Paul Belien has a Law degree (1982, specialisations in Social Security Law and European Law) and a doctorate in International Studies (2004). He worked as a professional journalist in both Belgium and the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, when he founded the classical-liberal Brussels-based think tank Centre for the New Europe. He acted as CNE's first managing director and research director from 1994 to 2000, when he left to write his Ph.D. dissertation and homeschool his five children.

He is a columnist at the Flemish weekly Pallieterke and at the Flemish monthly Doorbraak and a regular contributor to the Flemish conservative monthly Nucleus, which he co-founded in 1990.

Paul Belien is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and was one of the nine "founding fathers" of the Flemish liberal party VLD in 1991-1992, but he did not join this party when it became obvious that its leader, Guy Verhofstadt, was steering it into a leftist and neutralist, rather than a hayekian/libertarian and Atlanticist direction. Paul Belien is married to Irish-born Dr. Alexandra Colen, a former lecturer in linguistics at the universities of Ghent and Antwerp, and an MP for the Flemish-secessionist party Vlaams Blok since 1995.

Paul Belien is the author and co-author of numerous articles, essays and books, including - together with Lady Thatcher, Lord Tebbit, Philippe Seguin and others - Visions of Europe (Duckworth, 1994) and - with Harvard Business School's Prof. Regina Herzlinger - Consumer-Driven Health Care (Jossey-Bass, 2004). He has given lectures on European health care systems in various countries, including the U.S., Canada, Japan and Australia.

Below is a selection of his articles is english: