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LRE GALA2020

#LREForum2020

FEBRUARY 4 , 2020

EGMONT PALACE

PLACE DU PETIT SABLON 8, 1000 BRUSSELS

4 FEBRUARY

RÉMI PRAUDManaging Director

LRE Foundation

The LRE Forum, the annual event of the

Liberation Route Europe Foundation, is

now in its 4th edition. The LRE Gala, which

is the closing event of the first day of the

Forum, is a unique time in the year when

the members of the LRE Foundation, its

key partners and sponsors gather for a

special event.  

This year, the Gala will be the occasion of

hosting the award ceremony of the

Cultural Route of the Council of Europe

certification. This label is the recognition of

years of hard collective work which makes

us very proud.

During the evening we will also hold a new

members’ ceremony, welcoming the

organizations which recently joined the

Liberation Route Europe.

I wish you an interesting and delightful

evening at the LRE Gala!

#LREForum2020

EGMONT PALACE

PLACE DU PETIT SABLON 8, 1000 BRUSSELS

PROGRAM18:30 WELCOME & COCKTAIL

Ambassador Zoltan Taubner, Director of External Relations and Head of the

Liaison Office with the EU in Brussels, Council of Europe

Host: Mr. Rémi Praud, Managing Director LRE Foundation

WelcomeMr. Rémi Praud - Managing Director LRE Foundation

Opening Q&AMr. Robert Croll, Chairman of the board, and Mrs. Lisette Mattaar, director, of

the vfonds (Dutch National Foundation for Peace, Freedom and Veteran Care)

STARTER

Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Award Ceremony

MAIN COURSE

LRE New Members Ceremony

DESSERT

22:30 END OF GALA DINNER

19:30 DINNER

SPEAKERSRémi Praud is the Managing Director of the Liberation Route Europe

Foundation since February 2018. He joined the Foundation in March

2014, as Development and Programs Manager and later became its

Deputy Director in January 2016. After his studies in Lyon at the Institut

d’Etudes Politiques and an MA in European Affairs, he moved to

Brussels to work in relation to the European Institutions. Before joining

the LRE Foundation, he was representing the Lower-Normandy Region

in Brussels. Rémi has been a visiting lecturer at the Institut d’Etudes

Politiques of Lyon from 2014 to 2019.

Judge Robert S. Croll is the Chairman of the Board of the National

Fund for Peace, Freedom and Veteran Care (vfonds). Moreover, he is

Senior Vice President of the High Court of Justice Gelderland, Colonel

of the Military Legal Service Armed Forces, Board member of the

Association of Private Historical Country Places and he is a Member of

the Supervisory Board of the General Pension Fund of KLM (as of

January 1, 2019).

Lisette Mattaar is the director and secretary of the Board of the

National Fund for Peace, Freedom and Veteran Care (vfonds) since the

1st of October 2019. She has many years of experience as a director of

the Humanity House and has therefore been closely involved in the

field of peace, democracy; national and international legal orders for

many year.

Ambassador Zoltan Taubner is the Head of the Council of Europe

Liaison Office with the EU in Brussels, and he is also the Council of

Europe's Director of External Relations since 2008, before which he

spent five years working as the Permanent Representative of Hungary

to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He has also spent several years

working at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, notably during

the country’s Presidency of the EU.

SPONSORS & PARTNERS

vfonds is the National Foundation of Peace, Freedom and Veteran

Support of the Netherlands. vfonds is dedicated to creating awareness

and recognition for uniformed personnel who serve the Netherlands all

over the world. It provides information, education and publicity for

people who have been involved in international peace missions,

provides support for mission-related reunions and helps societies that

want to redirect their activities towards the developing number of

younger veterans. Since 2012, it supports the Liberation Route Europe

Foundation in its efforts to keep the memory of war alive. It supports

activities organised by the LREF for the promotion of peace,

democracy, moral, ethical, religious and legal law and order and

international justice. It hopes to contribute towards the development

of knowledge on military operations and their consequences for civilian

populations as well as for the people wearing the uniforms, the people

responsible for reinstating peace and security. The vfonds aims to win

respect and appreciation from society for all of these people, by

promoting and celebrating liberation, freedom and peace. It hopes to

trigger social discourse about the importance of these fundamental

ideals and their continuation. It fuels democracy, human rights and

international justice and ensures that we all invest in their future: that

we all invest in peace.

The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) is the

organisation responsible for promoting the Netherlands nationally and

internationally, financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It focusses

on the markets for holidays, conventions, business meetings and events

and it is an expert on research, communications and marketing. It

promotes the Netherlands in Europe, North America and Asia, the

regions from which the largest number of visitors is attracted. It is

working not only in the tourism sector, but also in other sectors that

relate to it, such as festivals, museums, sports events, accessibility and

mobility. For the marketing of the Netherlands, NBTC uses a

collaboration model that connects public and private partners around

joint marketing activities, such as participation in trade fairs,

participation in processing of foreign markets and online visibility on

NBTC platforms. From 2016 to 2018, the marketing activities of NBTC

and its partners resulted in 5.9 million international visitors and € 3.3

billion in international spending. In its Perspective 2030, NBTC projects

that tourism in the Netherlands will grow of 24% in the next decade,

bringing the number of visitors to 30 million.

SPONSORS & PARTNERS

HISTORY (formerly The History Channel) is a worldwide television

network focused on documentaries and historical fiction series.

HISTORY is one of the most recognised and loved international TV

brands. HISTORY entertains millions of people around the globe

through the inspiring, outlandish and momentous stories of

extraordinary real-life characters whose experiences are often far more

thrilling than fiction. HISTORY challenges the traditional notion of

‘history’ by offering viewers an alternative perspective. Aimed at Life’s

Explorers, its wide range of programming uncovers the why and how of

human stories shaped by fascinating and often surprising facts.

HISTORY has also established itself as the destination for compelling

historical drama, with a line-up of international hits including Vikings

and Black Sails. HISTORY now reaches over 500 million people in 200

countries and 39 languages.

The Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme was

launched in 1987 to demonstrate, by means of a journey through space

and time, how heritage from different countries of Europe contributes

to a shared cultural heritage. The Cultural Routes of the Council of

Europe put into practice the fundamental principles promoted by the

Council of Europe: human rights, democracy, participation, cultural

diversity and intercultural dialogue. The Cultural Routes of the Council

of Europe Programme aims to act as a channel for intercultural

dialogue and promote better knowledge and understanding of

European cultural identity, preserving and enhancing natural and

cultural heritage as a source of cultural, social and local development.

Today, 38 Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe aim to encourage

European citizens to re-explore their heritage by practising cultural

tourism across the Organisation’s 47 member States and beyond. They

encourage sustainable development through the implementation of

grassroots projects and stimulate diversified forms of access to culture

and heritage. They are composed of a broad network of over 1,600

members which allows synergies between national, regional and local

authorities and a wide range of associations and socio-economic

stakeholders, encouraging direct access to European heritage.

Liberation Route Europe represents one of the latest additions to the

family of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.

SPONSORS & PARTNERS

Fletcher Hotels is one of the biggest and most popular hotel

companies in the Netherlands, with almost 100 hotels all over the

country, from the seaside to the dunes and to the hills of Limburg. All

hotels have a restaurant, and often they are housed in historic

buildings. Other facilities at the hotels include a bar and lounge and in

some cases a sauna, a solarium or an entire wellness centre. Each hotel

is located close to touristic attractions, but also within reach of hiking

routes and cycling paths. The hotels are suited for celebrations, parties,

as well as business meetings, conferences and events. Since many of

the hotel buildings have a history which sometimes also deals with

WWII and with the allied liberation of the Netherlands, Fletcher Hotels

recently partnered with Liberation Route Europe, regularly sharing

stories either from hotels or personal ones in its monthly newsletter.

One of the best examples is Hotel Erica in Berg en Dal which presents

some extraordinary stories as well as a Liberation Route audiospot.

The War Heritage Institute (WHI) is the union between the Royal

Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History, the Belgian

National Institute for Veterans and Victims of War, the National

Memorial Fort Breendonk and the Historic Pool of Defence. It was

established in 2018. Its main aims are the conservation and

presentation of historic military heritage for both sites and collections,

and the transmission of memory in an efficient and effective way. It

manages six former military sites throughout Belgium: the Royal Army

Museum in Brussels, the Breendonk Fort, the Gunfire in Brasschaat, the

Boyau de la Mort in Diksmuide, the Bunker of Kemmel command at

Heuvelland and the Bastogne Barracks. Its aim is to enhance the

collections, developing a varied program and continuously improving

permanent exhibitions; moreover, it strives to develop a national and

European network to prepare or coordinate all military memory

activities. It recently organised the exhibitions“Beyond the Great War -

Belgium 1918-1928”, “Leo50”, a retrospective on the Leopard tanks,

putting together all models, from past to present. and the Royal

Museum of the Armed Forces permanent exhibition “War – Occupation

– Liberation” opened on May 8th 2019.

The LRE Gala will take place at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, a prestigious historical building

owned by the Belgian federal government. The original mansion was built between 1548 and

1560 by the Count of Egmont, first in a Flemish Gothic, and later Renaissance style. It was

transformed in the 18th century, when the property passed onto the Arenberg family, into a

neoclassical style. After World War I, the German Arenberg family was forced to sell the building

to the City of Brussels, which later sold it to the Belgian state in 1964.

Since 1992, the palace has been listed as a protected monument and is nowadays used for

receptions and meetings by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The LRE Gala will take place in the Mirror Gallery.

Address: Place du Petit Sablon 8, 1000 Brussels

THE EGMONT PALACELRE GALA

4 FEBRUARY

Directions 

Naamsepoort / Porte de Namur

Louiza / Louise

Kleine Zavel / Petit Sablon

Parking Poelaert-Zavel

Parking

Poelaertplein

1000 Brussels

6 2 Parking Deux Portes

Waterloolaan 2A 

1000 Brussels 6 2

92 / 93

VENUE

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