Didier Seeuws Seeuws was appointed as a special counsellor to Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council. This role also effectively made him "the right-hand man to Frans Van Daele", who headed Van Rompuy's private office. Olivier Belle was appointed to succeed Seeuws as the Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium. In 2012, Seeuws took over from Van Daele as the Chief of Staff ("chef de cabinet") of the private office of the President of the European Council, Van Rompuy. On 1 December 2014, Seeuws was appointed as the Director of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy in the General Secretariat of the
Reactions to the Panama Papers 2014 due to the "LuxLeaks" tax avoidance scandal (also revealed by the ICIJ), and hoped the extent of the Panama Papers revelations would spur countries to action. In a 2013 letter unearthed by the "Financial Times" to then-president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron said that offshore trusts should not automatically be subject to the same transparency requirements as shell companies. Some analysts suggested that these actions may affect the outcome of the referendum on UK membership of the EU. Alaa Mubarak, son of former president Hosni Mubarak, was cited