Netherlands-based recruitment firm Randstad Holding NV yesterday announced that its Belgian branch, Randstad Belgium, has entered into formal discussions with the country’s works councils about a restructuring plan. “The plan aims to create a more efficient and client-orientated organisation,” the...

Novelist Anna Mackenzie, a New Zealander specialising in young-adult fiction, has been awarded a writer's residency by Passa Porta, Belgium’s International House of Literature, writes the Dominion Post’s Tracey Chatterton . She applied for the residency while in Belgium last year researching a WWI...

Four Belgian citizens who had wanted to fight in Syria were arrested by Turkish police on the border, Belgian home affairs minister Joëlle Milquet has announced.She said the four Belgians had been sent back to Belgium on June 17, adding that this incident showed the excellent cooperation between...

Driving instructor Dirk Bosmans, 30, from Halle talks about what he earns and how he spends it What do you do for a living? I teach learner drivers and prepare them for their test. I help them practice their manoeuvres, and take them through possible test routes. How many hours a week do you work?...

Rock Werchter may be sold out but there are plenty of other Belgian pop/rock festivals worth checking out this summer. Here’s our pick of some of the best. Fête de la Musique - June 21-23 Kicking off the summer festival season is the 29th edition of the Brussels and Wallonia musical bonanza, with...

Belgian court documents and Western counterterrorism officials have revealed that a potential al Qaeda plot targeting Belgium was thwarted partly by email information provided by American internet providers, reports CNN’s Paul Cruickshank . The case, which came to light in 2008, shows how U.S...

Some simplified tax forms, which are already filled in by the tax authorities, contain inaccurate data, De Standaard, De Tijd and Het Nieuwsblad report today. The simplified forms are used for taxpayers whose situation does not change from one year to another, such as retirees who only have a state...

Belgian green energy retailer Lampiris doubled its market share last year as customers deserted market leader Electrabel, highlighting the impact of government encouragement for switching, reports EurActiv . For Lampiris's co-founder and chairman Bruno Vanderschueren, its growth is testimony to its...

Federal economy minister Johan Vande Lanotte is willing to scrap the Thalys service between Brussels and Ostend provided that the Walloon branch, which runs via Namur, suffers the same fate, he told the VRT. The Ostend-Brussels stretch of the Thalys service to Paris is nicknamed the "Phantom Thalys...