*Flemish-Dutch House opened in Brussels
On 24 June 2004, the Flemish-Dutch House was inaugurated. This House aims to stimulate the debate between 22 million Dutch speakers and seeks to promote their culture in Europe.
Last year, the search of the Flemish Minister for Culture for appropriate premises ended when he purchased a building close to the La Monnaie Opera House. He also bought the adjacent grounds on which a new building is to be erected.
The Flemish-Dutch House will have three tasks. It will be a platform for debating a cultural Europe. Artists, journalists and philosophers will meet each other there, hold debates and give lectures. In addition, the House will play an information role and archive digitally.
During the next two years, the adjacent new building will be realised. The plan was designed by the bureau of the Flemish Government Architect, BoB Van Reeth. |
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*Flemish Primitive Gerard David first to be exhibitioned in the Thyssen Museum, Madrid
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*Elections re-shuffle the cards in the Flemish Parliament
On Sunday, June 13th, the Flemish people went to the ballot box. At stake: 124 Flemish Parliament seats for the next five years. The cartel of CD&V; (Christian-Democrats) and NVA (Flemish Nationalists) turned out to be the biggest political group in the assembly with 35 seats, followed by the far right �Vlaams Blok� with 32 seats. Two other cartels, VLD-Vivant (predominantly liberal-democrats) and sp.a-spirit (social-democrats and progressive nationalists) both obtained 25 seats. The ecologists of Groen! (Green) got 6 seats, whereas the last remaining seat went to UF (Union of French-speakers).
It is worth noting that considerably more women got elected. Compared to the 1999 election, female candidates won 9 percent more of the 124 parliament seats, thus increasing the total female representation to nearly one third of the Flemish Parliament.
The Flemish voter also elected the Flemish representatives in the European Parliament. Flanders holds 14 out of 24 Belgian seats. The 14 available seats will be distributed as follows: 4 to CD&V-NVA;, 3 to Vlaams Blok, VLD-Vivant and sp.a-spirit and 1 to Groen!
About the Flemish elections:
http://polling2004.belgium.be/
(English, French, German and Dutch)
About the European elections:
http://www.elections2004.eu.int/ (all European languages) |
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*Foreign authors and artists define letters of the alphabet
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*Flanders and the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan
Flanders will participate in the World Expo 2005 and will be located in the pavilion of Belgium and its federated states.
What's more, the Flemish Government decided to organise a Flemish Day during the Expo in Japan on March 26, 2005. The program will include lectures and testimonies by Japanese students in Flanders and vice versa, a seminar concerning Flemish economy, a fashion parade and a performance by the Flemish youth choir Scala.
The World Expo will run for 185 days, form March 25 untill September 25.
More information
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*Jonas Geirnaert receives the Short Film Jury Prize in Cannes for Flatlife
The 21-year-old Flemish student-director Jonas Geirnaert won the Jury Prize at the 57th International Film Festival in Cannes. Together with Flatlife, Geirnaert�s final project at the Gentse Hogeschool � Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (KASK - Royal Academy of Fine Arts), nine other European and American short films participated in this competition. The particularly funny and well-made Flatlife follows four flat-dwellers whose actions appear to be more interwoven than we might think at first sight.
For more information:
http://www.flatlife.be
http://www.flanders-image.com
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*Financial support for the International Labour Organisation: Formal approval of five projects
On Friday 7 May, the Flemish Government decided to provide financial support for five projects of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for a total amount of 700.000 Euro.
The Flanders/ILO fund is used to fund projects focusing on the promotion of core labour standards, social dialogue, decent work, employment creation through support for entrepreneurship and SME development, and promotion of equal opportunities and gender equity.
The recently approved projects are:
- Joint institutions on vocational training for employers' organisations - Central and Eastern Europe (second phase: 80,000 Euro)
- SYNDICOOP: A joint trade union-cooperative strategy to reduce poverty by creating decent jobs - South Africa (second phase: 100,000 Euro)
- Integrating microfinance in central bank policy - Mozambique (70,000 Euro)
- Strengthening labour market and employment services - China (third phase: 150,000 Euro)
- Improvement of safety and health and working conditions in the maritime industry - Russia (third phase: 300,000 Euro)
The Flanders/ILO Agreement on the creation of a trust fund in support of technical co-operation was concluded on 11 December 2001. Under this Agreement Flanders annually provides funds for ILO technical co-operation projects in transition economies and developing countries. Flemish experts are involved in the execution of most projects. The 2004 contribution included, total contributions amount to 2.8 million Euro. The Flemish Government's policy in support of technical co-operation with international organisations targets the ILO, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the World Health Organisation, and the World Trade Organisation. |
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*Flemish Unesco Commission established
On 17 May 2004 the Flemish minister for Foreign Policy has officially installed the Flemish Unesco Commission. This organisation will promote the Unesco-objectives in Flanders. Unesco is the UN-organisation that guarantees a cooperation in the field of education, science and culture. |
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*WTO-statistics: Flanders is a top exporter
According to a new WTO-report, Flanders can take up its place between the top ten of exporting countries in the world. Our region is good for no less than 2.63% of the world export. Flanders is tenth in a list lead by really big exporting countries like Germany, the USA, Japan, China and the UK.
The Flemish minister for Economy, Foreign Policy and E-government adds: �Our own export statistics show also that Flanders makes up 77.42% of the Belgian export. That�s an increase of 2% since 2000.� |
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*Memling eye-catcher Bruges 2005
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*Flemish researcher unravels immunity system
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*Vlerick: an accredited and top ranked European business school
The Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has recently been accredited by the �Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business� (AACSB). This accreditation is a quality label which has to help the institution to profile itself internationally.
The Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School already had a European (Equis) and a British accreditation (Amba). �We are one of the sixteen institutions world-wide who have these three important labels�, says Patrick De Greve, director of the awarded management school. According to De Greve, about 480 business schools have been honoured with the quality label. 420 of them are active in the USA.
Such labels are important to attract good students. De Greve expects the AACSB-label to bring along forms of co-operation with other top institutions and big companies.
More information: http://www.vlerick.be |
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*Hugo De Greef leads network of European festivals
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*The Netherlands enter a Flemish nano-electronics project
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*The Mercator telescope: a trump card for Flanders
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*Ric Urmel no longer managing director of 'de Brakke Grond'
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*Rock Werchter is the world's best festival
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*Luc Tuymans exhibits in Tate Modern
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*Rediscover P.P. Rubens - Antwerp and Rubens, inextricably linked
Pieter Paul Rubens; master of Flemish Baroque. But how well do we actually know him?
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*Subsidy for UNAIDS
On the proposal of the Flemish Minister for Foreign Policy, Patricia Ceysens, the Flemish Government approved the financing of 500,000 euro as a voluntary financial contribution to UNAIDS. This organisation is led by Peter Piot.
The international AIDS problematic is a permanent point of attention to Flanders. This appears from the financing of bilateral and multilateral projects aiming at the fight against HIV/AIDS and from the direct contacts between UNAIDS and Flanders.
Minister Ceysens: �Concretely, this means two priority action programmes will be supported in southern Africa. They concern the protection of children and youngsters against the AIDS epidemic and its impact. Youngsters are a crucial target group in the fight against AIDS.� |
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*Sunday Times Travel Magazine ranks Antwerp among ten trendiest cities
The British magazine has proclaimed Antwerp as one of the ten trendiest cities of 2004, together with Shanghai (China), Sao Paolo (Brazil) and Fez (Morocco). Journalist Vincent Crump describes Belgium, and especially Antwerp, as trendy. He thinks the city is a new urban hot-spot, offering a lot of culture, fashion and shopping streets. Moreover, Antwerp has so many trendy drinking shops that it makes even Londoners be green with envy.
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*Antwerp World Book Capital becomes ambitious project
After Madrid, Alexandria and New Delhi, Unesco has designated Antwerp as World Book Capital in 2004. This should come as no surprise, since where books are concerned the port city is able to submit more than enough patents of nobility. In addition to the annual book fair in the Bouwcentrum there is also a second fair, that of the Andere Boek and the literary events Saint-Amour, De Nachten and Het Boekenbal. The city employs a city poet and houses many literary associations and publishers.
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*Flanders Investment and Trade approved
On the proposal of Flemish Minister Patricia Ceysens, the Flemish Government has approved the draft Act on the creation of Flanders Investment and Trade (F.I.T.) in principle. The draft emphasises the importance of export for Flanders. 80% of Flemish turnover is indeed meant for export. In 2002, Flanders exported goods and services for an amount of more than � 175 billion, which is an increase in absolute terms of 9.45% in comparison with 2001. Flanders' Export Promotion Agency treated about 9,000 files of Flemish companies in the same year, and about 1,500 companies participated in one of the activities of Flanders' Export Promotion Agency. The draft Act will be submitted for advice to Flanders' Social and Economic Council and the board of directors of Flanders' Export Promotion Agency.
In order for F.I.T. to get really tuned in to its customers, it was decided to outsource the 'front-office'. This front-office becomes a public-private co-operation with organisations from civil society that are in close contact with the needs of business community. As a result, F.I.T. will get many branches all over Flanders, and its contact with the customers will pass off optimally. With F.I.T., the Flemish Government supports Flemish economy in a structural way and thus hopes to turn Flanders into a top region for international enterprise.
Info: persdienst.ceysens@vlaanderen.be
You can listen to the press conferences of the Flemish Government in Dutch on http://www.vlaanderen.be/persconferenties
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*Flanders shares expertise with International Labour Organization
On the proposal of the Flemish Minister for Foreign Policy, Patricia Ceysens, the Flemish Government has approved to finance nine projects of the International Labour Organization (ILO). This financing represents a total amount of 825,000 Euro.
Nine projects are to be realised:
- Employment for handicapped people in southern Africa
- Vocational training by employer�s organisations in Central and Eastern Europe
- Women�s network in Eastern Europe: project stimulating gender consciousness and promoting the role of women in decision-making within the trade unions
- Training for SME development in Uzbekistan
- Promotion of social dialogue in Latvia
- Stimulation of SME development in Chile
- Promotion of women�s entrepreneurship in Morocco
- Relaxation of the job market by reinforcing employment services in China
- Promotion of decent work in the St Petersburg port industry.
This latter project emphasises Flanders� open view on the world and its readiness to share its expertise with other countries and regions of the world. |
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*Catholic University of Leuven and Ghent University among the best in the world
According to a survey by the American scientific magazine The Scientist, Belgium is the second best place in the academic world to do a postdoctoral research. It appears from the large-scale survey into the favourite university that three universities from the Low Countries make the top ten of non-US institutions: Utrecht University, Catholic University of Leuven and Ghent University. They received these high ratings thanks to the quality of mentoring, among other things. |
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*BVN-TV
BVN-TV (het Beste van Vlaanderen en Nederland, the Best of Flanders and the Netherlands) is the public television broadcaster for Dutch and Flemish people abroad.
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*Dutch or Flemish?
The question keeps coming back : do the people of Flanders speak Dutch or Flemish? Click to find out - and you'll also discover some interesting linguistic links.
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