EU council chief Herman Van Rompuy on Sunday (17 March) said he will retire from politics when his mandate ends next year. "At the end of 2014, it's the end of my political career," the former Belgian prime minister ...

While EU leaders met in Brussels for their traditional spring summit, thousands of trade unionists staged an afternoon of events to protest against austerity measures.

The city of Antwerp, in the Flemish-speaking north of Belgium, has imposed a special fee on ID cards for non-Belgians, including EU citizens, in a bid, according to one politician, to keep out foreigners. Non-Belgians ...

Despite claims to the contrary, the EU is essentially a union of nation states, and it will remain such until there is a radical overhaul of the acquis communautaire, which, at present at least, is not foreseen. There ...

EU ministers of interior are set to discuss visa policy in Brussels on Thursday (6 December) with several member states wanting to reintroduce visas for passport holders from Western Balkan countries. Austria, Belgium, ...

“A new state, if it wants to join the European Union, has to apply to become a member of the European Union like any state” European Commission President Barroso said mid-September. He was replying to a question on ...

The Belgian foreign ministry has suspended one of its people in Denmark due to a "security breach," amid reports he is a Russian spy. A Belgian spokesman told EUobserver on Friday (5 October): "We can confirm that an ...

Marc Goldbrenner, a top salesman at Lecobel, a real estate agent in the Belgian and EU capital, says he has two or three meetings a week with French "fiscal exiles" keen to flee President Francois Hollande's new rich ...

"I stopped meeting him for lunch because all he did was ask questions and he never said anything about himself," a diplomat on the EU Council's working group for post-Soviet countries once told this website about his ...

EUobserver: In what way does the VSSE co-operate with the EU institutions and Nato? Alain Winants: Belgium hosts the institutions of two major international bodies - the EU and Nato, which is a great privilege but it's ...

Belgium’s nuclear safety chief, Willy De Roovere, on Thursday (16 August) said there could be thousands of cracks in the reactor vessel of the ageing Doel 3 nuclear reactor situated 25 km outside Antwerp and 3 km from ...

New York state authorities have exposed a 10-year-long scam by one of the EU's oldest banks to launder money for Iranian clients. Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial ...

The European Network Against Racism (Enar), an NGO based in Brussels, has condemned a Flemish nationalist for offering a reward of €250 to anybody who reports Burqa-wearing women to the Belgian police. Filip Dewinter, ...

A new immigration kit for Flanders tells would-be immigrants that it does not rain money in Belgium, while giving the impression that Flemings are healthy-eating, spontaneity-adverse creatures tucked up in bed by 10pm ...

Barbara van Dyck, a young bio-engineer from Belgium, will on Tuesday (8 May) appear before a judge in the Flemish town of Dendermonde to refute the public prosecutor’s allegations of conspiracy, destruction of property ...

Belgium and the Monarchy: From National Independence to National Disintegration. By Herman Van Goethem and translated by Ian Connerty. University Press Antwerp (UPA); 295 pages; €27.83 (excl. VAT and shipping) at ...

People from all over the world are expected to take to the streets on 12 May to celebrate the first anniversary of the Spanish 'indignado' movement protesting economic austerity measures. Brussels-based 'indignados' ...

Belgium has asked EU countries to investigate whether Syrian diplomats are making threats against opposition members inside Europe. Michel Malherbe, a spokesman for Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders, told this ...

Ideas kicking around in a reflection group of select EU foreign ministers include merging the roles of the EU Council and European Commission presidents. A senior EU source told this website following a meeting of the ...

Belgium's Flemish far-right party, the Vlaams Belang, has launched a website inciting people to denounce migrants suspected of criminal activity, such as working on the black or abusing social security benefits. ...

The Belgian foreign ministry is to investigate allegations that Syrian intelligence is terrorising Syrian opposition expats in the EU capital. Foreign minister Didier Reynders told Belgian Liberal MEP Louis Michel on ...

On 1 April a new participative democracy tool came into effect in the European Union. The European Citizen's Initiative is being hailed as a potential breakthrough moment for relations between the Union and citizens. ...

The EU's excessive tendency to talk itself down risks becoming a self-fulling prophecy, says the Belgian finance minister, who sees his country as something of a template for surviving the global economic crisis. With ...

As chair of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, British Liberal MEP Sharon Bowles is among the most influential people in Brussels.

After a historic debt restructuring, Greece was finally granted its second bail-out this week. Economist Sony Kapoor from think-tank Re-define believes that the success will be short-lived and another bail-out could be ...

Thousands of people gathered around Europe on Saturday (11 February) to protest against the international intellectual property enforcement treaty, ACTA. Protesters feel the law will give too much power to internet ...

On Friday 10th February, Greek unions in Athens held a 48-hour general strike after the country's cabinet passed a package of austerity measures demanded by the "troika". To show solidarity, a selection of ...

Unionists do not want the EU to tell Belgium how it should run its economic affairs. The president of the General Federation of Belgian Labour explains why.

Brussels' main airport was working as normal and access roads to the EU capital were open on Monday (30 January) despite a general strike on the day of the summit. The main airport in Zaventem cancelled some flights as ...

The European Commission's sweeping new powers in budgetary oversight drew its first criticism on Thursday (12 January), when a Belgian minister said the EU institution lacks the democratic legitimacy to alter national ...

The number of suicides in Greece reached a pan-European high during the first half of 2011, according to figures recently released by the Greek health ministry. Experts believe the increase is due to the effects of the ...

As EU leaders struggle to calm markets and stop the rot from spreading, the eurozone debt crisis is in the headlines each day. Some media have published pictures of blood-stained euro coins to indicate it could be game ...

Over 50,000 Belgians from the three main trade unions took to the streets on Friday (2 December) to protest against the new government's budget proposals. Some held banners reading: "governments lie, banks rob and the ...

The longest government formation in the history of democracy came to an end Wednesday evening (30 November) when Belgium’s politicians agreed the last details of an accord that will guide them for the remaining two-and- ...

Belgium may finally have a government after 530 days without one. While coalition talks have dragged on for months, a shock cut to the country's credit rating suddenly spurred agreement on a budget for 2012 in less than ...

The latest collapse in talks to form a government in Belgium has sent investors running, amid fears the core eurozone country could face similar problems to Greece. The country’s cost of borrowing money soared over five ...

This week, there is talk that Belgium, a founding member of the EU, could be one of the next to be pinched by the snowballing eurozone sovereign debt crisis. In this video, EUobserver asks some Belgians if this talk is ...

Belgian EU commissioner Karel De Gucht has warned that his country could be in line to suffer a Greek-and-Italian-type loss of market confidence if it does not quickly form a new government. "Italy and Greece have been ...

Congo is the country that benefits most from EU's development assistance. What is the country doing with the money, what are its most pressing problems and what lies ahead after November's general elections? EUobserver' ...

"Greek people don't want any more loans", says Yiorgos Vassalos from the Greek solidarity movement in Brussels. Belgian police have water canons parked a stones throw from the protesters, who have been joined by some of ...

While Eurozone leader frantically prepare for next week's crucial summit, members of the 'indignados' movement are organising daily activities to highlight inequalities in today's society.