materials policy, on the regional, federal, European and international level. His educational background is chemical engineering.
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Zakia Khattabi
Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal
Belgium
Zakia Khattabi became a politician in 2009. Her parliamentary work has mainly been devoted to the justice, home affairs and equal opportunities committees. In 2015, Khattabi was elected co-president of her party, a role she held for five years before being appointed to her current ministerial post in 2020. Khattabi believes that the triple crisis we are facing (climate, loss of biodiversity and pollution) is not just an environmental issue: it is the social issue of this century because it hits the most vulnerable amongst us hardest, even though they are the least responsible for this crisis. In her view, the transition is therefore an imperative of social justice. Moreover, it also constitutes an economic, financial and public safety issue. As Belgian federal minister, she regularly took on the role of EU negotiator on crucial issues at international conferences on climate and biodiversity.
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Florika Fink-Hooijer
Director General, Environment Department (DG ENV)
European Commission
Having occupied various senior management positions in the European Commission, Florika Fink-Hooijer is recognised for her strong management and leadership skills and her in-depth experience in EU policy making and shaping. A lawyer by training, Florika brings a proven record of accomplishment in foreign and security policy as well as in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction. She has extensive experience in leading complex inter-institutional and intergovernmental negotiations. In her current role at the Commission's Directorate-General for Environment, she is responsible for implementing the European Green Deal objectives, in particular the areas of the circular economy, biodiversity and zero pollution.
Brigitte Mouligneau studied Law at KU Leuven in Belgium. After a first career of 16 years in European relations, she became head of the strategic policy unit of the Flemish Government. She specialises in long-term strategies and transition management. In 2016, Brigitte joined the Circular Flanders’ team at OVAM (the Public Waste Agency) and was appointed as their transition manager in 2018 by the ministers of environment and of economy and innovation. Circular Flanders is a public-private partnership working on the transition towards the circular economy in Flanders. In the Flemish climate action plan the goal is to reduce the material footprint 30 percent by 2030 by introducing the circular principles in our economy and in our society.
