For the first time in Belgium, a woman fell pregnant using one of her frozen eggs, thanks to a technique implemented by the fertility clinic at UZ Brussels hospital in Jette. Until now the technique of egg freezing – or oocyte cryopreservation - was mainly used for cancer patients who feared that...

Belgian media report that the black economy in Belgium accounts for nearly €61 billion, or about 16.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to a report by economics professor Friedrich Schneider, titled ‘Shadow economy and tax evasion in the EU’. By shadow economy, Schneider refers to the...

About 200 people gathered in the Brussels commune of Ixelles/Elsene yesterday at the initiative of the collective Sauver la Plaine, to protest against the controversial real estate project Universalis Park. The controversy concerns La Plaine Ixelles/Oefenplein on the campus of the ULB, the French-...

Getting a grip on Belgian politics can be tricky. Divisions between federal, regional and community governments, can baffle even for Belgians, so how is a lowly expat expect to understand it all? A good place to start is to know the names of who is running the show. So for the next two week, The...

The government of the Brussels-Capital Region will focus on major urban projects, said minister-president Rudi Vervoort in a speech yesterday setting out his government’s ambitious policy plans for the coming four-year term. “The big challenge is to implement, implement and implement,” said the...

The three main trade unions have called for a general strike for Monday, December 15, in protest at spending cuts planned by the new federal government accord under prime minister Charles Michel. The unions are angry at what they described in a statement as a governing accord “full of blind cuts...

The number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in Belgium continues to rise, according to figures from the Scientific Institute of Public Health, reports Le Soir . Chlamydia is the most common STD in Belgium, with a sharp increase in the number of cases in Flanders between 2002 and 2013, from 8...

Thirteen-year-old Saranjit Singh from Sint-Truiden, Limburg province, is allowed to continue wearing a turban to school, according to a ruling by the Council of State. Singh, who attends the Atheneum Sint-Truiden, has Indian roots and is a Sikh, a follower of a religion that requires hair be kept...

More than one in five new students at the Huis van het Nederlands (House of Dutch) in Brussels is an expat, according to figures from the previous school year. "Expats are increasingly aware that knowledge of the Dutch language is an added value in the job market," says director Gunther Van Neste...

Counting down to the Bake Off competition, amateur bakers across the capital are testing final recipes in the hope of wowing judges on October 27. Each office team was placed in one of four categories at the British Chamber of Commerce’s launch event on September 22: cakes, European goodies,...