Flanders

Czech Republic Floods: ‘First damage estimates: 20,000,000,000’

As water levels subside, local authorities and insurance companies are starting to count the cost of flood damage. According to preliminary estimates, this will total around […]

11 June 2013 – Presseurop Mladá Fronta DNES

Separatism: Keep calm and carry on

From Scotland’s membership of the EU should it split from the UK, to handling requests for military help to put down pro-independence movements, the recent rise in European secessionist spirit poses tricky questions for the Union. EU leaders should keep their cool, argues a Greek journalist.

9 January 2013 – EUobserver.com (Brussels)

Regions: Separatism is dragging Europe back to the Middle Ages

Catalans, Scots, Flemish... Western Europe is succumbing in its turn to the sirens of separatism. For Bulgarian essayist Ivaylo Dichev, the new nationalists are entrenching themselves as feudal lords behind the walls of their economic prosperity, under the guise of protecting their identities.

3 December 2012 – 24 Chasa (Sofia)

Separatism: A symptom of the debt crisis

Separatists are not only gaining ground in Scotland and Catalonia: the victory of Bart De Wever’s Flemish nationalists in 14 October local elections “is not […]

16 October 2012 – Presseurop La Tribune, De Standaard, Financial Times Deutschland, Financial Times Deutschland

Belgium: We need a velvet divorce

In 1992, Czechoslovakia separated peacefully into two countries. Today neither Czechs nor Slovaks regret the decision. Maybe it's time Belgium did the same thing, says De Volkskrant’s Central and Eastern Europe correspondent.

21 June 2011 – De Volkskrant (Amsterdam)

Belgium: What's another year without government?

Since 22 April 2010 and the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, Belgium has been ruled by a caretaker government, while the French and Flemish […]

22 April 2011 – Presseurop De Morgen

Article: We are all Belgians

228 days (on 28 January) and still no government: a record only bested by Iraq. As Le Monde reports, Belgium, which is "poised on the […]

28 January 2011 – Presseurop

Belgium: Citizens desperately seeking government

“And now, a government,” demands demands De Morgen in the aftermath of a Brussels demonstration organised by the SHAME, No Government for our Country after […]

24 January 2011 – Presseurop De Morgen

Belgium: Cowboys shoot down hopes for government

Headlining with “Result after 207 days: NOTHING,” De Morgen deplores the ongoing political stalemate in Belgium. On 5 January, two Flemish parties, the nationalist N-VA […]

6 January 2011 – Presseurop De Morgen

Belgium: Make-or-break day for ungoverned country

“Game’s up,” announces La Dernière Heure. On 4 January, over 200 days after the general elections, “royal mediator” Johan Vande Lanotte submitted proposals for the […]

5 January 2011 – Presseurop La Dernière Heure - Les Sports

Belgium: Political atmosphere turns sour

“PS and N-VA spoiling for a fight,” headlines De Standaard, which reports that two months after general elections, negotiations on the formation of a coalition […]

31 August 2010 – Presseurop De Standaard

Belgium: A government, sometime soon

“Breeze of optimism,” headlines La Libre Belgique in its report on the gruelling negotiations which took place at the weekend between representatives of Flemish and […]

16 August 2010 – Presseurop La Libre Belgique

Belgium: The Eurolab experiment gone wrong

Long hailed as the model for European integration, bilingual Belgium faces a divisive election that risks splitting it further at the seams. For the Economist's Charlemagne, it's a metaphor for the deepening north-south divide across the union.

11 June 2010 – The Economist (London)

Identity: In praise of the manifold self

Flemish, Walloon, or Belgian? Or European, perhaps? To the writer Geert van Istendael, King Albert II’s subjects’ identity overload is not a handicap. On the contrary: it might even be an inspiration to other peoples in this changing world.

19 February 2010 – De Standaard (Brussels)

Belgium: Walloon and Flemish trains collide

The collision between two trains in a Brussels suburb which killed at least 18 people on 15 February has sparked a war of words between representatives of Belgium's French and Dutch speaking communities — a reflex which drives Le Soir to dispair.

16 February 2010 – Le Soir (Brussels)

Language: French takes leave of Belgium

Not just in international institutions but everywhere in Brussels the French language continues to lose ground to English. As Le Monde's Belgian correspondent explains, in a country with no lingua franca, the language of Shakespeare allows speakers to avoid choosing between French and Flemish.

22 December 2009 – Le Monde (Paris)

Language: Triple Dutch

People do not speak exactly the same language in The Netherlands and Flanders, though both are still variants of Dutch. But dictionaries would not distinguish between the two. At least not until Spectrum, a popular Dutch dictionary publisher, with the aid of two linguists, began treating Belgian Dutch as a separate language.

10 September 2009 – De Standaard (Brussels)

Animation film : Putting Belgium back together again

Luke and Lucy: The Texas Rangers (original Flemish title: Suske en Wiske: De Texas Rakkers, original French title: Bob et Bobette et les diables du […]

22 July 2009 – Presseurop Le Soir

Belgium: Flanders parliament keeps it in the family

“Ook dat nog” – “And now this!” The coalition government about to take the reins in Flanders divulged its agenda on 9 July, and Le […]

10 July 2009 – Presseurop Le Soir

Energy: Flemish government turns to green power

The new Flemish government plans to invest €515m to create its own energy company, Vl.Energie. The news came on 5 July, with the announcement that […]

6 July 2009 – Presseurop De Standaard

Belgium: Food reality show makes mincemeat of elections

Few Flemish speaking Belgians are interested in this June’s European and regional elections, but they are spellbound by a TV reality show called Mijn restaurant […]

4 June 2009 – Presseurop De Standaard

Belgium: War of the posters

On June 7th, Belgians will vote in the European elections, but also for their regional parliaments. In a dual campaign marked by inter-community tensions, even the language on signboards is the subject of bitter dispute.

24 May 2009 – Presseurop Presseurop

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