The VEB has two main goals. “The first and most important goal of the energy agency is to achieve energy savings in government buildings, such as administrative offices, schools and hospitals,” said Ingrid Lieten, Flemish minister of government investment. “Aside from that, we must also invest in initiatives for the production of green energy.”
A third long-term aim is to bring together small energy producers to help them compete with the major producers. The Council of State has, however, warned that such a plan could be a breach of EU competition law.
Lieten last week presented the eight members of the agency’s board: investment expert Nathalie Clybouw; Caroline Ven, chief executive of the business organisation VKW; Sam De Smedt from the cabinet of the environment ministry; Andries Gryffroy, energy adviser to the cabinet of government affairs minister Geert Bourgeois; Roger Malevé of the National Lottery; Dirk Van Melkebeke, secretary-general of the government’s department for economy, science and innovation; legal expert Stijn van Niel Schuuren; and Sonja Put, who represents the government’s own investment agency.
In the coming weeks, Lieten said, the board will choose a director-general, with whom they will draw up a cooperation agreement with the Flemish government, a multiyear business plan and a code of corporate governance, as well as select the projects that will receive priority attention from the VEB.
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