Belgian PM Yves Leterme offers to stand down...Again

By BBC News

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme has decided to resign after a key partner withdrew from his governing coalition.

Mr Leterme visited King Albert to tender his government's resignation following an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The king did not immediately accept Mr Leterme's resignation.

The collapse of the government threw into doubt the scheduled parliamentary debate on a law that would ban full-face Muslim veils being worn in public.

It would have been the first such law introduced by a European country.

Third resignation

The coalition fell apart after the Flemish liberal party, Open VLD, withdrew over a long-running dispute on the rights of French speakers living in Dutch-speaking areas near the capital Brussels.

"There was no other choice but for the government to resign," Finance Minister Didier Reynders told reporters.
It is the third time Mr Leterme, 49, has offered his resignation to the king.

The first time, in July 2008, he offered to quit because of failures to patch up the rift between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and French-speaking Walloons.

The king refused to accept his resignation - but accepted it in December the same year, amid allegations that the government had interfered with the courts.

Mr Leterme, however, returned as prime minister after his replacement, Herman von Rompuy, was elected president of the European Council....(Remainder)

Belgium's Coalition Government Collapses

By Lisa Bryant
Voice of America

Belgium's coalition government collapsed for the second time in a little more than a year when a key party withdrew its support and Prime Minister Yves Leterme tendered his resignation.

It was not immediately clear whether Belgium's King Albert will accept Prime Minister Yves Leterme's resignation, following the collapse of his five-month-old coalition government.  But it seems like an old story.

Mr. Leterme also resigned as prime minister in late 2008 over a banking scandal.  He returned to power last November when former Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy was tapped to become the first, full-time head of the European Union.

This latest resignation is a fallout of Belgium's long-term power struggle between the country's French-speaking Walloons and Flemish-speaking majority.

The latest disagreement centers on special rights for Walloons living near Brussels.  A key coalition member, the Flemish liberal Open VLD Party, pulled out of the government, frustrated over the failure to resolve the dispute....(Remainder.)

Airport Crisis Frustrates Travelers, and Airlines

By Steven Erlanger, Jack Ewing and Nicola Clark
The New York Times
Photo by Fabrice Coffrini (AFP)

PARIS — As a large part of European airspace remained shut down for the fourth day Sunday and the towering fountain of ash from an Icelandic volcano showed no signs of letting up, questions about the long-term impact of the eruption were being raised in a continent trying to recover from recession.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services extended its ban on flights across its airspace until at least 1 a.m. Monday, prompting the country’s flag carrier, British Airways, to announce the cancellation of all of its flights scheduled for Monday.

Airline officials were having a hard time hiding their frustration with the situation. On a conference call Sunday with airlines hosted by Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based agency that coordinates air traffic management across the region, one airline representative sharply chastised national civil aviation authorities for being inconsistent in applying flight restrictions and stressed that the flight bans were creating “a serious economic issue for us.”

With airlines eager to reposition aircraft and flight crews scattered across the region, some governments began allowing limited, low-altitude flights without passengers. Germany’s civil aviation authority said it had allowed several such ferry flights by Lufthansa, Air Berlin and Condor airlines overnight. Such flights are being operated under so-called visual flight rules, whereby pilots navigate by sight, rather than relying on their cockpit instrument panels....(Remainder)

EU probes Flemish anti-French discrimination complaints

The European Union said it is investigating complaints that Flemish authorities outside Brussels are actively discriminating against non-Flemish buyers of public housing.

By Expatica.com

BRUSSELS -Tensions between the core French and majority Dutch-speaking communities at the heart of the federal Belgian state have risen in recent years as parties advocating full autonomy for wealthier, northern Flanders have flourished.

The rift has widened with television reports this week that mayors in Flemish districts around the capital are giving preference in the sale of publicly-developed housing stock to Flemish buyers, in an effort to maintain their "Flemish character."

Verbal deals with developers or real estate agents ensure municipal authorities are able to vet interested buyers first.
The practice is said to go back years, and would run counter to the publicly-held position in French-speaking communes or the officially bilingual capital city.

"We have received two complaints based on fundamental liberties in European Union treaties and in particular relating to the purchase of private property," said a European Commission spokeswoman.

Chantal Hugues told a daily press conference that the EU's legal guardian was taking the complaints "seriously," less than three months from Belgium assuming the revolving chair of the bloc.

The EU guarantees its half a billion citizens the right to free movement across the 27 member countries but regularly receives complaints linked to policies in Flemish areas on the doorstep of its capital Brussels....(Original here.)

Euro rallies after ministers agree Greece bailout terms

By Richard Wray and Graeme Wearden
The Guardian

The euro rallied this morning after the eurozone's finance ministers agreed the terms of a €30bn (£26bn) bailout fund for Greece, ahead of a crunch week for the heavily indebted nation.

The European single-currency unit jumped about 1% in early trading to $1.3691 against the US dollar, its highest level in nearly four weeks. It also gained 1% against the Japanese yen and reached nearly 88.5p against the pound, as it clawed back some of its recent losses during the Greek crisis.

The relief spread to global stock markets, which hit an 18-month high. In London, the FTSE 100 broke through the 5800-mark for the first time since June 2008. Financial stocks surged in Athens, with shares in National Bank of Greece jumping by more than 10%....(Remainder here.)

EU sees upswing in antisemitic attacks, report says

By Andrew Rettman
EU Observer

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The number of antisemitic incidents mushroomed in many western EU countries in 2009 due to an organised anti-Gaza war campaign, a new study says.

Incidents in the UK jumped 69 percent to 924, while the number of violent attacks tripled. Incidents went up by 75 percent to 832 in France. Sharp upward trends also took hold of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and Spain.

The figures, published at the weekend, were compiled by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Looking at the number of violent incidents in absolute terms, the UK and France lead the EU league table, followed by Germany, Belgium and Austria. Relatively high numbers are also seen in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.

The vast majority of incidents concern vandalism of Jewish sites or chanting antisemitic slogans at rallies. But some are more disturbing.
In January in Odense, Denmark, a young Danish-Palestinian man shot and wounded two Israelis manning a Dead Sea products stall.

(Remainder here.)