The future is now. Belgians with debts to the tax authorities have traditionally been contacted by telephone, but new methods will make it a lot more difficult to ignore the call. The Belgian Federal Fiscal Administration will soon make it common practice to contact people using SMS, email and...

Following in the footsteps of December’s well above average temperatures, January continued with warm weather more suited for the springtime. Forecasters are predicting that the mild temperatures will continue, making this one of the warmest winters on record. The thermostat maintained an average...

Unions representing staff of the home decoration chain Home Market have described the company’s decision to close all 41 stores in Belgium as “a bolt out of the blue”. The news of the closures came yesterday afternoon after a brief meeting of the enterprise board. The company said the difficult...

The Sportpaleis in Antwerp and Ancienne Belgique in Brussels have been listed among the most popular concert venues in the world by the American concert industry magazine Pollstar . “Flanders has once again shown it can operate at the top of the world in the music industry,” said Jan Van Esbroeck,...

The plan to close Brussels' downtown core around the Bourse and Place De Brouckere is attracting as many ideas as criticism as to how best to make it work. A long debate ensued on Monday night during a Brussels municipal meeting that focused on making sure that the proposed pedestrian zone is...

It’s almost an insult that the French organisers of the Salon du Chocolat waited so long to bring the world’s biggest chocolate fair to Brussels (the travelling event has already hit the UK, Japan, Brazil and of course France). One suspects they were a tad embarrassed to bring so many coals to...

The famed Westvleteren 12 Trappist ale from the Sint-Sixtus abbey in Westvleteren in West Flanders has again been rated among the top beers in the world by the website RateBeer. This year, breaking with tradition, the site declines to place the top 100 beers in order. However, Westvleteren 12...

The Flemish government’s official architect, Peter Swinnen, has criticised the plans revealed last week by Brussels-City council to introduce a pedestrian-only zone along the major artery in the centre of the city, between Place de la Bourse ( photo ) and Place De Brouckere. The plan includes...

The trial of 31 people accused of fixing professional football matches in Belgium got underway on Monday in Brussels, despite the absence of the alleged mastermind of the operation, who remains at large. The search for the prime suspect, Chinese businessman Zehyun Ye, has been going on for nine...

Defence minister Pieter De Crem was among the 20 heads of state and many other high-level officials who convened in Bavaria last weekend to discuss all pressing security matters at the 50th Munich Security Conference. High on the agenda were the ongoing crisis in Syria, negotiations with Iran...