Après les élections, le ministre de la Justice CD&V Stefaan de Clerck a l'intention de présenter au parlement fédéral ses projets de réforme en profondeur de la justice. Au cours d'une journée d'étude à Leuven, le ministre en a tracé pour la première fois les grands contours. Tous les juges de première ligne - juge de police, de paix, du travail, ainsi que des tribunaux de première instance ou du commerce, seront regroupés au sein d'un seul et même "tribunal de première ligne" doté d'un guichet unique auquel le citoyen pourra présenter son dossier. Ce n'est pas le justiciable, mais le tribunal lui-même qui transmettra le dossier au département adéquat. Le nombre d'arrondissements judiciaires passera de 27 à 16, quantité équivalente à celle des tribunaux de première ligne qui verront le jour. Par ailleurs, les parquets et auditorats du travail fusionneront, pour permettre à des équipes spécialisées de s'en prendre à la criminalité économico-financière. Certains tribunaux et parquets sont actuellement trop petits pour se spécialiser, et doivent s'incliner face à des bureaux d'avocats souvent très pointus. La réforme réduira aussi le nombre de "chefs" à la justice (ils sont actuellement environ 300). Elle est radicale, mais pour le Standaard, reste à savoir si De Clerck pourra compter sur le soutien politique nécessaire pour la mener à bien. Si les petits tribunaux risquent de disparaître, de nombreux réflexes régionaux sons susceptibles de se manifester. La première condition est donc un soutien suffisant de la part du fédéral.

La stabilité du gouvernement Van Rompuy reste incertaine,en dépit des manifestations orales de respect que se sont manifestés les coalisés MP et PS par la bouche des vice-premiers ministres Reynders (MR) et Onkelinx (PS), qui ont mis fin, du moins pour grand public, aux nombreux incidents entre les deux partis. La presse continue à bourdonner de bruits sur une nouvelle coalition au fédéral après les élections du 7 juin. Bien que la presse soit à l'affût de ce qui se passe en Wallonie, le VLD fait également parler de lui. Pour la xième fois, il menace de quitter le gouvernement si aucun budget décent, coupant dans l'appareil de l'Etat et la sécurité sociale, ne voit le jour. La Ministre Onkelinx en a conclu que la présence de son parti n'était plus souhaitée au gouvernement, après les déclarations du ministre de l'Intérieur Karel De Gucht, qui annonçait dimanche qu'il ne s'inquiétait pas à la perspective de gouverner sans les socialistes, et voit que le MR, le CDH et Ecolo forment peu à peu une coalition anti-socialiste. Tout comme chez les socialistes flamands, les propos de De Gucht sont l'occasion de reprendre l'initiative et se positionner sur la carte politique; Onkelinx veut aussi transformer les attaques incessantes du MR en avantage électorale et mettre le paquet sur la thématique électorale d'une participation du PS au gouvernement. Dans un nouveau sondage du Soir, le PS reste le principal parti wallon devant le MR, avec respectivement 27,2 et 25,5% des voix, mais il passe au troisième rang à Bruxelles, derrière le MR et Ecolo.

Le Conseil de la Concurrence a condamné l'opérateur mobile Proximus, filiale de Belgacom, à une amende de 66,3 millions d'euros pour abus de position dominante sur le marché des entreprises en 2004 et 2005. Le Conseil estime que Proximus, premier acteur du marché, a abusé de sa position sur le marché des grands clients d'affaires en leur accordant des tarifs anormalement moins élevés que les prix de gros qu'un opérateur concurrent devait payer pour envoyer des appels vers le réseau Proximus. Proximus a donc "confisqué" le marché professionnel à ses concurrents Mobistar et Base. Cette dernière a d'ailleurs dû quitter le marché professionnel voici plusieurs années, alors qu'en revanche, Proximus y compte aujourd'hui plus de 1,1 millions de clients. Belgacom, la société-mère de Proximus, pourrait se pourvoir en appel, mais elle ne s'était pas encore décidée hier soir. Elle a d'abord souhaité analyser la sentence, et réagira aujourd'hui sur le fond. La condamnation est susceptible d'avoir de lourdes répercussions juridiques et financières sur l'entreprise, dont les concurrents (Base et Mobistar) sont susceptibles d'utiliser ce prononcé officiel comme une arme dans leur lutte contre Proximus devant le tribunal bruxellois du commerce. Celui-ci doit se prononcer pour déterminer si Proximus a également abusé de sa position dominante entre 1999 et 2003. Base et Mobistar font front dans cette affaire, qui traîne en longueur; ils exigent ensemble que Proximus leur verse une indemnité atteignant le milliard d'euros.

La survie de l'aéroport de Deurne est assurée, puisque le gouvernement flamand y investit 25 millions d'euros. En effet, il faut construire une bande de sécurité derrière la piste d'atterrissage et de décollage, ce qui présuppose le déplacement d'une artère très fréquentée. Pour les adversaires du projet, la preuve que l'aéroport n'est pas viable est que le port d'Anvers, le diamant, les compagnies aériennes, qui estiment que l'aéroport doit subsister, ne sont pas pour autant disposés à y investir le moindre euro. De Morgen constate que l'aéroport est surtout très calme. Il y a bien le vol d'affaires à destination de Londres, qui assure un minimum d'animation pendant une heure, mais guère plus car le check-in rapide est le principal atout de cette liaison Anvers-Londres. Pour les adversaires de l'aéroport, il deviendra tout simplement superflu dès que le projet Diabolo, une ligne ferroviaire directe entre Anvers et l'aéroport de Zaventem, sera prêt. Mais les autorités de l'aéroport crient au non-sens : "L'avenir appartient aux aéroports régionaux. Le service que nous offrons, notamment l'embarquement rapide, ne sera jamais à la portée de Zaventem. Récemment, la compagnie aérienne VLM a encore ouvert une nouvelle liaison avec Francfort. On ne fait pas cela à partir d'un aéroport condamné."

Ce 2 juin, le Musée Magritte ouvrira ses portes dans l'immeuble Altenloh sur la Place Royale à Bruxelles. La collection exposée totalise 250 ouvrages du surréaliste René Magritte, que les conservateurs du musée sont parvenus à rassembler par le biais des amis et de la veuve de l'artiste. Le don fait par Irène Hamoir, veuve de Louis Scutenaire (un des amis intimes de Magritte) constitue une ces principales contributioins à la collection, qui est le plus important rassemblement de tableaux de Magritte au monde. Outre la collection du musée, des emprunts à longs termes seront aussi présentés. Le musée a vu le jour grâce à une collaboration entre les Musées Royaux d'Art et le Groupe français Suez, qui a pris à sa charge tout l'aménagement intérieur du musée (climatisation, éclairage, protection, applications audiovisuelles, vitrines et site internet).

27/05/09 – Belgium’s crown prince Filip takes leave of Frank De Winne at the Baikonur Cosmodrome: “Everybody in Belgium will be with you for the next six months” he tells Belgium’s second astronaut.

Research from Leuven University shows your next MFP may well be new, he will still probably be a man.

At the Cannes film festival the Flemish movie "De helaasheid der dingen" by Felix van Groeningen has won the Prix Art et Essai.

The Tongeren museum with exhibits from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages has been completely refurbished.

Foreign Minister De Gucht says Belgium remains committed to taking some detainees from Guantanamo.

At exactly 12:34 yesterday the Soyuz rocket carrying ESA astronaut Frank De Winne and his two space-faring colleagues Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk blasted off successfully from the launch pad in Baikonur, the same place from where the first Sputnik in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin in 1961 were launched into space. De Winne's space trip will be a legendary one for Belgian space-travel history. He is the second Belgian astronaut and the first to have such a lengthy sojourn - six months - in space. He will even be in command aboard the International Space Station, the ISS, for some of that time. The interest in the Belgian complement was stressed yesterday by the attendance of Prince Filip, Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem (CD&V) and the Minister of Science Policy, Sabine Laruelle (MR). The Prince conveyed greetings from Belgium at a final press conference. "We will be with you in our thoughts," he added when De Winne assured him that everything was going according to plan and that he was glad to receive so much support from his home country. Eight minutes and forty seconds after takeoff, the Soyuz went into orbit around the earth at a speed of 28,000 km per hour. And, even though the ISS is only 350 km from earth, it will be a day and a half before the capsule docks on the space station. Given that the ISS also orbits the earth at a speed of 28,000 km, it takes quite some manoeuvring to safely reach the station, in which time all the docking equipment is also tested.

General Motors will most likely file for a chapter 11 within the next few hours or days. A small minority of GM bondholder-creditors yesterday rejected the restructuring plan proposed by Detroit that was intended to cancel GM's massive debt of 27.2 billion dollars. Earlier yesterday GM transferred its European Opel and Vauxhall factories to German subsidiary Adam Opel, rendering the European activities immune from the consequences of court composition. On top of the factories, the German company will also receive all the necessary patents, while no debts will be transferred from the US to Europe. The newspaper De Tijd writes that in doing this the American company is indirectly indicating that it prefers a takeover of Opel by a consortium led by the Canadian-Austrian parts manufacturer, Magna. Of the four potential takeover bids, Magna is the only candidate that anticipates a clear shareholdership on the part of GM, amounting to 35 percent. That is, after all, the reason why GM is ditching its European subsidiary in such a healthy financial state, as it can then also gain from the expected profits. According to the Magna plan, GM will hold 35 percent with an equal stake going to the Russian Sberbank, while Magna will take twenty percent of the stock. The remaining ten percent will be distributed among the employees and possibly the European Opel dealers. In indicating its indirect preference for Magna, GM also immediately increased the pressure on the German authorities, who will today announce their own preferred takeover bid.

Economic affairs ministers from countries with Opel factories will meet tomorrow in Brussels to coordinate plans and initiatives. The meeting was convened by the European Commission in the wake of Tuesday's anxious letter from Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters (CD&V) and the federal Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy (CD&V) addressed to Commission President José-Manuel Barroso concerning the isolated approach of the German authorities in the Opel takeover. However, it is the German government that is able to provide the much needed state guarantees and emergency loans to get Opel through the next few months. They have a plan ready through which some state banks will provide up to 1.5 billion Euros in emergency loans to keep Opel operationally afloat. This cash will have to see Opel through until after the 27 September German federal elections. The social democratic and Christian democratic governing coalition prefer to postpone publication of the exact details of the inevitable restructuring of Opel until after the elections. This means that the true fate of Antwerp's Opel factory will also remain unknown for some months. The big favourite to take over Opel, the Canadian-Austrian Magna, says it is looking at other car manufacturers for Antwerp, should its bid meet with success. Opel is not the only automobile issue on the agenda for Minister-President Peeters (CD&V) tomorrow - he will also meet Swedish Minister of Economic Affairs Maud Olofsson in Brussels to discuss Volvo Cars in Ghent. The Flemish government is prepared to grant Volvo a couple of hundred million Euros in loan guarantees, while Stockholm is as yet not ready to match the offer.

Guy Verhofstadt, leading European Open VLD candidate and currently Flanders' most popular politician, is becoming more emphatically involved in the party's Flemish election campaign. Verhofstadt was as much abroad as at home in the last few weeks and his presence was limited to his Europe debate with Jean-Luc Dehaene on the VRT broadcaster. But now he is getting more involved in the Flemish election battle. He is still the unchallenged numero uno in the Open VLD, and if the liberals are to make a last-gasp effort to dethrone the CD&V as the largest Flemish party, then Verhofstadt's backup will be more than welcome. Yesterday Verhofstadt joined forces with chairman Bart Somers, Flemish Deputy Minister-President Dirk Van Mechelen and the Flemish Minister of Economy Patricia Ceysens to present the Flemish part of the European rescue plan. Over the next few years, the Flemish government should pump four billion Euros into sectors that can provide future jobs, Open VLD says. And that won't cost the Flemish taxpayer a thing, Verhofstadt emphasised. There is a high demand for bonds - since they are secure investments - and if Flanders should issue these, the plan would be financially covered, he continues. The plan entails five items, one of which is investing in renewable energy. The Open VLD will ask citizens to invest in energy generation using solar panels, wind turbines or installations for processing biomass. Furthermore, the Open VLD intends investing in smart traffic technology and in a fibre-optic network enabling speedy internet connections.

The Flemish socialists (the SP.A) are facing stiff competition from the Flemish environmentalists on their own social themes. The chairman of Groen!, Mieke Vogels, is oozing self-confidence, particularly since its francophone counterpart, Ecolo, looks set to take third place in Wallonia, even competing with the socialist PS and liberal MR to become the biggest party. Groen! is not doing badly either, with environmental issues climbing higher on the agenda. Vogels' level of confidence was demonstrated yesterday in her direct attack on the liberal Open VLD when she threatened to keep the greens out of a future coalition that would lower taxes without simultaneously combating tax fraud. Now that the liberals are considering her party as a potential governing partner, she has dared to question such a coalition with the liberal party continuously emphasising social security and civil service cuts. Vogels also opposes doubling job discounts (a Flemish tax cut), which the liberals are promising. She has gone even further than that, declaring that job discounts should be abolished. Fighting poverty and cutting down waiting lists for care and for the handicapped are priorities to her. The SP.A feels many of its traditional voters are considering voting for Groen!. But the environmentalists are not the only ones poaching votes from the SP.A. Hovering on left wing are the left-liberals of the SLP, their coalition partners until recently, and the extreme left-wing PVDA+, which wants to introduce a millionaire's tax. Both these parties may cost the socialists a few percentage points.

The Belgian dredging companies Deme and De Nul presented their revolutionary 'Flemish Bays 2100' plan in Brussels on Wednesday. A consortium was set up for the occassion, and Arcadis, AT&M, IMDC and ORG have joined the project. They project is gigantic, indeed. It involves completely redrawing the Flemish coastline and providing coastal tourism with fresh impetus. In the different scenarios they present, the utilisation of the submerged sandbanks located some ten kilometres offshore is crucial. These sandbanks could be raised to form islands, on which housing and recreation would be possible. The reason behind this project, which could provide both dredging compnies with decades of work, is global warming. Not only will the sea level at least rise by 60 centimetres this century, storms will also become fiercer with waves increasing up to four meters. The many submerged sandbanks lining the Flemish coast today slow down storm surges but, should water levels continue to rise, their effectiveness will decrease proportionately. As is well-known, DEME and De Nul have undertaken similar titanic projects off the coast of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

On Tuesday the Competition Authority hit the Belgacom subsidiary and mobile phone operator Proximus with a 66.3 million Euro fine after it allegedly employed prices for the professional market in 2004 and 2005 designed to "strangle" the competition. In effect, in those years Belgacom allegedly charged lower rates for calls between Proximus clients (in other words, using its own network) than the rates it charged for its competitors to transfer calls from their networks to the Proximus network. Belgacom has not denied the charge, but says the call rates for calls within the Proximus network were only part of a package deal Proximus offered to its clients. Belgacom maintains that it could not simply isolate the price of that type of call from the whole package. "As we disagree fundamentally with the approach to the market, we have no choice but to appeal the decision of the Competition Authority," Belgacom concluded yesterday.

The British-Belgian author Richard Hill takes a look at the campaign for the Euro elections in Belgium.

Belgian police have detained a 60-year-old Scot who is suspected of sending a letter containing death threats against the Dowager Queen Fabiola.

26/05/09 - Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne, Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are ready for blast off on Wednesday. They are going to the International Space Station for 6 months to join the 3 already there. The VRT will have extra reports and live coverage of the blast off on Wednesday.