The European Commission has handed down its definitive opinion against the financing of the Oosterweel connection in Antwerp, forcing the government of Flanders to go back to the beginning by issuing a new tender for the project. The Oosterweel connection, named after one of the villages that once...

Not only is the Grand‘Place the focal point of the city’s Christmas festivities, tonight you have a chance to spin around its Christmas tree in a public waltz . From 19.45, the music starts and couples are invited to step onto the cobbles and dance away. There’ll be two opportunities to dance in...

Ghent’s popular socialist mayor, Daniël Termont, has been shortlisted for the World Mayor Prize 2014. Termont is the first Belgian mayor to be shortlisted for the biennial prize, which was first awarded by the London-based City Mayors Foundation in 2004. Termont is one of 25 mayors shortlisted for...

Brussels mobility minister Pascal Smet (SP.A) has approved a grant of €38,500 to encourage car-sharing in Brussels. The grant will go to car-sharing organisation Autopia, the first step in a series of initiatives to encourage the practice, reports brusselnieuws.be Car-sharing is a growing market in...

Minister Didier Reynders (pictured), whose portfolio includes federal cultural institutions, has said he will not interfere with the artistic choices of the institutions, including La Monnaie. "They have reduced their number of staff and removed dance. That is their choice," he said in De Morgen...

Belgium’s foreign affairs department has announced it will shut down 18 embassies and consulates around the world in a round of heavy budget cuts, Belgian media report. To help meet the government-imposed savings of €30 million in the coming years, the department plans to do away with as many as 18...

Netlog, the Ghent-based social network that was at one point more popular with young people in Belgium than Facebook, is no longer operating. Owners Massive Media have pulled the site, and users are now directed to one of its other properties, Twoo.com. Netlog was first launched as Redbox, an early...

Amid weeks of protests, strikes and rebellion throughout the country, largely in response to the Michel I government’s unpopular austerity measures, here’s a look at the three greatest protests in Belgium’s long, proud history of revolt. Belgian revolution – 1830-1831 Perhaps the ultimate Belgian...

The Brussels-Capital Region has unveiled its new flag and logo. Gone is the stylised iris of gold on a blue background, in comes a golden heart blooming amid two blue petals. This week the Territorial Development committee of the Brussels Parliament approved a motion to change the flag to sport the...

In Belgium’s federal elections on May 25, half of the Brussels population voted blank or invalid, was not eligible to vote, or simply chose not to, according to research by geographer Filip De Maesschalck, which appeared in the political magazine Sampol . De Standaard wrote about the Sampol piece...