The week in brief: 2 May

Supermarket chain Delhaize is to extend its “ugly vegetables” campaign against food waste to another 100 stores, the company said. The decision follows the success of a pilot project in 16 supermarkets started last year, when customers could buy a three-kilogram box of vegetables that did not meet the usual standards of appearance for only €3.99. More than 6,000 boxes were sold, preventing some 15 tonnes of vegetables from being scrapped.

Two federal police officers serving Brussels were detained last week on suspicion of stealing money from Polish and Romanian drivers pulled over on the Brussels Ring. The pair are alleged to have stopped a vehicle in December and robbing the occupants. Ten days later they did the same thing with a Romanian vehicle, getting away with €5,300. According to the prosecutor for Halle-Vilvoorde, there is no indication any other officers were involved.

A decision by Antwerp city council to ban high-emissions vehicles from the city centre has been  overturned by the Privacy Commission, which found the use of the country’s vehicles register inappropriate. The register, which includes all vehicles registered in Belgium, would allow Antwerp to see which vehicles could and could not be allowed into the centre. But the commission pointed out that a great many owners have no plans ever to drive in Antwerp, so their details should not be open to inspection by the city. The city called the decision “frustrating” but hoped the 2017 deadline could still be met.

Inspectors from the finance ministry have started carrying out checks on restaurants equipped with the new smart cash register, which came into force on Sunday after a grace period. They promised that companies using the new registers will not be audited for any undeclared work carried out previously. “It’s logical that everyone start with a clean slate,” said Christine Mattheeuws of the self-employed union NSZ. Some 23,000 registers are listed. Restaurants not yet equipped face fines.

The government of the Brussels-Capital Region has introduced a package of measures worth €66 million to boost the local economy following a severe dip suffered in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 22 March. The funding includes: helping the hotel sector recover; low-interest credit for small businesses; a publicity campaign to stimulate a number of shopping areas; extra security in metro stations and at cultural venues and events; a new video platform bringing together camera footage from all police zones in the capital; and a mobility pack for tourists allowing three free hours of public transport, Interparking carparks or Villo bikes for hire.

The parliamentary committee looking into the 22 March terrorist attacks  at Brussels Airport and in Maalbeek metro station has designated the four experts who will assist in the investigation. The two Dutch-speaking experts are criminologist Brice De Ruyver of Ghent University and KU Leuven emeritus professor of law Cyrille Fijnaut. Both served as experts on the Dutroux commission in the 1990s. On the French-speaking side, Paul Martens, former president of the Constitutional Court, will be the acting magistrate, while Simon Petermann of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) is an expert in radicalisation.

The concert venue Ancienne Belgique in Brussels has worked out a deal with rail authority NMBS to encourage concert-goers to come to the city by train. Anyone with a ticket for a concert in the AB can now buy a return ticket from any station in Belgium for only €9. The NMBS plans to offer the deal to other venues later.

An investigating magistrate has called on the computer crime unit of the federal police to shut down access to three websites accused of selling concert tickets at extortionate prices, which is now against the law in Belgium. The sites, topticketsshop.nl, rang1tickets.nl and ticketsbelgie.be, are also accused of identity fraud as they use false names to obtain tickets in the first place. Consumer organisation Test-Aankoop announced that it is starting a class action suit against the websites on behalf of anyone who bought tickets from them.

Members of the federal parliament have voted against a proposal to bring their own retirement age – currently 55 years for anyone elected before 2014 – into line with the minimum age for the rest of the population, which is 65. According to Peter De Roover, fraction leader for majority party N-VA , the amendment, filed by opposition socialists, was “a cheap trick aimed at scoring popular points”.

The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the world’s Buddhists, is to visit Brussels this autumn to take part in the Power and Care conference scheduled for 9 to 11 September, his Mind and Life organisation announced.

Photo courtesy VILT