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BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES • Weekly analysis and untold stories
The Agriculture and Fisheries Council discussed on Tuesday a new EU legislative framework for an EU positive list for the trade and keeping of companion animals. The discussion was based on a position paper submitted by Cyprus and co-signed by Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta, calling for the European Commission to explore the benefits of an EU-wide […]
The Agriculture and Fisheries Council discussed on Tuesday a new EU legislative framework for an EU positive list for the trade and keeping of companion animals. The discussion was based on a position paper submitted by Cyprus and co-signed by Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta, calling for the European Commission to explore the benefits of an EU-wide […]
The European Commission has outlined options for mitigating high energy prices, namely with common gas purchases and minimum gas storage obligations, according to a press release. “Global and European energy markets are going through turbulent times, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson. “Europe needs to take swift action […]
EU leaders met US President Joe Biden on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine and the strengthening of transatlantic cooperation, and were joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via video conference. The main results of the first day of the European Council meeting are summarized here. The leaders condemned in the strongest possible terms “Russia’s […]
The decrease in the number of new coronavirus infections in Belgium is now also being confirmed in the Covid-19 hospitalisation figures, which have stopped their increase. Between 28 January and 3 February, an average of 31,548 Covid-19 infections were recorded each day, a 37% decrease compared to the previous week, according to preliminary figures from […]
The Colruyt Group announced on Friday that it has acquired a 41.36% stake in Smartmat, which specialises in home deliveries, Belga News Agency reports. Colruyt joins Korys – the investment branch of the Colruyt Group – as a major shareholder in the Smartmat home-delivery company, which delivers food packages under the Foodbag and 15gram brands. […]
Statues have been torn down for almost as long as they have been raised, but it was only in 2020 that Belgium’s Leopold II statues were seriously in danger of being ripped from their plinths. In 2020, there was a worldwide wave of iconoclasm: attacking statues. Damaging or destroying statues as a political act has […]
Ghent is an atmospheric city after dark thanks in part to an inspiring urban light plan launched in 1998. The ancient Gothic buildings like the Vleeshuis and the Gravensteen are illuminated with subtle lights to highlight the mediaeval details, while spotlights in the pavements cast theatrical shadows on the walls. The lights pick up tiny […]
Of the vaccinated 12-17-year-olds, eight out of ten would take a booster shot if the opportunity arose, the results of the lastest Grat Corona Study by the University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen) show. Nearly 80% (79.4%) of the 12-17-year-olds who already received their basic vaccination would ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ also get their booster shot. 11.6% said […]
Volvo Cars has chosen the Swedish city of Gothenburg as the site of its new electric battery factory, the auto manufacturer announced on Friday. Ghent, site of a major Volvo Cars assembly plant, had been among the cities bidding to host the future plant, which is expected to create up to 3,000 jobs and produce […]
The euro rallied this week against the dollar, ending the day on Friday with a high of $1.448 to €1, according to figures posted by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). At the start of the day, €1 was worth $1.144 but this rose quickly to $1.1465 – a weekly increase of 2.8% which is its […]
Antwerp is a city famed for its diamond trade and the 2021 year was a particularly good year on this front, with imports and exports totalling $37.23 billion, according to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), Belga News Agency reports. This was slightly better than 2019’s pre-pandemic figures and has been seen as a promising […]
An avalanche in Austria’s Tyrol region claimed five lives and injured one person on Friday, according to emergency services, Belga News Agency reports. Across the border in Switzerland, the body of a 43-year-old snowboarder was found on Thursday evening under a metre of snow in an off-piste area. The victims in Tyrol were also off-piste […]
On Friday, share prices in the world’s biggest online retailer Amazon saw a record 14% increase on Wall Street, according to the US news service, Bloomberg News. This is the largest one-day gain in the history of the U.S. stock market, smashing the previous record of US$179 billion (€156.6 billion), which was set last week […]
On Saturday, the supermarkets Cora, Match and Smatch issued a recall of packs of Scottish smoked salmon after the pathogenic bacteria Listeria monocytogenes was detected. The recall came at the request of the Federal Agency for Food Safety (AFSCA). Any shoppers that bought the product, marked with the Cora brand and with an expiry date […]
The Federal Government’s decision to reduce VAT on electricity from 21% to 6% from April to July will help protect households from huge hikes in energy bills but will also cause slow down the indexing of salaries, social benefits and pensions. The Christian trade union federation, CSC, argues that this will actually have an adverse […]
The Royal Meteorological Institute, IRM, has issued an orange alert for Liège in anticipation of the heavy rains expected in the province on Sunday, Belga news agency reports. The rest of the country has been placed on yellow alert, except for the coast and West Flanders. Steady rains of growing intensity are to be expected […]
21 children were erroneously administered the Moderna vaccine rather than the Pfizer one in Kampenhout, Flanders, the local vaccination centre reported on Saturday. The error took place on Wednesday afternoon and saw children between the ages of 7 and 12 receive a dose of the Moderna vaccine that has yet to be approved for this […]
A small plane that carried three tourists, including two Belgian residents, has been located after going missing last week. An Icelandic official confirmed on Twitter that the plane was found at the bottom of a lake, Belga News Agency reported. All four on board died. A huge search operation was triggered after the Cessna C172 […]
Forêt de Soignes is a hotspot for anyone wishing to escape the bustle of the city, be they ramblers, joggers, or dog walkers. But with dog-related incidents on the rise, it will soon become mandatory to keep dogs on leads throughout the forest. Often referred to as the “green lung” of Brussels, the 4,400 hectare […]
BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES • Weekly analysis and untold stories
A judge in Antwerp has decided to overturn a ruling to stop the broadcast of De Kasteelmoord, a VRT documentary on the murder of Stijn Saelens a decade ago in the family château in Wingene in West Flanders. The killing received a great deal of media attention because of the fact that the Saelens were […]
A giant Ed Sheeran mural that dominated the Brussels city streetscape has been painted over — just as hotel chiefs bagged planning permission to build Belgium’s biggest hospitality venue. The gargantuan wall painting by Flemish street artist Eres_125 adorning the key commercial intersection at Place Rogier between Brussels’ main shopping artery of Rue Neuve and […]
In light of the parliamentary debates about possibly introducing a mandatory vaccination, the Superior Health Council (HGR) stated that it does not support the extended use of the Covid Safe Ticket (CST) if it becomes a “hidden” obligation to get vaccinated. While several countries report that their vaccination coverage increased after the introduction of CST […]
The Belgian Data Protection Authority – previously known as the Privacy Commission – has fined a company for what appears to be a blatant disregard for the wishes of internet users. We’ve all seen them: the minute you arrive on a new website you haven’t visited before, a text box pops up to ask whether […]
More than a quarter of preschool children in Brussels and Antwerp lack the Dutch language skills required for entering first grade. Across Belgium, 11% of children in kindergarten still need extra language support and 4% need intensive guidance, according to a Language Screening to evaluate language proficiency, carried out by the Flemish authorities for the first […]
Flanders’ health minister has said the region will prepare to offer a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine to teenagers if a country-wide agreement isn’t made this evening. The various health ministers have been discussing the matter for weeks, but have so far failed to come to a decision on whether to offer teenagers aged 12 […]
On the occasion of World Cancer Day on Friday, the European Commission is taking the first step by launching an EU wide public consultation on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. Every year, 3.5 million persons are diagnosed with cancer in the EU. It is a serious health issue that will directly affect 40% of EU citizens […]
A professor at the University of Brussels (VUB) who was fired for inappropriate behaviour towards students and colleagues contacted his victims after his dismissal, despite it being forbidden to do so. The 49-year-old archaeology professor was dismissed after some 20 students and staff members had reported transgressive behaviour, resulting in an internal investigation into his misconduct. […]
A Belgian father’s Facebook appeal for news of his daughter reported missing on a trekking trip to Peru is being taken up by a federal crisis cell this afternoon, he told The Brussels Times. Friends of Natacha de Crombrugghe posted on behalf of Dad Eric saying they had no news of Natacha since January 23 […]
Energy taxation can support efforts to combat climate change, but current tax levels do not reflect the extent to which different energy sources pollute, according to a review report published this week by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). All member states still continue to subsidise fossil fuels despite commitments to phase them out. A […]
Exactly ten years ago today, Belgium experienced the coldest day of the century: on 4 February 2012, the temperature was -15°C. Today, the temperature stands at 10°C, which is 25 degrees warmer than ten years ago. “We were in the middle of a cold wave, which made it an exceptionally cold day. Even for the […]
Belgians entered year two of the coronavirus pandemic holding onto a record-setting €300.6 billion in regulated savings accounts. While Belgians typically drop more euros into savings at the end of the year as their 13th-month or year-end pay bonuses arrive, De Tijd reports passing the €300 billion mark is significant for two reasons. First, the […]
On Friday afternoon, a large rain zone will pass through Belgium, accompanied by high winds and gusts of up to 80 km/h locally, according to the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI), which issued a code yellow warning. To make sure the emergency services are not overloaded and to direct no-so-urgent calls to other services, the Home […]
The Flemish employment service VDAB received 15,500 applications for work in the horeca business (hotel, restaurant and catering) in 2021, despite the industry being hard-hit by the pandemic, De Tijd reports. The figure is a record – although official records only go back to 2014. The increase is remarkable given the circumstances: long closures, restricted […]
Belgium has been called on by Flemish employers’ organisation Voka to drop the obligation on teleworking which has been in place for more than two months. As part of the current Covid-19 restrictions, working from home is compulsory: people can work from the office for a maximum of one day a week, while no more […]
The Belgian food industry association Fevia has banned the use of the additive titanium dioxide (E171), following the advice of the European food safety authority EFSA. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used in many products as a pigment providing whiteness to products such as paint and paper, but also food and medicines, as well as almost […]
Prosecutors are pursuing two men caught with a small cannabis farm in a Brussels city flat for harming exotic animals, after finding a small zoo including a python, scorpions and tarantula spiders. The father and adult son were released after their arrest when police unearthed the unusual stash in the city’s northern Evere district with […]
The infection peak of Belgium’s fifth coronavirus wave was registered on Monday 24 January, and the rise in the number of hospitalisations has started slowing down as well, according to virologist Steven Van Gucht. The total number of infections may have dropped by 20% in one week, “but the fifth wave is not over yet,” […]
Schools are increasingly facing difficult choices that could threaten the quality of children’s education as they are buckling under the rising energy prices, further increased by Covid-19 measures. The increasing energy bills have been weighing heavily on Belgian households for months now, but this has also become an insurmountable problem for education, with schools expecting their energy […]
An HIV variant that is more contagious and can lead to AIDS more quickly than other variants of the virus has been discovered in the Netherlands and Belgium, British research shows. The HIV variant has been circulating in the Netherlands for several decades and came to light during further research on previously collected data from […]
On Thursday morning, 17 people were evacuated from a former residential care home in East Flanders during a police raid as part of a judicial investigation. The residents evacuated from the Alegria Cohousing, formerly a residential care centre named Residentie Beauprez, in Geraardsbergen, were all in need of care but were not getting the care […]
A new court challenge against restrictions to hospitality and events access claims data used to extend the Belgian Covid Safe Ticket (CST) is “totally outdated.” The non-profit organisation ‘Notre Bon Droit’, which is also active in France and Québec in Canada, have filed a legal action in Namur over the decision to prolong the use […]
This year, telecommunications company VOO will end its analogue television and radio signal, switching to an entirely digital transmission system. The switch will occur gradually during the year by region. VOO plans to warn customers personally about the impending switchover before service is cut, according to reports from Belga news agency. The digital service is […]
The decrease in the number of new coronavirus cases in Belgium is continuing at a rapid speed, but there is still a slight rise in the number of Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths. Between 25 and 31 January, an average of 41,757 new coronavirus infections were identified every day — a 20% decrease on the previous […]
A rising number of people living in Belgium are relying on food banks every month, and this rising trend is expected to continue due to the rise in energy prices. In 2021, an average of 177,238 people turned to food banks every month, an increase of almost 2,000 beneficiaries per month. The number of people […]
The uncertainty about offering a booster vaccine to teenagers in Belgium is leading to “booster tourism,” which sees a number of young people crossing country borders to get vaccinated in Germany. Thomas (16) lives in Hasselt in the Limburg province, but went to a vaccination centre just across the border in Aachen to get his […]
As Europe considers how to deliver on its climate promises, support is growing to label nuclear power and natural gas as “green”, paving the way for future invesments. On Wednesday, the European Commission presented the Taxonomy Complementary Climate Delegated Act, establishing nuclear energy and natural gas – under strict conditions – as ripe for receiving […]
For decades, Britons abroad in Belgium always knew where to find their home treats: the Stonemanor store. It was stacked with creature comfort foods from mushy peas to Stilton cheese and from Yorkshire pudding to Mr Kipling cakes. But earlier this year, vital supply lines stopped, leaving Brits in Belgium facing a crisis. Boris Johnson […]
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