Rik Daems
Rik Daems is a Belgian painter, wine merchant and politician, he is representative for the Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten party(VLD). He was born in Aarschot on August 18th 1959. Since 2010 he has been a directly elected senator.
Political career
Deams political career started in 1987 when he was a Member of Parliament for twelve years. He was the budget specialist of the VLD. He was vice-president of VLD at the time, mayor of Aarschot until 1994 and councillor in Aarschot until 1998. In the government of Verhofstadt I. (1999) Daems became minister of Telecommunications and Public Enterprises and later also of the Middle Clas-ses. In 2003 his office was not renewed and Daems became chairman of VLD in the federal par-liament until 2006. From 2007 until 2010 he was both Quaestor of the Chamber of Representatives and a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of the Western European Union. In 2010 he was voted taxman, because he looked into the policy of the hospitality sector and proposed a lowering of the VAT. In 2010 he also was directly elected senator and in 2014 again as state senator.
Notable works
Education
Daens studied Latin-Mathematics at the Koninklijk Atheneum te Keerbergen. After highschool he studied Commercial Engineer at Solvay Management School. He also obtained a Master in Indus-trial Location and Development. In 2001 until 2003 he was Minister of the middle class.
