Mr. Dirk Van der Maelen

Dirk Van der Maelen is a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, a lower house of the Belgian Federal Parliament. He is a strong advocate of fairer taxation laws and international justice.

Mr. Van der Maelen was fist elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 1989.  From 1999 to 2007 he was the leader of the SPA's fraction there. Since October 2007, Mr Van Der Maelen has been the Vice Chairman of the SPA.

Mr. Van der Maelen has always been deeply involved in security issues, international affairs and financing.He was once heralded the Best Member of the Parliament by the Belgian daily newspaper "De Morgen". He's been a strong advocate of the ban on landmines, cluster bombs and cluster munition and thanks to his proposal, Belgium has become the first country to issue a ban on the use, transportation, export, stockpiling, trade and production of cluster munitions. Mr. Van der Maelen also strongly condemns the military operation in Afghanistan and advocates the withdrawal of all Belgian troops from the country.