Economist.com Cities Guide: Brussels Briefing - November 2005

News this month

Brussels burning

The riots across France sparked some copy-cat fires in Brussels, spurring some politicians to re-examine Belgium’s social tensions. On November 6th, five cars were burned near Brussels’ South Station (the Gare du Midi). A week later, nine cars and five rubbish bins were set on fire, with police filling the centre of Brussels to deter riots on November 12th. And on the northern edge of Brussels, a van containing a gas cylinder was set alight next to a railway line. Still, the country remained relatively calm, compared with the violence across the border in France.

The incidents called attention to some latent problems. National statistics put seasonally adjusted unemployment at 8%, but an estimate quoted in the Brussels regional parliament on November 5th puts the number of jobless in the city at 90,000, a fifth of the city’s active working population. Jean-Luc Vanraes, leader of the Flemish liberal group, addressed the issue in a pamphlet over the summer, pointing to bad education and language skills as key barriers to employment.

On trial

Brussels began its largest-ever terrorism trial on November 3rd. The defendants are 13 alleged members of the GICM, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, who were arrested in June 2004 for allegedly helping the terrorists who bombed Madrid in March 2004. The case is a milestone for Belgium, as it is the first to be tried under anti-terrorism laws introduced in 2003. But it has already hit a stumbling block: it was adjourned immediately over a dispute whether arguments should be heard in Dutch or French. The trial began again on November 16th, and hearings are set to continue until December 20th. Arguments are being heard in French.

A more conventional hearing ended on November 9th, when Nordin Benallal, described as Belgium’s most dangerous criminal, was sentenced to 12 more years in jail. He was convicted of attempting to kill two policemen while on the run from an earlier imprisonment. (He had been sentenced to 27 years in jail in 2004, for robbing more than 50 cars and homes.) It was his fourth prison break in five years.

A stalemate

Trade unions and the government are still at loggerheads over proposals to revamp pensions and social security. The reforms, known collectively as the Generation Pact, have caused a rift between government socialists, who support them, and the unions, which are opposed, particularly as the pact would raise the minimum retirement age to 60. Xavier Verboven, head of the main socialist union, has accused the party of betraying workers and aligning itself with the middle class.

The debate brought Brussels to a standstill twice in October, when workers staged massive strikes on the 7th and 28th; the latter protest saw 80,000 demonstrators gathered in Brussels. The labour unions held the strikes to strengthen their position before their scheduled talks with the government, which had agreed to consult them about the legislation. But Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium’s prime minister, has stressed that he would not revise the pact’s key principles.
Negotiations resumed on November 14th, and ministers agreed to refine the pact days later.
This may include concessions for workers in the steel industry on their so-called bridge pension, which allows them to retire earlier. Whereas the Generation Pact would have done away with these bridge pensions from 2011, the compromise is that they will be allowed for people 56 and over but will be phased out. Their duration will be reduced as well.

The great Asian sales pitch

Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium’s prime minister, spent early November touring Asia in an effort to drum up foreign investment. Accompanied by his finance minister, Didier Reynders, Mr Verhofstadt visited six countries, where he outlined the advantages of a new corporate tax break specifically aimed at foreign investors. The European Commission had invalidated the tax, claiming it was a form of state aid and violated European Union law.

Mr Verhofstadt’s visit included stops in Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong, and one in Uzbekistan on the way to the Far East. In each spot, the prime minister stressed the need for further co-operation between Europe and Asia on trade, economic development and security. But the key message of his trip rang out clear in a speech in Tokyo on November 9th. Hailing Brussels as “the gateway to Europe and its 450m consumers”, Mr Verhofstadt said he had cut red tape and labour costs—factors that had discouraged investment in the past—and urged the crowd to “invest in Belgium” to “increase your profits”. Some Asian executives have taken the prime minister’s advice. On November 11th Mr Verhofstadt announced that Li-Ka Shing, Hong Kong’s leading businessman, is taking over an old Renault factory just north of Brussels. Mr Li plans to make the factory a distribution centre for his chain of perfume shops and drugstores in the Benelux countries, France and Germany.

Holy justice

A Belgian priest implicated in the genocide in Rwanda will return to Belgium to face trial. Guy Theunis was arrested in September while passing through Kigali, the Rwandan capital, and charged with helping to incite the mass killings in 1994, when Hutu militias killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. After strong lobbying by Karel De Gucht, Belgium’s foreign minister, Rwanda’s High Court ruled on November 9th that Mr Theunis be sent to Belgium, which permits its courts to try genocide crimes committed elsewhere.

Mr Theunis lived in Rwanda from 1970-94 as a missionary for the Catholic order of the White Fathers. He founded a human-rights organisation there and campaigned for a free press. His defenders say his only offence has been to investigate reports of assassinations by senior members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the ruling party. Officials in Rwanda, a former Belgian colony, charged the priest with ten counts of genocide, stemming mostly from his reprinting of articles that encouraged Rwanda’s Hutus to kill Tutsis. Mr Theunis has denied any wrongdoing, and said he was “delighted” to be returning to Belgium, where a prosecutor will examine the evidence and decide whether to indict him.

Catch if you can

November 2005

Design Brussels

November 19th-27th 2005

Belgians will flock this month to Design Brussels, a large fair filled with contemporary home and interior designs in the Brussels Expo. The fair includes work by both established and young designers, along with some exhibitions, a symposium to discuss the future of design (on November 19th and 20th), and a “design route” through the city centre, highlighting the work of Brussels- and Berlin-based designers.

Brussels Expo, Hall 6. Belgiëplein 1. Open: daily, 11am-6pm; until midnight on November 25th. Visit the fair's website for details.

More from the Brussels cultural calendar