Measures announced at the start of the week aimed at making vehicles in Flanders cleaner do not apply to leased cars, budget minister Annemie Turtelboom has confirmed. Before that can happen, a co-operation agreement has to be reached with the Brussels-Capital Region and Wallonia. Flemish Minister-...

Belgian researchers have discovered a gene of major importance in the development of the skeleton. The researchers from the Centre for Medical Genetics at Ghent University (UGent) and Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent) made the breakthrough when examining the genome of babies with grave bone...

Wallonia has been given the green light by the European Commission to prevent the cultivation of genetically modified crops on its territory. The move is allowed under European Union rules, introduced in March, that allow countries to exclude genetically modified crops from part or all of their...

The unofficial refugee camp in Brussels' Park Maximiliaan is set to close this week after the main volunteer group involved announced its withdrawal yesterday. The Civic Platform for Supporting Refugees says it will now concentrate on finding homes willing to take in refugees while they wait to...

The socialist trade union CGSP, representing French-speaking staff of the national rail authority SNCB, has announced it will strike for 24 hours from 22.00 on 8 October to 22.00 on 9 October. The action is likely to cause severe disruption on the whole rail network. CGSP is protesting against the...

The East Flemish pharmacists association Kovag and the Belgian Pharmaceutical Association (APB) have asked for the legal right for pharmacists to give flu vaccinations to customers. Currently, patients must ask their general practitioner (GP) for a prescription, go to the pharmacy for the...

Deploying soldiers on the streets of Belgium has cost the government €9.58 million already this year, according to figures reported in Le Soir . Between 200 and 300 Belgian soldiers were put to work in civil roles between mid-January this year and the end of September The figures emerge from a...

Belgium needs to go further in its tax reforms, according to a report released yesterday by the European Commission. The country is placed in a group of nine European Union member states which appear to have a need to reduce relatively high tax burdens on labour and the scope to increase less...

Imagine if every year people in Belgium were asked to vote in a referendum to decide how many refugees from war-torn countries like Syria would be accepted into the country. How many would you vote for? How many thousands would you be willing to accept? Would you, given the choice, perhaps be...

The pedestrian zone in the centre of Brussels is being cleared of its summer street furniture. This will make it easier for work to take place over the winter to create the permanent pedestrian zone that is expected to open in the spring of 2016. According to a statement from the City of Brussels,...