Our friend Hilary was visiting from the States on Friday and Saturday (a lot of fun!) and we spent Saturday in Gent. When we arrived back at Antwerp Central Station there was a really rather random double-dutch competition happening in the mail hall. Why? I have no clue. What I do know is that there was loud techno music, and people skipping rope. That's about the extent of my knowledge.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Belgium's unity at stake in general elections
Via France24
AFP - Belgians vote in a general election Sunday with opinion polls predicting the kind of impressive showing for Flemish nationalists which would send fears of a national break up soaring.
Pre-election opinion polls put the independentist NVA party in front in the the richer northern region Dutch-speaking Flanders, with a quarter of the vote.
Add fellow separatist groups and the vote regionally stacks up at 40 percent, the kind of figure to send shivers down the spines of federalist politicians in the poorer French-speaking region of Wallonia to the south.
The two communities could then have more than the usual problems in forming a coalition government in a country where only the Brussels capital region is officially bilingual.
It took months after the last legislative elections in 2007 for a government to emerge. Analysts fear any duplication could lead to further radicalisation and bring the spectre of an eventual split into stark focus....(Remainder.)
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Flemish Separatists in the Spotlight
Via Flandersnews.be
With less than a week to go before the General Election international interest is growing in the platform of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA. The party sees Flemish independence as its ultimate goal and a Belgian confederation as a staging post towards this objective.
On Tuesday the party attracted considerable attention at a specially organised 'international' news conference.
A party spokesman told the daily De Standaard that this was the only way to deal with all the queries it was receiving from international journalists based in Brussels.
At the news conference the party explained its key policies in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian. N-VA leader Bart De Wever also set out his party's view on Flanders, Belgium and Europe.
On Monday alone the party was contacted by the Montreal Daily, the Estonian Public Broadcaster and Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine.
The daily De Morgen writes that international interest is linked to several factors. There's tumbling confidence among foreign investors that has dented the value of Belgian state bonds in recent days. This is making it increasingly expensive for the Belgian State to borrow money on the international markets.
Investors are following the political developments in Belgium with baited breath. Fears about a new period of political instability after the election have triggered concerns about a delay in tackling economic problems including the state debt. International investors and the international press are all worried....(Remainder)
Friday, April 23, 2010
Belgian PM Yves Leterme offers to stand down...Again
By BBC NewsBelgian 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.)
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.)
Sunday, April 18, 2010
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)
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)
Monday, April 12, 2010
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.)
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.)
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 RettmanEU 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.)
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