The week in brief: 15 November

The Centre for the Prevention of Suicide has a new telephone number – 1813 – Flemish welfare minister Jo Vandeurzen announced. The free number is intended to simplify contact between service providers and those who need them and is part of the government’s plan to reduce suicides by 20% by 2020. A new online platform has also been launched. The number for Tele-Onthaal – 106 – remains available for help with other personal problems.
www.zelfmoord1813.be

A boy of 15 from Sint-Laureins in East Flanders has taken off for India to attend a Buddhist seminary with a view to becoming a monk. The boy, identified only as Giel, had been ordered to report to an observation centre in Eeklo, after the public prosecutor filed suit against his departure at the request of a relative. The case eventually went back to youth court, which determined that Giel’s departure was voluntary, and they would no longer intervene. “It’s a dream come true,” he said on his departure at Brussels Airport.

The Nieuwstraat in Brussels and the Meir in Antwerp have tied for first place as the most expensive shopping streets in the country, according to estate agents Cushman & Wakefield, with rents of €1,800 per square metre. On a world ranking the two streets would share 34th place. Louizalaan in Brussels comes third on €1,700, followed by Veldstraat in Ghent and Steenstraat in Bruges.

Wouter Beke has been reappointed as president of the Flemish Christian Democrat party CD&V for the coming three years. Beke received 98.7% of votes cast in an election in which he stood unopposed. The vote puts him in a strong position to lead the party in the 2014 Flemish, federal and European elections. “I want to make CD&V a people’s party that sets the agenda once more,” he said in an interview on Radio 1.

Désiré Collen, the 70-year-old founder of the bio-pharmaceutical company Thrombogenics, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Belgian-American chamber of commerce for scientific and commercial achievements. Dr Collen was born in Sint-Truiden, Limburg province, and educated at the University of Leuven, where he worked as a physician, becoming professor of molecular and vascular biology in 2002. The company was a spin-off from his work on cardiovascular disease and the prevention of blood clots and has brought the university hundreds of millions of euros in licence income.

Opponents of genetically modified organisms held a protest this week in Ghent outside a symposium organised to celebrate the 30th anniversary of plant biotechnology in Flanders. Flanders has one of the most dynamic biotechnology industries in Europe, but critics at the demonstration, organised by Field Liberation Movement, accused the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) of being part of an industry intent only on profits.  

Unions representing staff of De Lijn have filed an intention to strike, with actions possible after 29 November. Unions are angry that commitments in the sectoral accord for 2013-2014 are not being respected – in particular, the promise of a payment of €7.2 million by the Flemish government, which has since been cut by nearly €1.3 million, affecting the budget of the company’s social fund. Details of any action will follow the outcome of a meeting between the two sides on 28 November.

Flemish fishermen have complained about an agreement reached in Vietnam by Flemish minister Hilde Crevits last week that nominates Zeebrugge as the port of entry for the country’s exports of pangasius fish to the whole of Europe. The deal is “good for Zeebrugge and good for jobs” and will not affect the competitive position of local fishermen, according to Johan Van de Steene of the fish auction market. “The pangasius fillets are destined for the entire European market, and so will not compete with the sale of fresh North Sea fish,” explained Zeebrugge port spokesperson Joachim Coens.

Brussels public transport authority MIVB has sent out specifications for the automation of the metro network, the authority said. MIVB is looking for a supplier of 90 new trains for metro lines 1 and 5, which, by 2020, will be serviced by a mixture of classic trains and new automatic driverless trains. The two sets of specifications concern the trains and the signalling equipment for the new lines. With automation, capacity on the two lines will be doubled, with trains able to run at intervals of only two minutes by 2019. A fully automated service by 2023 will see trains running at 90 second intervals.