News

High time for Europe to tackle social dumping

4 February 2016

Last year, half of all companies were caught out in targeted checks for social dumping. Numerous breaches were found especially in the construction and transport industries. According to Member of Parliament Wouter Raskin, the Belgian government's approach is beneficial, but the actual …

Read more

Government supports Kurds in their fight against IS

3 February 2016

The Belgian government will provide military as well as humanitarian support to the Peshmergas, the Kurdish combatants battling IS. Specifically, this means that Belgium will provide medical equipment directly to the Kurdish government in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Germans responsible …

Read more

European Parliament heeds call for full implementation of nature laws

3 February 2016

A very broad majority of the European Parliament has just adopted the report of MEP Mark Demesmaeker on biodiversity. Demesmaeker asks the European Commission not to revise the nature directives, but on the contrary to fully implement them. The Flemish MEP is very satisfied: “The Parliament sends …

Read more

Like the British, the Flemish N-VA want an efficient EU

3 February 2016
Sander Loones

In November, British Prime Minister David Cameron formulated demands aimed at achieving a more efficient European Union, and to update the relationship between the EU and UK. After intense discussions, today the European Council President Donald Tusk made Europe's counteroffer. It is a draft …

Read more

New Justice Law: more illegal criminals to be expelled

29 January 2016

The choice of State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken, to focus his repatriation policy on criminal illegal immigrants is clearly bearing fruit: never were more criminals expelled than in 2015. "And the new justice law, which has also been approved by Parliament, will increase the …

Read more

Tax shift now visible on payslip

26 January 2016
Johan Van Overtveldt

At the end of last year the tax shift was voted on. This has brought about the biggest tax reform since 1963. "More competitiveness and less taxation on labour, that is what this historic reform is about," Minister of Finance Johan Van Overtveldt explains. "And this decreased taxation on labour …

Read more