100 posts
Belgium: Against blind Austerity, For an Alternative
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Ahead of Belgium’s general strike on Monday, here’s some alternative ideas to austerity, courtesey of the main trade union confederation, FGTB Belgium is bracing for a general strike on Monday. It will be led by Belgium’s FGTB trade...
Belgian Ministers’ War Of Words
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Belgium has a government. Now, it's time to trash talking the EU, France and each other.
Wie Kent Olli Rehn?
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Not everyone in the newly formed (and long awaited) Belgian government seems to be happy with the new supervisory powers the European Commission has gained under the "Six-Pack" on economic governance.As we reported here, Belgium was forced to withhol...
Brussels v Brussels: Belgium and the EU clash over the budget
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The Commission’s scrutiny of Belgium’s draft budget has caused a political backlash from PS (PES) government minister Paul Magnette:““Wie kent Olli Rehn? Wie heeft ooit het gezicht van Olli Rehn gezien? Wie weet waar hij vandaan komt en wat h...
Belgian royals latest to join austerity drive
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By RAF CASERT BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s King Albert II on Monday said he’ll use part of his salary to help pay for the upkeep on his properties, making him the latest European royal whose pocketbook is being squeezed by the economic...
Belgium in Sweet Spot — For Now
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Belgium leaves 2011 looking much better than it did a few months ago. But is that as good as it gets?
Attack in Belgian city leaves 5 dead, 122 wounded
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By RAF CASERT LIEGE, Belgium (AP) — Summoned for questioning by Belgian police, a man with a history of weapons and drug offenses left home armed with hand grenades, a revolver and an assault rifle. Stopping at a central square filled with holiday...
It may have taken a mere 535 days but at last Belgium is to get a government!
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Yes, you did indeed read that headline correctly - Belgium is, at last, to get a government - a mere 535 days after the inconclusive elections in June 2010.The news Belgium has long been waiting for broke late yesterday evening after the country's po...
After 18 months, Belgium will have a government again
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Belgium will make history this weekend in two ways. When a new government is finally formed on Sunday it will end the longest period that any country has gone without a government in modern history. And when Elio di Rupo is appointed prime minister,...
Belgian parties near deal to create government
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By DON MELVIN BRUSSELS — Political negotiators in Belgium, stung into action by a credit downgrade, agreed Saturday on budgets for the next three years, clearing the way for the country to get a permanent government in the coming days. Belgium...
S&P’s lowers sovereign credit rating on Belgium
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By RAF CASERT BRUSSELS (AP) — Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s financial standing Friday, citing the country’s government stalemate and a looming European recession. Spurred on by the ratings agency’s cut, six...
S&P downgrades Belgium
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One-notch ratings cut from AA+ to AA. Don’t mention Dexia!The lowering of Belgium’s long-term rating reflects our view of the potential heightened risks to the sovereign’s...
Eurozone crisis: citizens to the rescue!
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Eurozone governments: Are “the markets” refusing to lend to you? Turn to “the people” instead. That is in essence what Belgium is proposing to do, with an appeal to retail investors (i.e. you) to buy the sovereign bonds it is …Continue...
Belgium – ‘Intelligent’ nuclear phase-out
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Belgium – Last Sunday’s agreement of the six parties of social democrat Elio Di Rupo’s future coalition to start a nuclear phase-out from 2015 onwards left the Green parties with mixed feelings. It is less than the purple coalition’s deci...
Why is Belgium facing a constitutional crisis? | Ian Traynor
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With no national government for the past 459 days, can Flanders and Wallonia ever overcome their differences?King Albert II of Belgium has had to interrupt his summer on the French riviera and rush home to grapple with his kingdom's latest crisis, fe...
Belgium at the Precipice Again
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Belgians waking up this morning could be forgiven for thinking that last night’s tasty, refreshing pintje of cold beer had been swapped for a super-strong 12% trappist brew.
Belgium sinking deeper and deeper…
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I haven’t been reporting or commenting for a while on the ongoing political crisis in Belgium, which most recently started with the elections 15 months ago and the inability to form a government afterwards, but in fact genuinely started after t...
Princess, 9, Gives Speech in Dutch
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Is there significance in the language used in the first speech by a 9-year-old Belgian princess?
Without a government, Belgium buddies up to Israel
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Belgium has not had a properly functioning government for more than 450 days yet that hasn’t stopped its caretaker administration from seeking to increase trade with Israel.Earlier this week, Yves Leterme, the acting Belgian prime minister, opened...
In Belgium’s struggle to survive, unlikely fans
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By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER EUPEN, Belgium — As Belgium struggles to survive cacophonous infighting between its Francophones and Dutch speakers, some of the country’s biggest fans are also its unlikeliest. On the eastern border, a tiny community...
Google: Belgian Papers to Appear in Searches Again
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By DON MELVIN Google began allowing the Web sites of French-language Belgian newspapers to appear in its search results again on Monday, saying it had obtained the papers’ legal consent to do so without repercussions. The Internet giant had blo...
Europe to be blamed for Belgium crisis
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Belgium is descending into new chaos. In a nutshell, Flemish separatist N-VA leader Bart De Wever has given Waloon Socialist leader Elio di Rupo the middle finger, as Het Nieuwsblat described it. He was able to do so, because CD&V, the Flemis...
Wallonia’s Epic Battle: Good vs. Evil
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Every year, grown men cover themselves in leaves and beat each other with pig's bladders in Belgium's southern city of Mons.
Shopping in Belgium
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In Belgium, it's up to the buyer to be the expert in what they are purchasing. Never never never never never trust the company to sell you what you need. Always always always check to ensure that you are buying what you want and not what they want to...
[Updated] EU summit: The Belgians are revolting
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UPDATE: The demonstrations are already turning nasty. Near the Belgian prime minister’s office, protesters are throwing rocks at riot police, who have opened water cannons on them. It’s summit day (again!) in Brussels, and for Europe’s pres...
World record for longest period without a government: Belgium
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Yesterday Belgium was awarded the prize for the longest period ever for a state to have no government, 249 days. This follows an inconclusive election result last year, about which I write here: http://cep.rhul.ac.uk/cep-blog/2010/6/15/coalition-form...
A Politician’s Death Divides Belgium
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The death of a beautiful, young, right-wing politician fans the flames of cultural division in Belgium.
Brussels calls for the formation of a government
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By Eva Donelli and Maxence Peniguet Between 35 000 demonstrators (according to the police) and 45 000 demonstrators (according to organisers) marched on Sunday 23 January calling for an end to the crisis in Belgium. If the organizers wanted to limi...
Belgian shame rally: can ideology be fought with neutrality?
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Today more than 34,000 Belgians marched in a demonstration across Brussels demanding that the country's bickering politicians reach a compromise in the ongoing talks to form a government. Belgium has been without a government for 224 days now, the lo...
Saving Belgium means saving Europe
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Failed States are usually those African countries blamed by westerners for not having started their democratic and economic ascend, ravaged by poverty, corruption and a clear lack of good governance. But what if this vocabulary of “Failed State”...
State minimalism and parliamentary absolutism in EU
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Max Steinbeis on Verfassungsblog vividly described Belgium: Failed State mitten in Europa (12 January 2011). Given the slow but seemingly inexorable descent into oblivion, Belgium's greatest gift to Europe could be to cede an ample enough territory t...
Brussels E.C?
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As Arthur Beesley tells us in the Irish Times about the country which still a few days ago had a driving role in the process of European integration, ”Belgian political stalemate continues as Flemish parties reject compromise”: THE TWO largest D...
Belgian EU Council presidency legacy
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On 1 July 2010 Belgium took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from Spain, as the second country in the presidency trio. The Belgian government showed team spirit by using the www.eutrio.be web address and the #EuTrioBe hashtag...
Belgium's 'invisible' EU presidency comes to an end
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As the clock struck midnight last Friday, it wasn't just 2010 that was coming to an end. Here in Brussels, the new year also meant the end of Belgium's six-month period at the helm of the EU, as the country handed over the baton to Hungary. It was an...
Belgium’s Goose Is Stuffed
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In continental Europe, it's a bad time to be a goose as foie gras is an essential part of New Year dining ... and Belgium's appetite for goose and duck liver is booming!
The view from Benelux
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Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders today said that aid to Ireland is "inevitable", claiming that it's impossible for Ireland to get out of this pickle without some sort of cash injection. He added that for the ECB it would become "difficult" t...
What was that about a Non-Country?
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Nigel Farage did get into trouble about being rude about Belgium. He infammously described it as a non-country.Heis resaons where that its different tribes were unable to get on, and that they hadn't been able to sort out a Government. He was fined a...
Belgian Firm Planning Surprise Twist In Nabucco Story
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A little-known Belgian businessman says his company is poised to clinch a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) deal with Turkmenistan in November in a potential setback for the EU's Nabucco and Russia's South Stream pipeline projects. READ MORE...
Je blogue, tu blogues, il blogue, etc
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Bon, il parait que pour la journée internationale de je ne sais plus quoi (la crevette grise de Zélande? le multilingualisme?) il faut bloguer en utilisant une autre langue que d’habitude. Problème pour la déracinée que je suis: c’es...
Why Belgium is the ideal holder of the EU presidency
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Given the messy state of their own affairs, the prospect of Belgium’s EU presidency raised nervous eyebrows in Brussels before the summer break. Unable to form a government in their own country since April, how could the Belgians possibly run one t...
“Romagate” is everywhere, including Brussels and Belgium
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From a human rights perspective, Stijn Smet on the Strasbourg Observers describes the “utterly unacceptable treatment of Roma by Sarkozy’s government”. The discriminatory practice violates both the freedom of movement within the EU and the proh...
In a school ALL pupils should be king! An example of segregation in a Belgian school.
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From a minority perspective, this week was not a good week in Belgium. On Wednesday, a television broadcast proved that employment agencies cooperate actively with employers who don’t want to hire people with a foreign background (in Belgium the...
Expulsion or mustard grass, the message is the same: “Roma, you are not welcome”
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We have all read about the utterly unacceptable treatment of Roma by Sarkozy’s government. And while France holds firm to its “return policy”, thankfully the EU has not turned a blind eye to this discriminatory practice, violating both the free...
Opening of the Belgian Presidency of the EU
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The beginning of July saw the Belgians take the baton from Spain for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which they will hold for this latter half of 2010 before Hungary concludes the trio presidency in the first half of 2011. Belgiu...
Can Belgian Politics Get Any Stranger?
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Belgian political leaders are a month or two away from a deal that would give more power to its regions and make Elio Di Rupo the next prime minister.
Expression through Begonias
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The flower carpet will be on the Grand Place in Brussels from 12 to 15 August 2010. The theme of the 2010 flower carpet will be the Belgian presidency of the European Union. The first carpet on the Grand Place dates back to 1971. Webcam Brussels Gra...
No poofs in power in Muslim lands (eg Belgium)
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seems to be the clear message received by Walloon socialist leader and likely next PM of Belgium, Elio di Rupo on Friday.The letter sent to the Flemish TV station VTM makes the point pretty clearly,"In the name of Allah, in a Muslim country like Belg...
Buying property in Belgium - how to buy a house, how buy an appartment in Belgium
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Purchasing property in Belgium is a commitment.A purchased property with a mortgage that is sold within five years of purchase carries a heavy capital gains tax. There are several layers of paperwork in buying a property and all of them cost. Overall...
Belgium, new promotion as the Heart of Europe
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Promoting a country for investors is a complex challenge. The business logic must be sound. It has to dazzle the commercial minds. You have to woe the number crunchers and financial managers. The human resources angle needs to be covered fully...
Belgium starts EU Presidency dancing in the streets
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Belgium starts its Presidency of the EU by dancing for Europe. Crowds gathered in twelve towns across the kingdom to dance to a song of the local group Jaune Toujours. Typical for the land of beer, chocolate and "Manneken Pis", the song ...
Death to Belgium: Long live the EU
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An interesting article by Morgan Meis on the crisis facing Belgium and the possible salvation offered that land by being in the EU.In more radical terms, this would mean that the nation state in general, in Europe, could become superfluous. A shockin...
