Yves Leterme

BRUSSELS ( Reuters ) - Belgium finally secured a government on Monday after record-long talks to form a coalition that promises the most profound state reform in decades and a commitment to restore the country's finances. The new six-party coalition has a mammoth 180-page deal to enact having already lost a year and a half of a four-year term. The government must satisfy demands of the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority for devolution of further powers to Belgium's regions, and may have to...Read Full Story

And from flandersnews.be, via Andy Carling ( @quarsan ) comes the important news that: Flemings good at sorting their rubbish The amount of non-recyclable rubbish Flemings put out for collection continues to fall. Really! Yep, it’s true. You can read all about it here if you like. Now this post started life as a throwaway tweet by Andy, who pointed to it when it was apparently the Top Story on the FlandersNews site. Apart from Tweeting back that I thought it was “Rubbish journalism...Read Full Story

Belgium faced political and economic limbo on Monday as right-wing Flemish separatist and French-speaking Socialist poll winners sized each other up going into entrenched negotiations. With markets sniffing a deepening public finance crisis at the heart of Europe following sea-change results from Sunday's elections, observers doubted whether the clash of political, economic and linguistic ideologies could even be bridged in Brussels over the coming months. King Albert II began the protracted...Read Full Story

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets, talks about the outlook for an expansion of the European Central Bank's bond purchase program. He speaks from Brussels with Owen Thomas on Bloomberg Television's "First Look."Read Full Story

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets, talks about the outlook for an expansion of the European Central Bank's bond purchase program. He speaks from Brussels with Owen Thomas on Bloomberg Television's "First Look."Read Full Story

Right-wing Flemish separatist and left-wing francophone unionists began tortuous negotiations on Monday to resolve federal Belgium's future and its finances. As markets sensed weakness at the very heart of debt-laden Europe following Sunday's sea-change elections, observers doubted whether deep ideological chasms -- linguistic, political and economic -- could be bridged over coming months. King Albert II took the first steps by meeting outgoing caretaker prime minister Yves Leterme and...Read Full Story

Belgium plunged into political crisis on Thursday as Prime Minister Yves Leterme threw in the towel after a key Flemish party quit his coalition government two months before the country assumes the EU chair. The situation was in flux, however, as the king delayed a decision on whether to accept Leterme's resignation saying a political crisis would "seriously threaten" Belgium's role in Europe. Flemish Christian democrat Leterme informed King Albert II of his decision to quit, after just five...Read Full Story

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said Thursday the costs of celebrations to mark the Democratic Republic of Congo's 50 years of independence may have been better spent on its needy citizens. The war-torn African nation on Wednesday put on an impressive military parade attended by several kings and heads of state, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, to mark its June 30, 1960 independence from colonial ruler Belgium. Asked about the display, Leterme told journalists that "seeing the means (used), we...Read Full Story

Belgium's government collapsed on Monday amid a breakdown between Dutch and French-speaking parts, hurtling the country towards elections that cast a doubt over its future as a unified state. Two months from Belgium taking over the EU's chair, the palace announced that King Albert II had accepted prime minister Yves Leterme's offer to quit after negotiations between Flemish and Walloon parts disintegrated. "The king has accepted the resignation of the government," said a short statement...Read Full Story

Belgians vote in a general election Sunday with opinion polls predicting the kind of impressive showing for Flemish nationalists which would send fears of a national break up soaring. Pre-election opinion polls put the independentist NVA party in front in the the richer northern region Dutch-speaking Flanders, with a quarter of the vote. Add fellow separatist groups and the vote regionally stacks up at 40 percent, the kind of figure to send shivers down the spines of federalist politicians in...Read Full Story