Marianne Thyssen (CD&V) defended the EU’s principle of free movement during a three-hour grilling yesterday by members of the European Parliament. Thyssen was one of four candidates EU Commissioners summoned to appear before the parliament yesterday ahead of taking up posts in the European...

No other country gives more tax benefits for company cars as Belgium. A company in Belgium receives a monthly tax benefit of €230, a world record, reports De Standaard . Companies around the world use company cars in order to reduce their tax burden on labour costs. On average, all the OECD (...

The Brussels-Capital Region has not yet found a solution to the rising number of parakeets in the city, currently estimated at around 12,000. The city has tried different measures without effect, and has now moved on to destroying nesting sites and employing scare tactics, reports Brusselnieuws.be...

In the past several years, the number of people with mental and emotional problems in Flanders has sharply increased. Young people in particular now report having emotional problems in much greater numbers. These are the main conclusions of the Health Survey, a large-scale report commissioned by...

The famous cycling competition, Tour de France, will next summer spend three days crossing Belgian territory, reports La Dernière Heure . The official presentation of the 2015 Tour will take place on October 22, but details of the course have already been released. The route begins on July 4, 2015...

The number of divorces in Belgium has decreased by nearly one-tenth over the last two years, according to the Statistical Office of the Federal Public Service Economy. Still, one in two marriages ends in divorce. In 2013, the FPS Economy recorded nearly 25,000 divorces, compared with more than 26,...

Since March 31, 2014, in Belgium it is possible to request a personalised license plate, a unique combination of self-chosen letters and numbers. Since then, nearly 4,500 motorists have ordered such a license plate which costs around €1,000, according to various Belgian media. The sale of the...

A branch of the McDonald’s fast-food restaurant on the Groenplaats square in central Antwerp was evacuated after passers-by noticed a strong smell of gas and alerted the fire service. The smell was coming from the basement of the McDonald’s building. The restaurant and upper floors, as well as two...

With 50 million coffee cups in use and more than three million kitchen knives sold, the success of Piet Stockmans and Vincent Jalet’s line of products for Tupperware shows how much Belgian design has boomed over the last couple of years. The new exhibition The Power of Object(s) focuses on both the...

The largest terrorism trial ever to take place in Belgium started on Monday in Antwerp amid heightened security. The 46 defendants are all charged with membership of a terrorist group, Sharia4Belgium, which recruited volunteers to go to Syria to fight for anti-government Islamist rebels. Among the...