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Security Council: Facemasks not required outdoors from 1 October

Facemasks are not required to be worn out of doors from 1 October except in crowded areas. That decision was taken by the National Security Council today and announced during a press conference by prime minister Sophie Wilmès ( pictured ). Wilmès confirmed that regulations around wearing a facemask...

Belgium is missing out on plastic recycling opportunities, say experts

Some 25,000 Belgian firms still do not sort their plastic film, the country’s industrial packaging organisation Valipac has announced. In view of this wasted opportunity, the company – that gathers industrial waste data from some 190,000 businesses – is launching a campaign to show the benefits of...

Mayor wants food distribution centre for refugees on Avenue du Port

Brussels is looking into setting up a food distribution centre for refugees on Avenue du Port by the canal, the capital’s mayor Philippe Close has announced. The building in question, near Tours & Taxis, used to house automobile company PSA Retail (selling mainly Citroen, Peugeot and DS...

Multilingualism Day to launch in Brussels this weekend

The Brussels Council for Multilingualism will officially launch this Saturday at the capital’s parliament, during the inaugural Multilingualism Day. Both events are part of a push to encourage language learning in the capital, overseen by Sven Gatz , Brussels’ government minister tasked with...

Zalando to launch second-hand fashion platform in Belgium

Belgians will soon be able to buy and swap clothes they do not wear any more via Europe’s largest e-commerce retailer Zalando. The German company announced that, from October, its ‘Pre-owned’ platform for second-hand goods, launched in Germany and Spain on 21 September, will also be available in...

At a snail’s pace… the new 5km/hour street in Forest

“You know the 30km/hour zone and the 20km/hour zone…. But have you heard of the 5km/hour zone?” So begins a Facebook post describing a small section of avenue Kersbeek in Forest, Brussels, where cars must now drive at the speed of pedestrians. “The street is in a municipal building site, so the...

Brussels to Barcelona in eight hours: Proposal to relaunch Trans-Europe Express

German federal transport minister Andreas Scheuer has proposed at a European transport council meeting in Brussels to relaunch the Trans-Europe Express (TEE) 2.0 network of high-speed and night trains between major western European cities. If the plan to reinstate the rail link, andoned in 1987, is...

Welcome to Belgium: Chatbot-based guide alleviates the headaches of immigration

Immigration procedures for Belgium are about as complex as the country itself. With its free chatbot-based guide Immi, the company Relocation Belgium helps applicants on their way, operating across Brussels, Flanders and the periphery of the capital.

Starting an immigration procedure for Belgium, especially when the applicant is non-European, is like disappearing into a black hole. Paperwork is complicated, procedures are slow and they frequently lack transparency.

Top four Belgian banks all feature in FinCEN file money laundering investigation

Belgian banks, while not figuring in a “top ten” list of money laundering culprits headed by Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan and including Standard Chartered, Barclays and Commerzbank, are by no means blameless, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has...

Car-free day or 'bicycle day' takes place 'incident-free', says mobility minister

Brussels mobility minister Elke Van den Brandt welcomed that Brussels’ 18th “Sunday without cars”, took place without any significant incident. Police patrolled the city to ensure that a car-less city did not result in a riot of bicycles disrespecting road safety rules. Den Brandt said that the...

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