Tag: Belgium

The EU’s top transport official says the troubled launch of a now-suspended high-speed rail service between Brussels and Amsterdam - christened the ‘flop train’ by angry passengers - is “not our problem” despite years of efforts to encourage such premium transnational rail service.

European leaders have moved closer to an agreement on the EU's long-term budget and should clinch a deal in the spring, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

Belgian senators have urged the EU to take action on France’s proposed beer tax hike claiming that it infringes European competition rules. EurActiv.fr reports.

Shared responsibility and solidarity are the two key words that will steer the European debate in the coming years as the European Union slowly moves towards a federal model, writes Didier Reynders.

Consumers who are willing to pay extra for organic fruits, vegetables and other goods may not always get what they are hoped for due to lax oversight in some EU countries.

Belgium became the first eurozone country formally to fall into recession in the second half of last year, data showed on Wednesday, paving the way for what is expected to be a tough contraction for the bloc as a whole in 2012.

Negotiators from the eight political parties involved in coalition talks have reached an agreement over the weekend to overhaul the Belgian state, lifting a major stumbling bloc on the way to forming a new government.

On the country's national day, Belgium could end a 400-day long stalemate on forming a new government as the Flemish conservative party agreed to enter coalition talks, but this time without the winner of last year's elections, the separatist party N-VA.

The Flemish separatist N-VA party rejected a proposal to restart stalled Belgian coalition talks yesterday (7 July), prolonging the country's 13-month search for a government following an inconclusive election.

Belgium's king asked the leader of the French-speaking socialists to try to form a government yesterday (16 May), the latest attempt to break 11 months of political stalemate in the linguistically divided country.

289 days after general elections held in June last year, Belgium is still without a government and yesterday (29 March) replaced Iraq as the country to have experienced the longest period with no official government. The milestone was noted less in the country than abroad.

Johan Vande Lanotte, a mediator appointed to reconcile the French and Dutch-speaking political parties involved in coalition talks, has thrown in the towel for the second time in one month, plunging the country further into political paralysis.

A Belgian government mediator, tasked with building consensus between the country's different linguistic groups, stepped down yesterday (6 January), the Royal Palace said, increasing the chances of a new election.

As Belgium's political instability continues, the country's economic future looks increasingly precarious and whether it will be next to succumb to a debt crisis depends on which scenario the Belgians end up choosing, write Susanne Mundschenk and Raphael Cottin, executive director and research associate at Eurointelligence.

Belgium was again plunged into political crisis over the weekend as French-speaking Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo resigned from his mediator role as prime minister-in-waiting. Leading politicians are now openly talking about the prospect of breaking up the country.

A series of consultations of political leaders with Belgian King Albert II to be held today (20 August) are expected to herald a standstill in negotiations to form a new government. Hopes are evaporating that the country, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, will have a functional executive just after the summer recess.

King Albert II has appointed the leader of the French-speaking socialist party, Elio Di Rupo, to lead talks on forming a new government in Belgium after his Dutch-speaking rival Bart De Wever ended an exploratory mission yesterday (8 July).

Belgium took on the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on 1 July 2010 with a caretaker government in charge, following national elections which saw Flemish separatist leader Bart De Wever top the polls.

Bart De Wever, the Flemish nationalist who claimed victory in Belgium's recent national elections, assured European Commission President José Manuel Barroso yesterday (23 June) that the Belgian EU Presidency would be unaffected by ongoing government coalition talks and that a new administration would be in place "by the time real work begins".

The upcoming Belgian EU Presidency has not specifically cited enlargement among its top priorities but is widely expected to help Croatia and Iceland reach important milestones in their accession bids over the next six months.

Despite the domestic political turmoil in the country, Belgium's forthcoming EU presidency will probably be unaffected and run smoothly for a number of reasons, including the introduction of a Council president and the country's experience as a member state, write Steven Van Hecke and Peter Bursens, members of the Research Group on European and International Politics at the University of Antwerp, in an exclusive commentary for EurActiv.

Belgium could have avoided early elections to be held on Sunday (13 June) if its experienced politicians had stayed in national politics, Jean-Michel de Waele, professor of political science at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Belgian State Secretary for European Affairs Olivier Chastel says Belgium will give full leeway to the EU's new front men – Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton – when the divided country takes the rotating EU presidency on 1 July. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Belgian King Albert II accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme's five-month-old government yesterday (26 April), plunging the country into a crisis as it prepares to assume the rotating presidency of the EU.