Belgium’s justice department owes almost €30m in unpaid bills to the country’s three main telephone operators - Belgacom, Mobistar and Base, reports TelecomPaper . The bills, which relate to the tracing calls and text messages for the government, are unpaid since February , according to L’Echo...

Former Belgian prime minister Wilfried Martens, who led nine governments and was the president of the European People's Party, has died at the age of 77. CD&V (Flemish Christian-democrats) leader Wouter Beke announced this morning that Martens had passed away overnight. Heart problems had long...

The Belgian federal government has put aside €10m in its 2014 budget to fight against cyber crime, DataNews reported. Prime minister Elio Di Rupo and the deputy prime ministers have also agreed on the creation of a centre against cyber criminality, following the hacking of computer systems used by...

The number of languages spoken in Brussels is constantly on the rise. At the same time, French as the dominant language for interactions is losing ground and the number of people who master several languages is declining. This could be an ‘opportunity’ for other languages but might also pose a...

An alleged member of a commando of the Basque separatist organisation ETA was arrested in Belgium yesterday after 33 years on the run, the Spanish interior ministry has announced in a statement. Maria Natividad Jauregui Espina , known as ‘Pepona’, was arrested in Ghent at 18.30 following the issue...

The opening of two new Ikea stores in 2015, in Mons and Hasselt, will generate 350 direct jobs, it was announced yesterday as the annual figures for the Swedish giant’s Belgian operations were released. It will bring to eight the number of Ikea stores in Belgium - and the chain wants "at least 10...

Kidnapping Freddy Heineken, the film about the abduction of the brewing magnate, is about to start shooting in Belgium. The film, directed by Daniel Alfredson, stars Anthony Hopkins, Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten, reports The Wrap. The film was adapted from a bestselling book by...

Alison Rose will succeed Jonathan Brenton, who will be transferring to another diplomatic service appointment, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office has announced. Ms Rose will take up her appointment during August 2014. An EU specialist, she has worked for the FCO in Paris, London and Brussels,...

Belgium’s federal government agreed about a minimal stimulus package as part of a 2014 budget deal that relies on an economic recovery to boost tax revenue and meet the deficit goals agreed with the European Commission, writes Bloomberg’s John Martens . The budget assumes fiscal takings will rise...

Francois Englert (pictured left) from Belgium and Peter Higgs, from the UK, have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on the theory of the Higgs boson. In the 1960s they were among several physicists who proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe...