More than 15,000 football fans crammed into Brussels’ Roi Baudouin stadium to see the Belgium-US match in Brazil on Tuesday evening. The stadium’s stand 2 was specially opened to let in an extra 2,000 fans. At the end of the match, at 00.30, Belgium’s Red Cross spokesperson Nany Ferroni said staff...

Brussels Airlines (BA) is increasing the frequency of its flights to six locations in Central and East Africa but is scrapping its scheduled flights to Washington, DC, this winter. Passengers who have already booked on a Washington-bound flight will be provided with alternative travel options...

If the Brussels-Capital Region introduced an ambitious cycling policy, it would be worth €300 to €550 million to the economy and triple the number of cycling-related jobs, a study carried out for Brussel Mobiliteit has concluded. At present, the study said, there are 230 jobs in the region directly...

The sixth state reform, agreed to in the previous federal government, was implemented on 1 July with the transfer of extra government responsibilities to the regions and communities. The goal of the reform is to allow the regions to function more efficiently. Between 2015 and 2018, thousands of...

Access to Brussels’ Grand-Place will be severely restricted on Tuesday evening because of the Ommegang, the medieval pageant commemorating the entry of Emperor Charles V into Brussels in 1549. The organisers of this year’s Ommegang need to set up platforms on the Grand-Place to enable viewers to...

Rail traffic was running as normal without any major disruptions to services, announced railway infrastructure manager Infrabel on Tuesday morning. The country’s rail network was paralysed for 24 hours until 22.00 on Monday evening, following a strike by rail trade union CGSP/ACOD over shortage of...

Today, 1 July, sees the start of the summer sales, which will last until 31 July. In Belgium, there are two official sales periods: the winter sales which last from 3 to 31 January and the summer sales which last from 1 July to 31 July. A new set of state reforms also come into effect as of today...

Not Siegfried Bracke (N-VA) but Patrick Dewael (Open VLD) is the new speaker of the federal House of Representatives, after a voting round filled with suspense yesterday. With the support of his own N-VA, as well as CD&V and MR, the road to the speakership seemed wide open for Bracke. In the...

The Constitutional Court has overruled an article in the law that splits the judiciary district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. The article required both the Brussels public prosecutor and the labour judge to be French speaking, with Dutch speaking deputies. The Order of Flemish Bars, the Dutch Order of...

After Bart De Wever’s resignation as informateur in forming a new federal government last week, King Philippe appointed Charles Michel, chair of the French-speaking liberal party MR, as the new informateur. Michel will begin talks, he says, “with a blank sheet”. On Friday, Michel met unions and...