"Independent think-tank and do-tank for sustained economic growth and social protection"

Context
Belgium and its regions are underperforming. Economic growth is structurally restricted and unemployment is structurally high, notwithstanding cyclical improvements. Our international competitiveness is steadily declining. Taxation levels remain near record heights and yet our welfare state is in perennial budgetary stress. The level of social protection is gradually eroding on all fronts. The weakest in our society – the older, the young, the poorly educated, the immigrants, the disabled, the poor – are acutely marginalised in the economy and in the labour market. While our demography is changing rapidly, we fail to integrate our society and lack a cohesive common citizenship.

Belgium now faces the combined challenge of an ageing society and of international competition in a dynamic and volatile world economy. We have to opt between gradual and relative decline, or structural reforms that restore the attractiveness of our economy and society for the benefit of all. Without comprehensive reform we risk reaching the point where the virtuous circle of wealth creation and wealth distribution becomes a vicious circle. Without comprehensive reform the next generation will lose the combination of economic opportunity and social protection from which previous generations have benefited in the post World War Two period.

Itinera Institute
Policy reform is not just the responsibility of political parties, interest groups or government sponsored research centres. Independent think-tanks have played a role in fostering agendas for policy reform beyond party lines and beyond political horizons in many countries around the world. This long and successful tradition of independent policy institutes has largely bypassed Belgium.

The Itinera Institute was officially launched on the 13th of March 2006 as the first truly professional and truly independent think-tank and do-tank that specifically caters for Belgium and its regions. Where political parties, professional organisations, universities and the media stop, Itinera Institute starts to defend fundamental reform towards improved economic growth and sustained social protection for all, and especially for the future generations.

The Itinera Institute remains to this day the only one of its kind for Belgium. While the “think-tank” denomination is increasingly used to label all kinds of associations and activities, no other organization for policy reform in Belgium combines the characteristics of the Itinera Institute: professional structure, nation wide coverage and complete independence – structurally and financially – from political parties, professional organizations and government.

The structure and position of the Itinera Institute mirror that of the wide and diverse tradition of professional policy think-tanks in other countries around the world. The added Itinera dimensions are its wide policy scope, its international outlook, its openness to all sides and arguments without political or ideological premise, and its ambition to promote its own policy proposals as an active do-tank.

The Itinera Institute is the brainchild of a young generation of entrepreneurs, professionals and academics. With the support of a more experienced generation in its various bodies, and through a diverse and multinational network of writers and speakers, the Itinera Institute operates across political party lines and independent from any interest group or professional organisation. The Institute is independent from any agenda on state structure and targets all relevant policy levels, whether international, European, national or regional.

Mission Statement
To show, to defend and to build roads for policy reform towards sustained economic growth and social protection, for Belgium and its regions.