Melchior Wathelet (born 30 September 1977 in

Verviers Verviers (; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the cent ...

) is a Belgian politician, Secretary of State of Environment, Energy, Mobility and Institutional Reforms, and member of the

Centre démocrate humaniste Humanist Democratic Centre (, CDH) was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) which had been the country's governi ...

(cdH). His father is

Melchior Wathelet Melchior H. M. J. F. C. Wathelet (born 6 March 1949) is a Belgian politician and member of the Humanist Democratic Centre who served as 4th Minister-President of Wallonia. He has degrees in law and in economics (University of Liège) and is a ...

. He followed part of his secondary education in Dutch at a school in Bilzen, Limburg. After a degree in law from the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and a Master of European Law from the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

, he became

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

at the

Bar association A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence.

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

in 2002. He started his political career in 2003, when he was elected as member of the

Belgian Chamber of Representatives The Chamber of Representatives (; ; ) is one of the two chambers in the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Senate. It is considered to be the "lower house" of the Federal Parliament. Members and elections Article 62 o ...

where he quickly became group member for his party and second vice-president of the cdH. He became secretary of state in charge of the budget in the

Leterme II Government The Leterme II Government was the Belgian federal government, federal government of Belgium from 25 November 2009 to 26 April 2010, and the caretaker government until 6 December 2011. It took office when the Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leter ...

, and kept this charge in the

Van Rompuy I Government The Van Rompuy Government was the federal government of Belgium from 30 December 2008 until 15 November 2009. Herman Van Rompuy was nominated as the first President of the European Council and resigned shortly after as Premier. It took office when ...

and the Leterme II Government. He became secretary of state in charge of Environment, Energy and Mobility in the

Di Rupo I Government The Di Rupo Government was the federal cabinet of Belgium sworn in on 6 December 2011, after a record-breaking 541 days of negotiations following the June 2010 elections. The government included social democrats ( sp.a/ PS), Christian democrat ...

in 2010. After the 2014 elections on 22 July 2014 Joelle Milquet resigned to become minister of Lower education and Culture in the Government of the French Community. She was replaced as Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of the interior by Wathelet.

Plan Wathelet

On 6 February 2014 Melchior Wathelet - in his function as secretary of state in charge of Environment, Energy and Mobility - implemented a plan that reorganizes the departure routes from Brussels National Airport in

Zaventem Zaventem () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is located in the Dijleland area, one of the three large recreational areas which together form the '' Groene Gordel'' ("Green Belt") around th ...

. One of the goals of the plan was to spread airplane traffic over a wider area. As a result of this plan, the majority of departing aircraft are routed over densely populated areas of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. This plan – referred to by campaigners as the Plan Wathelet – soon became the object of controversy and led to a wave of complaints by residents affected by aircraft noise. A revision of the plan was blocked by the government of Flanders in early May. The question of how to route the airline traffic from Zaventem airport, which is located near to the urban area of Brussels has been a contentious political issue for many years. The jurisdictional complexity of the region, and the multitude of intersecting political priorities makes an agreement hard to find with the different Belgian regions, communes and political parties each pushing different agendas. The plan played a role in the federal and regional elections of May 2014, leading to poor results for Wathelet's party, and a solution is not likely until after the formation of a federal government. The main criticisms centered on the following facts: * Plan Wathelet was introduced without any prior consultation with local residents. In other European Countries, such a consultation process is a regulatory requirement before any change to aircraft routes ( standard terminal arrival routes, STARs, and standard instrument departures, (SIDs) can be published. Furthermore no impact assessment had been carried out prior to the publication of the new departure routes. Wathelet’s problem management also came under discussion. * Melchior accused residents’ groups of pursuing an ulterior political agenda against him. * After the implementation of the plan, the Brussels minister for Environment

Evelyne Huytebroeck Evelyn may refer to: Places Australia * Evelyn County, New South Wales, a cadastral division * Electoral district of Evelyn, an electoral district in Victoria * Evelyn, Queensland, a locality in the Tablelands Region Canada * Evelyn, On ...

claimed that the number of residents affected by aircraft noise was much larger than originally announced by Wathelet. Wathelet initially dismissed this claim and other criticisms as unsubstantiated. In May 2014, a study by the Free University of Brussels confirmed that the number of residents subjected to aircraft noise has tripled in comparison to the previously used departure routes.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wathelet, Melchior Jr. 1977 births Deputy prime ministers of Belgium Humanist Democratic Centre politicians Ministers of the interior of Belgium Living people Members of the 51st Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the 52nd Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the 53rd Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the 54th Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) People from Verviers