Ms Hilde Vandevoorde appointed National Member for Belgium

The Hague, 12 December 2017

Ms Hilde Vandevoorde was appointed National Member for Belgium at Eurojust for a five-year period. In accordance with Article 2(1) of the Eurojust Decision, the appointment was approved by the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union. Ms Vandevoorde officially took up her duties on 7 December 2017.

Prior to her appointment, Ms Vandevoorde was a member of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, where she served as Head of the Special Missions Unit in charge of special investigation techniques, such as surveillance, undercover investigations and Covered Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) (informants). She was also responsible for the witness protection programme and review of the federal judicial police.

After her law studies at Brussels University, Ms Vandevoorde was admitted to the Brussels Bar in 1986, and worked as a defence lawyer for almost six years. In 1992, she became a prosecutor specialised in organised crime and terrorism cases and special investigation techniques at the local prosecutor’s office in Brussels.

Ms Vandevoorde, a national magistrate in Belgium since 2000, joined the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in 2002, coordinating organised crime and terrorism cases on national level and handling international requests for mutual legal assistance. Since its establishment in 2001, Ms Vandevoorde brought cases to Eurojust.

Ms Vandevoorde commented on her appointment : ’Fighting organised crime and terrorism at European level is a logical continuation of my work on national level. I am looking forward to handling Belgian cases at Eurojust and coordinating with the other EU countries and beyond.’

Ms Vandevoorde is replacing Michèle Coninsx, who was National Member for Belgium since its beginnings as Pro-Eurojust in 2001.