At the start of the year, the organisations launched a call for the most radically innovative ideas to benefit society. Ten finalists were chosen out of about 100 submissions. The two winners receive guidance in the development of their idea and an advertisement in De Standaard.

Peerby is an online platform that makes it easy to borrow and loan items among neighbours or other local residents. Instead of buying a ladder you only need twice a year, for example, you can borrow one from someone nearby via the website.

“We want to inspire a change in people’s attitudes in terms of needing to own everything,” said Lieven D’hont of Peerby during the awards ceremony. The platform also brings people into contact with others who have the same hobbies and can give tips.

Rescoop, meanwhile, is a co-operative organisation in which citizens collaborate on the development of renewable energy production. People from all over Europe who take initiatives to produce renewable energy can become part of the co-operative. Experienced mentors are brought together with citizens who have an idea, which prompts the development of ideas. 

Photo: Two of the Peerby founders together with jury president Otto-Jan Ham (right)
(c) Fred Debrock / De Standaard

In the first year, students receive courses in both Dutch and French. From the second year on, they have to go to one of the partner schools in Wallonia, France or Canada. The degree is part of the EuroMetropool  initiative– a collaboration among the cities of Kortrijk, Tournai and Lille. The three cities are working to create an EU cross-border district to improve co-operation between authorities.

Flanders’ chamber of commerce, Voka, welcomed the Vives initiative. “The knowledge of French in the border region with Wallonia and the North of France is an asset for companies, but unfortunately we see that the knowledge of French among Flemish students is decreasing,” said Veerle De Mey of Voka West Flanders. “Following the degree programme in Wallonia also provides extra advantages to students, since they are not only immersed in another language but also in another culture.” 

Photo courtesy Vives

The police were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and the psychiatrists of criminal negligence. One police officer was acquitted, as was the commissioner of the police zone concerned.

Jacob was brought to a psychiatric hospital in Boechout, near Antwerp, in January 2010 in a severely agitated state. He was denied admission by the director and was taken to a police cell in Mortsel, where a doctor was called in to give him a sedative.

Jacob resisted and was set upon by several members of a special intervention squad, who wrestled the 26-year-old body-builder under the influence of amphetamines to the floor and kneeling on him. He died soon after as a result of internal injuries.

The case was made public in 2013 when the VRT documentary series Koppen obtained an in-cell video of the event.

The psychiatrist and director of the hospital were each given six-month suspended sentences. The police officers each received four months suspended and a fine of €275. The eighth member of the squad was found not guilty, as he had only appeared on the scene after the assault had taken place.

None of the accused was present for the verdict, and none was represented by counsel. All are likely to appeal the sentences, which, as they were handed down inabsentia, will lead to a retrial.

Photo: Jonathan Jacob’s father, Jan Jacob, talking to the press at a court session earlier this year
©Jonas Roosens/BELGA

Hotels – KKR
The US-based investment fund has acquired two hotels in Antwerp, the 247-room Radisson Blue Astrid and the 59-room Park Inn, both located opposite the city’s Central Station   

Logistics – WDP
The Meise-based industrial property group is investing €115 million in the Netherlands to acquire a distribution centre in Tilburg and a multimodal facility in Zwolle. In addition, the company is building a €24 million distribution centre in Willebroek, Antwerp province.

Meal vouchers – Monizze
The Brussels-based electronic meal vouchers management company has been acquired by the French Up group, which handled up to €6 billion worth of vouchers last year.

Payments – Alibaba
The Chinese group plans to open an outlet in Brussels early next year to test its Alipay online payment platform on the European market. Alipay has China’s biggest market share in the sector, with 300 million users.

Telecoms – Huawei
The Free University of Brussels (VUB) and Proximus have signed a partnership agreement with the Chinese telecommunications group to set-up a joint ICT learning and innovation centre to develop and test 5G technology for the European market.

Trucks – Daf
The Dutch trucks manufacturer, which invested €100 million last year in a new paint shop for truck cabs in Westerlo, Antwerp province, plans to hire an additional 200 workers for the site to meet growing demand.

“The exhibition is more or less a self-portrait of the human race,” he says, in a typically sweeping statement. “That’s to say, I position myself as the representative of the human race, a race that is turning progressively against itself.”

The result is art that is personal, particularly when it comes to his African roots, while addressing big themes such as the environment, religion, power and identity.

Tayou (pictured) was born and raised in the central African country of Cameroon, studying law to please his parents before becoming a self-taught artist. His international career began in the mid-1990s, taking off in 2002 when he participated in the Documenta 11 exhibition in Kassel, Germany. Subsequent appearances at the Venice Biennale cemented his reputation.

Instead of gravitating to one of art’s international capitals, like Berlin, Paris or New York, he settled in Ghent. He first got to know the city in 1997, when he was invited to participate in a group show at SMAK, the museum for contemporary art.

He liked the atmosphere and returned to the city several times in subsequent years. It was also in Ghent that he met his wife, the future fashion designer Jo De Visscher. After living in Bonn and Brussels, they set up home in Ghent in 2009. 

Like a serpent

There are photographs and videos, framed fabrics and graffiti re-imagined in neon light. Pipes snake along the walls, accompanied by hand-written comments on pollution black spots around the world. There are piles of painted cobblestones, cracked mirrors, stacks of cooking pots, figurines and fetishes.

Tayou’s large constructions are the most impressive, particularly “Africonda”, which greets visitors as they step through Bozar’s front door. A brightly coloured knitted snake sits in a vast coil on top of a pedestal of wooden stakes (pictured above). Embroidered masks are caught in its embrace. A bale of hay concealed within releases a powerful scent.

This is a commentary on the way outsiders have cast Africa as a romantic, highly colourful place. “Some Africans are surprised when they discover this reading, while others live with it and even come to believe that they are really colourful and romantic,” Tayou explains. “Africa is like a serpent that someone has invented that is very pretty, and that bites its own tail. It is caught in its own trap.”

Equally bold statements can be found in “Coton tiges”, a vast cloud of cotton suspended from the ceiling, pierced through with wooden stakes. This refers back to US slavery and the cotton fields. “Our Traditions” also hangs from the ceiling, a dense mass of palm brooms, horsetails with beaded handles, gourds and glass heads suspended from an iron grid.

In the area of innovation, the Commission compiles a new scoreboard every two years. In the latest, covering 2014, the Innovation Union Scoreboard labelled Germany and Scandinavia the leading innovators in Europe. Flanders was in the second group, made up of what the Commission calls “innovation followers”.

Although Flanders’ score is still way above the EU average, the report has a clear message for policymakers: Get to work. 

Over the last two years, innovation has been slowing down in Flanders. That’s in sharp contrast with the situation in the first decade of the century, when innovation was rocketing; for years, Flanders was one of Europe’s leaders.

The remarks in the scoreboard report touch a sore point: while Flanders scores very well in both the quantity and quality of its international scientific publications, one of its weakest points is still the commercialisation of new innovations. 

Welcome funding

Today, the Leuven-based spin-off still does contract research for the big pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and academic institutes, but the in-vitro model has also grown into different, unique pre-clinical treatments (still in the pre-clinical phase) that go far beyond treating Alzheimer’s: from restoring the function of the pancreas in diabetes patients to restoring diseased neurons in people with Huntington’s disease.

“We owe the current resilience of our company to the black swans in our portfolio,” says De Witte.

The success of reMYND relies heavily on the “good science” provided by KU Leuven, the Flemish life sciences institute VIB and academic institutions worldwide. De Witte: “On the scientific and R&D side, the identification of novel mechanisms and drug targets requires excellent scientific collaborations, good advisors and a critical mass of trained researchers.

“Apart from that, research and innovation grants and financial incentives from the Flemish, federal and European governments were very welcome to overcome the incubation phase. It seems to be a common complaint in the spin-off world that venture capitalists are not keen on investing during this phase, because it’s too risky.”

Last but not least, De Witte mentions the importance of the positive image biotech has in Flanders for his company’s success.

The story concerns the “Righteous Judges” panel from the massive altarpiece. That panel and another were stolen from Ghent’s Sint-Baaf’s cathedral on the night of 10 to 11 April 1934. One panel was soon recovered. The “Righteous Judges” panel never was.

Last year historian Paul De Ridder claimed the panel was in the possession of a powerful Ghent family. That trail went cold.

Now comes the allegation, from former KBC board member Jan Bosselaers that the bank was involved in the 1980s in an attempt to negotiate the return of the panel, on payment of a ransom of 20 million Belgian francs, or €500,000. The attempt was approved by the bank’s management committee, but the negotiating partner, who claimed to be in possession of the panel, pulled out unexpectedly.

The theft itself, more than 80 years ago, can no longer be prosecuted. “It’s not our aim to point the finger of guilt,” said a spokesperson for the Ghent prosecutor’s office. “We want to find the panel, an important part of our art heritage, and return it to the altarpiece.”

The prosecutor hopes that assurance might convince whoever is in possession of the panel to give it up, now that repercussions have been ruled out.

A member of Antwerp’s provincial council has filed a complaint with the federal interior ministry claiming irregularities in the construction of the One World bridge (pictured) by Flemish artist Arne Quinze on the Tomorrowland festival site in Boom. According to Kris Merckx, the cost of the project was kept artificially low so as to remain under the €5 million threshold at which, under European rules, public contracts have to be put out to tender. The actual cost turned out to be €6.65 million, Merckx said. 

About half of the nearly 6,000 workers who were laid off when Ford Genk closed last December have still not found another job, according to the Flemish employment and training agency VDAB. Forty-three percent of them are over the age of 50. The former employees of suppliers are having more luck, partly because they are younger. Only one in 10 of the over-50s has found new employment, and one in 20 of those over 55. A crew of 300 is still working in the plant, dismantling the installations.

Federal police searched a farm in Gooik, Flemish Brabant, last week in connection with the disappearance of Stephen Shittu, a professional volleyball player who went missing in the area three years ago. Last month, the body of a 62-year-old Ninove man, who disappeared earlier this  year, was found on one of the farm’s fields. The new search did not turn up any additional leads, police said.

The meat industry federation Febev has complained about a new campaign video by animal rights organisation Gaia that alleges gruesome mistreatment of horses in Argentina, later sold as meat in Belgium. The images in the clip are old and taken out of context, the federation said. “Gaia demonstrates not the slightest iota of interest in actually reducing animal suffering,” said a Febev spokesperson. “Gaia is only interested in using sensational images to solicit donations.”

Residents of municipalities in and just east of Brussels, including Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, Kraainem and Wezembeek-Oppem, are taking air traffic control agency Belgocontrol to court claiming that the agency has failed to implement measures ordered by the state following an appeal court ruling on aircraft routes. They claim the increase in take-offs and landings has led to “a situation of intolerable noise nuisance”.

Government authorities in Brussels spend 35% more than the average for the rest of the country, according to a study carried out by Belfius bank. Authorities in the capital spend on average €3,895 per resident per year, compared to the national average of €2,882. Belfius points to a high population density and high costs for education, security and social assistance as reasons. The cost of policing is also much higher: €303 per resident per year, twice as much as the average for Flanders.

Ostend city council plans to employ job-students during the summer months to check up on people who have a second home in the city but fail to declare it. The students will compare the owners of properties against the city’s registers, and anyone who is not domiciled in Ostend will be asked to pay the tax.

Flemish mobility minister Ben Weyts has “an open mind” regarding opening up the market in vehicle inspection to competition. The proposal was made by motoring organisation VAB, based on a study that shows that Belgian motorists have mixed feelings about the current situation, with a majority finding inspections too expensive, too slow and sometimes even the cause of damage to the vehicle. Weyts had ordered a screening of inspection centres after taking office, which “showed there is room for improvement,” he said. “The value for money could certainly be higher.”

A Brussels centre for the support of sex offenders who have been released from prison could be on the brink of closure because of a 20% cut in subsidies. “If we don’t get the budget for this year that we are counting on – about €180,000 – we will have to let our four staff members go. That means that sex offenders who might have been released under strict conditions will instead have to remain in prison,” said the organisation’s vice-chair Francis Martens. The Antwerp centre UFC, which has the same role, said cuts meant its operations would be severely curtailed. A spokesperson for justice minister Koen Geens said he was in touch with the communities to look for additional funds. 

Photo (c) Tomorrowland

Last week saw two instances of social media identity theft with regards to BVs – bekende Vlamingen (well-known Flemings). In the case of federal health minister Maggie De Block, the motive appears to have been pure profit. Someone – the police are investigating who – set up a fan page on Facebook and then proceeded to try to raise money using the fake endorsement of the fake minister.

The fraudster pretended to have set up a fund for people in financial straits; anyone who made contact was told they could get aid of between €5,000 and €30,000. All they had to do was take out an insurance policy...

“I’m not even on Facebook,” De Block said. “This is pure fraud. I’d like to warn people not to be taken in by this sort of offer on Facebook. What’s especially bad is that this con-artist is trying to misuse people who are already having difficulties.” The police were alerted, and Facebook has taken down the page.

Meteorologist Frank Deboosere has also experienced the problem of fake internet profiles. On Facebook and on Twitter, people pretending to be him have come and gone; the latest appeared last week and managed to collect 609 friends who think they’re dealing with the real weathercaster. 

“609 people who have been cheated,” Deboosere said. In real life, like De Block, he does not maintain a Facebook account but is active on Twitter. In this case, nobody appears so far to have been cheated out of anything material. Nevertheless Deboosere is furious.

“This is theft of my digital identity,” he wrote on his website. “My name is being abused.”

He advised anyone else in his situation to contact abuse@facebook.com or abuse@twitter.com.  

Along the way, see local highlights, plus entertainment, food and drink. 7-10 July, across Limburg; €10 (€4 for one day)
www.limburgfietsvierdaagse.be

The new zone, which opened at the weekend, doubles the area of central Brussels now barred to road traffic and creates a new mini-ring leading drivers around the zone. As expected, the new routes are unfamiliar to drivers, leading to major traffic jams. In addition, the start of the new car-free zone coincided with surface work on the Schuman metro station, which added to the confusion on Wetstraat, one of the most-used approach roads to the city centre.

At one point yesterday morning, it took motorists 90 minutes to travel from Keizer Karellaan in Koekelberg to Rogier, and the problems continued on the inner ring, as drivers used the ring to get from one side of the city to the other rather than use Anspachlaan (pictured), now closed to traffic.

Motorists are expected to adapt to the new conditions in the coming weeks, said Inge Paemen of Brussel Mobiliteit. “It’s too early to draw conclusions,” she said. “Traffic needs time to adapt. That could take two or three weeks.” Brussel Mobiliteit has advised motorists to use public transport in the meantime.

Pascal Smet, minister for mobility in the Brussels-Capital Region, said that the new plan could not be assessed until September when normal traffic levels resume after the summer holidays. Making any conclusions or changes at this early stage would make no sense, he told the infrastructure committee of Brussels parliament.

Smet suggested one radical change, however: Turn the entire inner-city pentagon into a car-free zone. “Whether it’s Dansaertstraat and surrounding streets or the begijnhof area, we have to create a slower city,” he told FM Brussel. The new car-free zone should extend from Keizerslaan, in the area of the Central Station, all the way to the canal, he said.

Photo by Bruno Fahy/BELGA

Legislation on drones varies widely per country and even region. Both amateurs and professionals are confused about where and under what circumstances they can send drones in the air. “Our survey shows that about 70% of users don’t know the legislation on drones in their own countries,” said Trippaers.

To improve the situation, Trippaers developed a website that collects current legislation in a variety of countries and regions. The site also includes tips on flying drones safely. Users on the site can also provide information on the situation in their own areas. “Drone users can share their knowledge on the local legislation with other drone pilots,” explained Trippaers. A webmaster checks the input and adds it if it is correct.

Pilots can also use a related application to check current flying conditions. Flying zones can also be viewed in 3D.

Photo courtesy: UHasselt

The week’s figures are 4.5% higher than the same period last year. One notable change is that holiday-makers no longer tend to wait until the weekend before taking off, leading to the high midweek figures this year.

Elsewhere, motoring organisations Touring and VAB said they expect no particular problems on the roads this weekend, despite a predicted large number of motorists heading for the south.

This year the start of the school holidays is followed by the beginning of the annual holiday for the construction industry in Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde and Walloon Brabant – a period joined by other sectors. In addition, the forecast is for fine weather could lead to tailbacks on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning in the direction of the coast and, to a lesser extent, on the E411 direction Ardennen and E19 and E17 direction Paris. The latter route will also be affected by the start of school holidays in the north of the Netherlands.

Photo courtesy Jérôme/Wikimedia

Among the partners are Barco Healthcare, Novosanis, imec and iMinds Health. According to iMind Health director Roger Lemmens, Flanders has top researchers and a number of reputed hospitals that want to integrate available innovations. “But there is still a big gap between the research and the commercialisation and implementation of products,” he said.

The goal of MedTech Flanders is to support the growth of existing companies, start up new activities –by bringing together doctors, technology experts and entrepreneurs – and make sure that the technology effectively reaches patients.

“MedTech is a strong cluster of companies and organisations that will share their knowledge, technology and network,” said professor Pascal Verdonck, managing director of MedTech Flanders. “Collaborating will also help companies to find new staff members , attract extra capital and influence government policy.”

Flemish innovation minister Philippe Muyters and welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen said that MedTech Flanders could also help maintain affordable and quality health-care services.

Photo courtesy Ingimage

Unizo has long been a strong supporter of making VAT regulations simpler, and the issue was significant in last year’s negotiations to create a new government coalition. Unizo said it was “happy that the minister has heard our point of view”.

Under the new policy, the date that VAT has to be paid to the state is determined by the payment of the invoice, including transactions between companies and government agencies. At present, the company must pay VAT to the state when the goods or services are delivered, regardless of whether the invoice has been paid. Since governments are notoriously late payers, Unizo said, this means that companies are pre-paying VAT.

From the new year, the date of VAT payment shifts to the date of the payment of the invoice, removing a serious cash-flow problem for companies and perhaps encouraging government bodies to pay their bills on time, Unizo said.

Photo: Ingimage

The festival is hosted this year by Brussels’ Kaaitheater but also works its way into Bronks, KVS, Wiels and CC Strombeek Grimbergen. This edition’s stand-outs include Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s dance-as-exhibition Work/Travail/Arbeid and Antwerp-based theatre company Olympique Dramatique’s adaptation of American playwright Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County (pictured). Het Theaterfestival performances tend to sell out, so book early.
3-13 September across Brussels

It’s called luxeverzuim and, as one teachers’ group put it on Twitter, Staat #luxeverzuim in de krant – If you find “luxury truancy” showing up in the newspaper – dan is de zomer in het land!– then it’s summer in Belgium!

Every year, school authorities kick up a fuss because restless pupils skip school in the days before the end of term. De laatste examendag valt dit jaar in heel wat scholen al op 23 juni– The last exam is being held in a lot of schools on 23 June this year, explained Het Laatste Nieuws. De rapporten volgen pas een week later – en zo is er alweer een grote kans op luxeverzuim– But the school reports are only handed out a week later – and so once again we are likely to see a lot of “luxury truancy”.

Some families decide to take off early on their summer holidays to beat the crowds. Otherwise, pupils simply spend those empty days at the end of term hanging out with their friends.

Een filmpje meepikken hier, een après-examenfuif daar– a film here, a post-exam party there; en als het weer het toeliet – and if the weather allows – een dagje naar zee om met volle teugen van de fijne dingen des levens te genieten– then a day at the sea to fully enjoy the finer things in life.

The most heavily populated of the Flemish provinces, Antwerp, is also the one with the most dilapidated properties: 267 run-down but still habitable, and 2,663 declared unfit.

Since the last legislature, municipalities in Flanders have been obliged to keep a register of empty properties. Cities also levy fines on owners who allow their properties to deteriorate into slums, which brings in half a million euros a year. The property must have been standing empty for 12 consecutive months to get the fine.

Municipalities can decide for themselves when to declare a property uninhabitable, without referring to the government’s housing agency. Homans now plans to investigate whether the procedure for taking properties “under social management” – where the local authority can take over an abandoned property, renovate it and rent it out – can be made more accessible.

“The process is unnecessarily complicated, and few cities dare to get involved,” Homans told parliament. “At present, it’s only ever used in Antwerp.”

The main beneficiaries of an improved policy on tackling slums, according to the minister, will be rental tenants. “The market will be expanded. I’m asking municipalities to use this means to increase their stock of social housing.”

Photo courtesy De Standaard

Temperatures are expected to climb from 31 degrees to 33 on Friday and a possible 39 on Saturday, before dropping back below 30 on Sunday and up to 32 on Monday, according to the five-day forecast from the Royal Meteorological Institute.

Forecasters also expect high ozone levels. The European directive maximum smog level of 180 micrograms per cubic metre of air has already been exceeded in Schoten, Antwerp province, the Inter-regional Environment Office (Ircel) reports. Above that level, the public has to be informed.

But while the levels are due to go even higher, Ircel said they are unlikely to reach the alarm threshold of 240 micrograms per cubic metre. Thursday will see cloudy skies and possible storms, which would push ozone pollution back below critical levels. 

RSV causes serious respiratory tract infections and most commonly affects the elderly, infants and patients with weakened immune systems. It is estimated  that 160,000 people die every year because of RSV.

The vaccine covers the surface of infected cells with a certain protein, which should trigger an immune response, according to researchers Walter Fiers, Xavier Saelens and Bert Schepens, who discovered the potential of this specific viral protein. 

The vaccine is being tested on 40 healthy adults between 50 and 64 years old. The study is being conducted by the Canadian Center for Vaccinology and is funded by the Canadian company Immunovaccine and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.