The top 50 American companies in Belgium contributed €1.7 billion in taxes and social security payments to the state coffers in 2012. This finding, and many others, is contained in the recently released report The Importance of US Companies in Belgium, published by the American Chamber of Commerce...

The Belgian army is unable to remove its 16 Salafist recruits, or even to prevent them from being promoted, La Libre reports today. The legal impasse was confirmed in a session of the Defence Committee, held behind closed doors in the houses of parliament. Two of the 16 Salafists have attained the...

Brussels Expo is about to get even busier with the opening of the Brussels National Arena in June, writes Venues Today’s Linda Deckard . The renovation of the Palais 12 exhibition hall into a 15,000-seat arena is on budget (€20 million) and on time (with a four-month construction turnaround). Now...

Criminals who take advantage of the border between France and Belgium to evade police pursuit have been targeted under an agreement between the two countries, reports the UPI agency . French Interior Minister Manuel Valls and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Joelle Milquet, meeting Monday in the...

New Zealand cyclist Jack Bauer was left lying motionless on the road after a crash during a one-day race in Belgium, reports 3 News . The 27-year-old Garmin-Sharp rider fell 58km from the finish of the 199.7km Dwars door Vlaanderen race in Flanders. Television footage showed him lying face down...

One of Europe’s largest music festivals will be crossing over into the US, setting up a fairytale world with electronic dance beats for three days in Georgia, reports the Daytona Beach News-Journal . The Belgian electronic dance music festival will hold a similar three-day festival in Chattahoochee...

Irish cinema is centre stage at Bozar in a continuing focus during the country’s EU presidency. A series of films are running parallel to the art exhibition Changing States that features contemporary Irish art, plus works and objects from Francis Bacon’s studio. The films include Jim Sheridan’s...

Car salesman Dolf van de Ven, 34, from Veltem-Beisem talks about what he earns and how he spends it. What do you do for a living? I work for Hergon Group in Leuven – it’s a Ford and Land Rover dealership. I advise people who wish to buy a Ford, and I’m also responsible for price negotiations,...

English is the second most widely spoken language in Brussels, behind French and ahead of Dutch, a study by the Free University of Brussels (VUB) shows, the results of which are published in Le Soir today. All three languages, however, are declining, while knowledge of Arabic, in fourth position,...

Last year, 36% of Belgian workers aged 30 or under lost their jobs either through dismissal or not having their contracts renewed, according to the results of a survey by HR firm Securex, published in Le Soir. This is significantly higher than the Belgian average across all age groups, which stands...