The other members of the committee are: photographer Lieve Blanquaert; artist Jan Fabre; Jacques Rogge, chairman of the International Olympic Committee; Chris Van den Wyngaert, a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal; EU council president Herman Van Rompuy; philosopher and honorary vice-rector of Ghent University Etienne Vermeersch; and Marc Vervenne, honorary rector of the University of Leuven.

The committee will offer advice and generate ideas for the government’s 100 Years of the Great War project for 2014-2018, as well as acting as its ambassadors in other countries. Among the plans are a Memorial Park that includes 40 battlefield sites, the creation of memorial gardens in foreign cities using soil from Flanders’ fields and an international peace symposium featuring Nobel Peace Prize winners, which has already secured the presence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African president FW De Klerk.

“In the coming years we want to set up a unique commemoration project,” Peeters said. “Our wish is to make present and future generations aware of questions such as tolerance and international cooperation, and make clear to them that these are the essential building blocks of an open and tolerant society.”