Belgium

Surprise: the highest taxed country in the world managed to increase taxes!

If you need to take court action over human rights offenses, these are the human rights NGOs:

• UNIA
• Vlaams Mensenrechteninstituut (only Flanders and Brussels /if/ regd as Dutch speaking)
• Ligue des droits humains
• Association pour le droit des étrangers
• Amnesty Intl Belgium

The three listed after UNIA basically say “we have a tiny budget; no money for court. Go to UNIA- that’s the big well-funded national human rights org.”

UNIA generally just ignores complaints. But if you can get them to talk, they say “We do not go to court. We only negotiate.”

Amnesty Intl is quite useless as well. They don’t have funding for court actions. They write letters once a year and get many signatures. They say that gets some results but they only target a dozen or less specific and extreme cases -- and they’re outside of Belgium (e.g. Gaza).

If you need to take court action over consumer rights offenses, we have:

• Testachats: “We do not go to court. We only negotiate.”
• Jury d’Ethique Publicitaire (JEP): self-regulates ad business. Absolutely useless. Will not intervene on false advertising.
• BEUC (Europe-wide): basically useless. They’re just a cheerleader for EU consumer lawmaking. No budget for court.

Negotiate with what leverage? It must be well known that UNIA and Testachats don’t do court, so why would any offender of human rights or consumer rights compromise anything?

For privacy, only EDRI has a Belgian presence. They are EU-wide in scope so Belgium-specific matters are of no interest to them. NoyB has no Belgian presence but they are more inclined to talk than EDRI. Neither of them finance court actions AFAICT.

(Crossposted from !cash)

There are over 7000 unbanked pensioners & people on disability. These people are important to everyone retaining the freedom to be unbanked -- to not be forced into that shitty marketplace. Once they are eliminated, banks will have no competitive pressure to offer good service.

Normally they get paid by postal orders which can then be cashed. The postal orders are being replaced by cheques, which apparently includes a new requirement that they personally travel to the bank or post office to cash it. Some of them will be screwed by their lack of mobility unless they can handle managing a bank account.

If they resist the bank account, they apparently don’t simply get a cheque instead. They must explain why they cannot open a bank account. What if they refuse on moral grounds? Will that be an acceptable excuse?

This is the 16th paragraph translated to English:

** Even the circular check would not be guaranteed for people with disabilities? **

As with pensioners without a bank account, the payment of disability benefits to persons who do not have a personal account number should be made automatically by circular cheque. However, everything is not so simple, as we are explained on the side of the National Superior Council of Persons with Disabilities (CSNPH). "There is the possibility of the circular cheque, but the person must motivate the fact that she still requests a circular cheque and she must explain why she cannot open a bank account," says Gisèle Marlière, the President of the Council, based on the information she received from the Directorate General People with Disabilities. Who's gonna evaluate? What criteria? These are as many questions as we ask ourselves on the CSNPH side. And worrying about a "discreationary" process. The CSNPH Chair is also surprised at the difference in treatment compared to pensioners without bank account.

(crossposted in !french)

The postal service offers two services:

• cheque cashing
• bill paying service to pay cash on bills that require payment by bank transfer

The French → English machine translation is so poor I have little understanding of what fees are for what service.

• current fees
• new fees starting mid-December

The heading of the current fees mentions “chèque circulaire”, which seems to be missing from the new fee schedule. Is cheque cashing service ending?

What services are gratis with the the SPF branches?

IIUC, it looks like paying a bill that comes from a creditor who holds a bPost account is €1.15, and /up to/ €4 for creditors who bank elsewhere. And in a month, it will be a flat €4 in all cases. Is that correct?

Belfius:

• “ATM”s are cashless (iow, no proper ATMs. But at least you know you are not trapped on a closed-source app running on your own assets. A new Belgian law is under consideration to force all banks to have a way to print paper statements - but of course it could fail)

BNP Parabas:

• no ATMs

bPost:

• nannied ATM limit (€650) -- unless their ATMs give their own customers better treatment

Ing:

• no ATMs
• forced app (closed-source, starts next month)
• app detects emulated platforms and refuses to run (likely also refuses to run on FOSS platforms like LineageOS and ultimately forces periodic purchases of new proprietary hardware)

Aion/UniCredit:

• no ATMs
• forced app (closed-source)

KBC:

• nannied ATM limit (€620) -- unless KBC ATMs give their own customers better treatment

Why it’s wise to avoid the ATM-less banks

In Belgium, you have no possible way to get proof of balance from an ATM not operated by your own bank. Proof of balance is important in some legal proceedings. Otherwise you are trapped on their platform which produces a full statement of account (thus over exposure).

Your ATM transactions are needlessly shared with an extra 3rd-party. This creates another point of nannying and surveillance. WRT nannying, it means that your limits become the lesser of your bank’s limit and the ATM operator’s limit. And of course with the extra surveillance, your GDPR data minimisation rights are undermined through the extra info sharing.

Ethics: there is an ethical problem with supporting banks that have a hand in ATM enshitification and reduced availability of ATMs.

The ATM shit-show due to outsourcing to Batopin/Bancontact (“CASH”) ATMs means if a touchy AI algorithm falsely detects fraud, your card is confiscated by an ATM the bank does not directly control (thus you are exposed to finger pointing between the bank and ATM operator). Your bank will charge you a card replacement fee if an ATM operated by someone else confiscates the card. ATM operators are not accountable for false confiscations so no incentive for the AI algo to be smart.

Machine translation of legal statutes is always quite rough, so whenever I find a potentially professionally translated bit of law it’s greatly useful. The link goes to an English version of Belgian banking law, but the damn “Download” link for the PDF is so enshitified I cannot get it to work in either Chromium or FF based browsers.

Anyone able to get that file?

(crossposted from !smartphone_required@lemmy.sdf.org)

Before this rumor emerged, I used to have some respect for Ing because they had a “Homebanking” PC app that ran on linux. It was likely closed-source but at least it wasn’t some browser-dependent JavaScript garbage.

I suppose it’s expected that banks become increasingly enshitified in Belgium now that forced banking has emerged. Even those of us not addicted to convenience are no longer free from banking. So the incentive for banks to win business by offering good service has ended.

It’s largely the fault of consumers. When a vast majority voluntarily make all payments electronically and use the smartphone app (not hesitating to lick Google’s boots), it makes marginalisation of the remaining shrinking demographics viable.

Important to realise if you are an Ing customer not keen on being a pushover, now would be a good time to switch banks.

Summary:

STEM participation in Flemish secondary schools fell for the fourth consecutive year, reaching its lowest level in ten years. Last school year 35.5% of pupils chose a STEM track, down from 36.44% the year before and below the government target of over 40% by 2030. The decline continues despite more than a decade of intensive promotion. Employers' group Voka warns this hurts capacity for addressing major challenges like climate and digitalisation — six of ten shortage occupations are STEM roles, Voka chair Frank Beckx says. Ann Caluwaerts (Imec, STEM platform) calls the trend "a time bomb under our prosperity."

This is an EU Directive for which I want to find the Belgian transposition:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/NIM/?uri=CELEX%3A32009L0125

The EU links are useless.. no txt. So I go here:

https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/

and search based on the publication date (to and from 27.07.2011). There are 4 pages of hits. I cannot see how to narrow that down to directive 2009/125/EC.

This is a common problem.. I always struggle to find the Belgian transposition of EU directives. Any ideas on something that works generally? I tried searching “2009/125/EC” on the Belgian site as well as “32009L0125”, and nothing is found.

Summary:

VAF will lose €734,000 in funding, affecting its Media and Game funds while Film Fund allocations remain unchanged. The cut represents about 10% of the roughly €7 million annual Flemish dotations the fund has received in recent years.

An additional €169,000 from the Education cabinet for the Game Fund may also be removed, further reducing support for games. VAF and the minister’s office are in discussions amid a difficult regional budgetary situation.

The Flemish government expects the expanded audiovisual stimulation scheme, which forces media companies active in Belgium to subsidise Belgian media—which now includes videoplatforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok—to partly compensate. The minister says the new scheme will yield €26 million extra for the sector, with over €11 million earmarked for VAF.

Summary:

The Flemish government, led by Environment Minister Jo Brouns (CD&V), plans to significantly increase the fees for citizens wishing to appeal against approved building permits. Currently set at €200, the fee is proposed to rise to between €400 and €500. This move aims to deter misuse of the appeal process and expedite permit procedures.

Brouns emphasizes that the increase is intended to signal that only serious appeals should be filed, while still allowing individuals to challenge permits if they experience genuine personal harm. The government acknowledges that processing such appeals can cost society around €5,000 per case, highlighting the disparity between the appeal costs and the societal expenses involved.

Despite the anticipated revenue of only €1 million from this measure, it is viewed as a step towards a more streamlined permitting process, a key promise of the Flemish government. The complexity and lengthy nature of obtaining permits have been problematic for developers, compounded by the ability of various stakeholders to contest permits, leading to protracted legal battles.

Additionally, the Flemish government aims to simplify and accelerate permitting procedures, although previous attempts have faced setbacks from the Constitutional Court. Recent rulings have mandated that provinces will now review local permit applications to prevent conflicts of interest, ensuring that municipal construction projects can proceed without interruption.

Summary:

A 47-year-old man of Afghan descent was arrested in Izegem after fatally stabbing three people in Roeselare. Earlier that day, he was involved in a domestic violence incident where his former partner was found dead. The man, who had a history of violence against his wife and children, had been sentenced just four days prior for domestic abuse.

Despite being convicted to one year in prison (with half suspended) and a fine of €800, he had not yet served time due to ongoing legal proceedings. He also received a six-month effective prison sentence, which is not currently enforced for such short durations. The court deemed probation supervision unfeasible due to his limited understanding of Dutch, and no restraining order was imposed after the verdict.

Summary:

The Belgian Federal Planning Bureau has concluded that, in an optimal scenario, Belgium will need to build 8 gigawatts of new nuclear power plants to achieve a climate-neutral electricity supply by 2050. This study supports the current government's push for a nuclear revival. The report outlines three scenarios for meeting electricity demands, with the most cost-effective option involving significant investments in both offshore wind energy and nuclear power.

In this optimal scenario, offshore wind capacity would increase from 2.2 to 8 gigawatts, and new nuclear plants would generate nearly one-third of Belgium's electricity by 2050. The study predicts that electricity consumption will more than double, exceeding 200 terawatt-hours. Without nuclear energy, Belgium would need to import nearly 40% of its electricity, significantly increasing energy dependence.

The nuclear scenario is deemed the cheapest, with total costs estimated at €115 per megawatt-hour, compared to 25-35% higher costs in scenarios without nuclear energy. However, the Planning Bureau emphasizes that economic factors are not the only considerations; energy independence and the uncertainties surrounding nuclear fuel costs and waste management are also critical.

Investment in new nuclear plants is projected at €7.7 billion per gigawatt, with potential cost overruns posing risks to the feasibility of the nuclear option. The Bureau remains skeptical about the viability of small modular reactors due to their higher costs. The findings align with previous studies and provide additional support for the government's nuclear energy ambitions.

Summary:

The Flemish government is in the final stages of negotiations to finalize its budget by Monday, aiming to find €1.5 billion to maintain a balanced budget by 2027. The discussions, which resumed at 5 PM after a night of deliberation, have reportedly made progress, with key proposals on the table, including an increase in the healthcare premium and a truck toll. The government is under pressure as the projected deficit for 2026 has risen from an agreed €2.7 billion to €4.2 billion, necessitating urgent measures to address the shortfall.

In what the N-VA party describes as the "most ambitious interim budget ever," all expenditure and revenue items are being scrutinized. The government is considering delaying or spreading out certain expenditures, such as reforms to inheritance tax, increased funding for welfare, and initiatives to promote Dutch language skills in education. Additionally, new revenue sources may include making the inheritance tax reform budget-neutral by excluding real estate from tax-free gifts to family businesses and implementing a wealth test for social premiums.

Another potential revenue stream could come from increasing the healthcare premium, currently set at €64 for approximately 4.7 million Flemish residents, which supports over 300,000 individuals in need of care. There are also discussions about raising the truck toll, particularly targeting polluting vehicles. If an agreement is not reached by Monday at 2 PM, when Minister-President Matthias Diependaele is scheduled to present his September statement in the Flemish Parliament, the speech will need to be postponed.

Summary:

• The Bierset airport in Liège is overwhelmed by a surge in e-commerce packages, with 3.8 million products arriving daily, a 33% increase from the previous year, but customs can only inspect 0.006% of these shipments due to limited resources.

• 40% of the packages are found to have issues, including counterfeit goods, incorrect valuations, and safety concerns, prompting calls for better scanning technology and data sharing with e-commerce platforms to improve oversight.

• The Belgian customs face additional challenges, such as enforcing sanctions against Russia and addressing competitive disadvantages for European businesses due to the influx of Chinese products, leading to demands for stricter regulations on companies like Shein and Temu.

Summary:

Brussels Airport is still experiencing disruptions after a cyberattack yesterday targeted an external provider of check‑in systems. Several airlines faced technical issues that forced staff to perform check‑ins manually with pen and paper, causing longer processing times. The airport says its own systems were not affected and that it is working with carriers and the external supplier to limit the impact, but a precise timeline for resolution is not yet available.

As a result of the outage about nine flights were canceled and around fifteen experienced delays of an hour or more; some TUI fly morning departures were diverted to Ostend with passengers bused there. Passengers with planned flights are advised to check flight status before traveling to the airport and to arrive two hours early for Schengen flights or three hours early for non‑Schengen flights. Multiple European airports are affected by the same supplier incident; Brussels Airport continues to monitor the situation and share updates through its channels.

(cross-posted from !opendata)

In Belgium, the national train service runs a protectionist bot-hostile tor-hostile website that chains users to an enshitified js-plagued GUI webapp. You can only query one day and one destination at a time. It’s the typical shit-show that consumers give in to for this kind of website.

HOWEVER, Belgium’s open data law requires the gov to share any data they get with the public. And for some reason the gov maintains a DB of the train routes and schedules -- which means everyone gets the raw data as a bullshit-free CSV file (but sadly no prices, which fucks everything up as far as being able to avoid the enshitified web entirely).

Does anyone know /why/ the gov gets that data? It would be useful to konw what law compels SNCB to share the info because I wonder if other data can be liberated through the same mechanism (such as bus routes, flights, rideshares, etc). My first thought was customs and immigration must have a need-to-know, but the dataset covers both directions and IIRC it only has good coverage of domestic routes not international (strange).

Summary:

• Belgian Finance Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) wants to make cross‑border shopping less attractive because high excise taxes make many goods cheaper in neighbouring countries, causing Belgians to shop across the border (e.g., at French Auchan).

• He plans to address this in upcoming budget talks and focus on reforms (two‑thirds of efforts per the coalition agreement).

• Jambon says Belgium is one of the highest‑taxed OECD countries, so scope for new taxes is limited; instead, lowering certain taxes (like some excises) could raise revenues by reducing cross‑border purchases.

• The government will also study which other excises could be reduced to deter cross‑border buying. Alcohol and sugary‑drink taxes are among the levies that affect cross‑border shopping the most, but cuts will depend on political support and other coalition goals.

(cross-posted from !cash)

It’s interesting to consider that Europe has entered the realm of forced banking while at the same time weak fraud protections prevent victims of electronic payments from reimbursement. Europeans cannot expect protection, nor can they opt out of the broken system.

2022 in France: 4300 cases reveal that banks systematically refuse to reimburse consumers claiming that they have acted with “gross negligence” or have authorised the payment without bringing any proof that the consumer was indeed grossly negligent or at the origin of the payment. (source)

There is a shit-show coming in the future for cross-border transactions within Europe. Quoting BEUC:

The European passporting regime allows payment institutions to search for authorisation in one Member State and then provide their service across all Member States. This system is suboptimal for enforcement as payment service providers can choose the Member State with the most liberal regime. In addition, Member States have limited possibilities to take action in their country as they are not responsible for payment service providers who registered elsewhere, and consumers will struggle to file complaints as they need to address a competent authority in another country.

(emphasis added)

Summary:

The Masonic lodge La Flandre in Bruges opened its building to the public for the first time in over a century during Open Monument Day. Founded in 1881 and later moved to a Beenhouwersstraat building remodeled into an Egyptian-style temple with columns, scarabs and Masonic symbols, the lodge usually kept strict discretion. After a vandalism incident earlier this year—a stone thrown through a window—the lodge decided to open to counter persistent rumors and misconceptions. Visitors, who quickly filled available slots, were told the lodge is a place for discussion and reflection rather than plots for world domination or bloody rituals. Members explained that the Egyptian motifs symbolize life, rebirth and growth, while traditional Masonic symbols like the compass, square, sun and moon represent self-improvement. Several attendees described the visit as surprising and pleasant, despite longstanding myths about the site.

Summary:

The article says Belgium is losing the war on drugs, shown by rising urban shootings, corruption and smuggling in prisons, overcrowding and violent incidents linked to organized crime. Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden is asking for an extra €1 billion (half for operations, half for buildings) while the government searches for €12 billion in the budget; proposed actions include tougher sentences for drug bosses, mandatory prison drug tests, making wealthy inmates help pay incarceration costs, and Defence Minister Bernard Quintin has suggested deploying soldiers on city streets. The piece argues that better management of justice is needed but is a long-term project, and that Belgium is in a state of emergency with "no-go" urban areas, investor flight and unprosecuted crime forcing hard budgetary trade-offs between stopping financial decline and addressing societal decay.

A feeling of impunity undermines citizens' trust in justice, politics and "the system". The cost of that is almost impossible to calculate.

This deceptive ad is by Delhaize this week. Notice that the price 12.58/kg appears ambiguous as to whether that is a regular price or the effective promo price. The last line has a strikethrough (~~12.58~~) with 6.29 in bold. So the non-meticulous mind quickly assumes 12.58/kg must be the regular price due to the strikethrough on the next line. A price of 6.29/kg would be what you would expect on a 1+1 because pure maple syrup is normally twice that. Only a rare meticulous reader would read the footnote for * which says the price already factors in the promo. And that the “/2” means for 2 bottles. I wonder what percentage of readers get tricked by this.

So strictly speaking Delhaize did not lie. It merely uses deception in this case. Considering Jury d’Ethique Publicitaire (JEP) does not act on bluntly false ads, it certainly would not act on this.

Aldi’s regular price on Trader Joe’s maple syrup: €4 for 250ml/330g (effectively €12.12/kg). So Aldi’s regular price is actually better than Delhaize’s promo that tricks you into buying 2 bottles. But I should point out that Aldi North (the only Aldi branch in Belgium) supports Israel, as does Delhaize.

Summary:

A woman responded to a Secondhand listing seeking homes for three goats owned by Glenn D’Hondt of Erpe-Mere, claiming she was a volunteer at Huppeldepup care farm in Grimbergen and took the animals away. When Glenn phoned the care farm to check on the goats, manager Ellen Van Assche was surprised — the farm had not taken them in — and involved the police.

Authorities traced the woman to Chièvres and were told she had offered the goats to an animal shelter in Zemst, where her 73-year-old mother was found and cooperated. Police blocked the woman’s van and obtained the fraudster’s details; the goats Rosa, Suzy, and Marie were returned to Glenn, who plans to keep them.

Summary:

• Belgians are borrowing more than ever for new cars, with the average consumer loan reaching €23,750, an increase of €8,250 (over 53%) in the past decade, outpacing the average car price increase of 36% during the same period.

• Similar trends are observed in the used car market, where the average loan for a second-hand vehicle has risen to €17,550, reflecting a 61% increase over the last ten years.

• The rise in loan amounts suggests that car affordability is under pressure, as consumers may be forced to borrow more to cover the increasing costs of vehicles, which are influenced by rising raw material prices and stricter safety and environmental regulations.

• The shift towards more expensive electric vehicles and stricter EU regulations is contributing significantly to the rising costs of driving, making it increasingly expensive for consumers to purchase and maintain vehicles.