Last week some 200 youths, most of them from Brussels, attacked police and threw bottles and other missiles at the Hofstade recreation park in Zemst to the north of Brussels, which is run by the Flemish sport and recreation federation Bloso. Two policemen were injured, and only one of the youths was arrested.

However,the incident led to a strong reaction from interior minister Annemie Turtelboom, including a plan to treat trouble-makers at recreation parks like football hooligans and introduce a swimming ban, and a proposal to set up a databank of known trouble-makers. Bloso, meanwhile, intends to build a permanent fence around the park, put up more security cameras, and introduce an entrance fee of €4, intended as a disincentive to the trouble-makers, but which would however not apply to local people. The recreation park at Huizingen has already implemented a fee.

"We are proposing for the short term that every park introduce a regulation such as the one in force at De Nekker in Mechelen," Turtelboom said. "Anyone who misbehaves there one time is not allowed back in. Everyone has to put their identity card through the card-reader; if the red light comes up, then you're out of luck. That means you must have broken the rules previously." Bloso said it had no plans for the time being to operate a "black-list" of its own, but the option had not been ruled out for the future, a spokesman said.

The problem of youths from Brussels causing trouble at the nearest recreation parks in Flanders is one that comes back every year. The trouble-makers are most often identified as Moroccan youths, presumably on the basis of their appearance alone. Bloso parks are patrolled by private security guards. But the problem also extends to the public transport system, with De Lijn drivers suffering frequent problems caused by young men travelling from Hofstade to the capital.

Smet's solution - to remove the need for the bands of youths to travel to Flanders by providing more recreational facilities in Brussels itself - dates back to the time when he was still minister in the Brussels regional government, responsible for public works. The plan involved a sort of esplanade along the canal in the centre of Brussels by Tour & Taxis, with part of the space being taken up by an open-air swimming pool. But while other developments in the plan were picked up by the Brussels government, the swimming pool was not.

"Youths from Brussels have to go to Huizingen or Hofstade to relax and enjoy themselves. They go
swimming there without any form of social control, and everyone knows what happens then. That's unacceptable. It would be better to create those sort of possibilities in their own city," Smet said on VRT's De Zevende Dag at the weekend. The project would also help give young people from the area more pride in their surroundings: "This is not just recreation, it's actually an integration project," he said. Responsibility for the project has now passed to CD&V minister Brigitte Grouwels.