News

Pensions: end to ‘benefit tourism’

12 July 2016
Pensions : c'en est fini du « tourisme social »

At the N-VA’s behest, the phenomenon of social shopping, in which people over the age of 65 migrate to Belgium in order to receive the Guaranteed income for the elderly (inkomensgarantie voor ouderen, IGO) without ever having contributed to our social security, is being brought to an end. The …

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Quicker expulsion of criminal immigrants

12 July 2016
Quicker expulsion of criminal immigrants

The government is making it easier to revoke the residence permit of criminal immigrants and expel them to their country of origin. At the behest of State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken, a long string of measures have been approved to this end. Thus from now on we are still able …

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Brexit is no wake-up call for European Parliament

12 July 2016
Brexit is no wake up call for European Parliament

A significant majority of the European Parliament has approved the strategic priorities of the 2017 European Commission working programme. “Incomprehensible,” European Parliament member Anneleen Van Bossuyt comments. “After all, the text is riddled with more of the same.” It explains why the N-VA …

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Lowest crime figures in 15 years

12 July 2016
Lowest crime figures in 15 years

Last year, the police registered almost 900,000 criminal offences, from murder to armed robbery. That is 7.7 percent less than in 2014. “It is not only the fourth year in a row that we record a decrease, but it is already also the lowest figure since systematic measurements were started in 2000,” …

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EU budget: focus still on the wrong track

12 July 2016
EU budget: focus still on the wrong track

Europe will finally spend more resources on the urgent challenges faced on the migration and security front: EUR 15.7 billion to be precise, spread over the coming three years, so it appears from the suggested EU budget proposal for 2017. “A step in the right direction,” European Parliament member …

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Reinvesting in Defence

30 June 2016
Reinvesting in Defence

Minister of Defence Steven Vandeput has not taken lightly his job of drawing up a strategic action plan for the army, which has meanwhile also been approved by the government. “I have always said that I prefer to have a good plan that has taken some time, rather than an inferior plan that has been …

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