Lamberts graduated as an engineer at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in 1986. From 1987 to 2009 he worked at IBM in a variety of positions, also as a manager. Carrying out the function of councillor between 1994 and 2006, Lamberts represented the French-speaking Green Party Ecolo in the local council of Anderlecht. Between 1999 and 2003 he was an adviser of the Vice-Prime Minister Isabelle Durant on foreign affairs and defence.
Member of the European Parliament, 2009–present
Lamberts speaks at the European Parliament in 2019
As a member of ECON, Lamberts was credited with an amendment to the Fourth Capital Requirements Directive that capped bonus payments in the financial services to no more than 100% of their salary, or 200% with shareholder approval.[4] In 2015, he led calls for a special committee of inquiry into how EU Member States give special tax treatment to “national champions;”[5] he later became a member of the parliament's Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect.
From 2017, Lamberts served on the Parliament's so-called Brexit Steering Group, which worked under the aegis of the Conference of Presidents and to coordinates Parliament's deliberations, considerations and resolutions on the UK's withdrawal from the EU.[6] He is part of the European Internet Forum.[7]
In 2023, Lamberts organized a conference at the European Parliament called Beyond Growth. Thousands of attendees registered for the event, online and in person. With speakers at the highest level of decision making in the EU, including Ursula von der Leyen, the conference is aimed to normalize the debate about degrowth. Such a discussion could have been previously considered as too radical for mainstream European politics. Lamberts argued that growth defined by GDP is no longer a legitimate goal of policy makers, as it cannot be reconciled with the finite material resources of the Earth. Lamberts explained that his approach to the climate emergency, which leads him to advocate for a new approach to growth, is inspired by his Christian faith.[8]
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