News

Europe must actively support the Basque peace process

29 March 2017

MEP Mark Demesmaeker is asking the European Union to play an active role in the Basque peace process, now that the Basque independence movement ETA is prepared to disarm completely by 8 April. “This is a potentially decisive step in the Basque peace process. It’s no long okay for Europe to just …

Free Interrail pass makes way for new exchange programme

28 March 2017

The European Commission wants to send at least 5,000 young people on exchanges to a school in a different EU Member State. The proposal, which will cost EUR 2.5 million, is aimed at schoolchildren aged 16 and over. It replaces the idea of giving all European 18-year-olds a free Interrail pass, …

Humanitarian visa obligation for asylum seekers not enforceable

27 March 2017

State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken is not obliged to grant a humanitarian visa to a Syrian family that wished to travel to Belgium in order to request asylum here, after all. A Belgian judge had ordered Theo Francken to do so. However, the Council for Alien Law Litigation (RvV) …

Making it easier to request European research subsidies

27 March 2017

MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt wants to make Horizon 2020, the European subsidy programme for research and innovation, easier for businesses. She has drawn up a ten-point plan to this end. The idea is to encourage Flemish companies to make more use of this programme. “Today this happens far too …

Legal framework to avoid the import of political conflicts

24 March 2017

The N-VA has readied a bill that obliges foreign heads of state and members of government to make an initial request of the Belgian government for permission, before starting up any political activities on Belgian soil. “Currently there is no Belgian legal framework in this regard,” says the party, …

Mark Demesmaeker is the greenest Flemish MEP

23 March 2017

Of all Belgian MEPs, Mark Demesmaeker is the one who has put the most impressive mark on European environmental policy. That’s the conclusion of an analysis by the independent non-profit organisation, VoteWatch Europe. “The N-VA is showing that things can and must be done differently, including in …

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