‘Preformateur’ Elio Di Rupo (PS) has spent the last few days concentrating on convincing the Flemish Christian democrats to have a change of heart, but without success. Given that Wouter Beke, acting chairman and chief negotiator for the CD&V continues to defend the same standpoints as Bart De Wever’s N-VA, Di Rupo decided to try and get the Flemish minister-president, Kris Peeters, to see things differently. The French speaking socialists believe that Peeters is the person who determines the line adopted on state reform within the Christian democrat leading board – the so-called G4 consisting of Peeters, Yves Leterme, Wouter Beke and Steven Vanackere. Di Rupo contacted Peeters after Beke had already been delegated by his party for eight weeks to the top negociations. Di Rupo also informed Beke of his attempt, but only after Peeters had already told his chairman of the strange demarche on the part of the preformateur. Di Rupo might have thought that he could easily go over the head of a temporary chair, but he misread it and returned home empty-handed. The only result was that all the leading CD&V members only supported Beke even more emphatically. The Flemish Christian democrats have also been under increasing pressure from the PS in an indirect manner in recent days. The social partners that could meet with the preformateur on Monday also played a role in this, the CD&V believes. Di Rupo had hoped to convince the Christian labour movement, the ACW, of his initiative, but the CD&V says that he failed in that too. Beke’s response on Monday to the pressure exercised by Di Rupo was very clear. “I am not in the least impressed by the accusations that two parties (the N-VA and CD&V) are trying to throw the country into financial chaos,” he said. “I want to explain to the whole of Belgium how we have to implement an enormous savings operation (25 billion Euros – editor), and why I therefore refuse to give away 500 million Euros (for funding Brussels, ed.) on a structural basis without guarantees on the financial responsibility of the regions.” Di Rupo is set to meet with Bart De Wever once again today.

Some 13,000 new jobs have already been created this year amongst Belgian small and medium sized enterprises, raising structural employment (temporary staff or job students excluded) by one percent in the first six months.  This has emerged from the three-monthly SME job index released by the social services company SD Worx. The media have generally focused on the mass dismissals in the multinationals or on high-profile recruitment campaigns by major companies, while the growing employment in small companies has been given little attention, says Johan Van Duyse of SD Worx. By the end of the second quarter of this year there were just as many jobs among SME’s as there were just before the financial crisis hit in October 2008. Van Duyse has observed four trends in the new recruitment drives by SME’s. The first is that new SME jobs are primarily being taken by blue-collar workers, while the second is that the jobs are mostly three-quarter or four-fifth of fulltime work, and – perhaps most important – the SME’s are primarily seeking out those over 45 and not the youth. Finally, the growth in Wallonia (up 1.8 percent) is larger than in Flanders (up 0.8 percent). The large number of older recruitments is especially surprising. The staff complement that is over 55 has even increased by three percent, while the share made up by those under 25 has shrunk by 2.3 percent. The Flemish employers’ organisation VOKA says it hopes that the growth in elderly recruitments lasts. Paul Hegge, director of the VOKA Chamber of Commerce in Halle-Vilvoorde, says that SME’s are deliberately selecting “grey employees” as they prefer applicants with a great deal of experience. They can also be deployed immediately so the employer does not have to invest in training and supervision, and then in recruiting once again, says Hegge. As a matter of fact, SME’s fear that the young employees they have trained will move on in due course, while those in their forties and fifties are supposed to look for another job elsewhere. Earlier surveys conducted by SD Worx have already demonstrated that experience and motivation amongst older employees has a greater influence upon SME chiefs than the lower wages paid to young workers. However, there is still doubt about how long the trend of recruiting older people will last. It could well be a temporary phenomenon as SME’s presently have a wide range of choice out of the large number of unemployed older workers who have lost jobs at major companies in recent months.

With the aid of spectrometers located on the Herschel Telescope, a team of KU Leuven university academics have discovered large quantities of water vapour in the atmosphere of a carbon-rich old star in the constellation of Leo. These two elements form the basic conditions for earth-like life. The spectacular discovery will be published today in the scientific journal Nature.

The Herschel Space Telescope was launched by the European Space Agency in 2009 to study galaxies and stars and investigate the composition of atmospheres surrounding heavenly bodies. “Water vapour and carbon are the basic elements for earth-like life,” says Leen Decin of the Institute for Astronomy at KU Leuven. “We assumed that the aged star CW Leonis would not be able to produce water vapour. Carbon and water vapour are produced in large quantities by stars of the same type as our sun, which thrust out their atmospheres when they reach the end of their lives. Water or carbon molecules were previously found in such old stars.” The old star studied, CW Leonis, is a carbon star some 500 light years from earth and is the closest aged star to earth. The star can barely be detected through the largest optical telescopes using visible light. But the Herschel Telescope, with its infrared capabilities, can spot it easily. “In infrared it is the brightest star in the skies,” says Decin. “The massive quantity of matter surrounding it absorbs almost all visible light and emits infrared light.” Nuclear reactions deep within the star convert helium into carbon, which is pushed into the outermost layers of the star’s atmosphere. Scientists found a large amount of carbon molecules in stellar winds.

 

Preformateur Elio Di Rupo will once again meet with the key players involved in government formation today, holding personal talks in an attempt to restore confidence between the N-VA and his party.

It seems clear at this stage, however, that successful negotiations with the seven parties are unlikely. Even on the Flemish side, they are openly lashing out at each other. The new buzz words seem to be ‘blank cheque’. On Monday N-VA and CD&V party leaders Bart De Wever and Kris Peeters respectively refused to sign the blank cheque for the financing of Brussels in return for the BHV constituency split, believing the funding should be linked with the issue of the amended finance act to ensure the effective adaptation of the act. The French-speakers feel only a portion of the appropriated funds for Brussels should depend on the adjustment of the finance act. This divergence of views finally resulted in failed talks and Di Rupo's demand to be relieved from his task as preformateur, which was ultimately refused by the king. Yesterday the Flemish socialists (S.PA) and the green party (Groen!) made it clear that they did not accept N-VA president De Wever’s proposal to keep the final preformation talks exclusively between the N-VA and PS. De Wever made it clear that he intended to impose the accord with the PS on the other five parties, hoping in this way to exclude Joëlle Milquet’s CDH party with its hard-line demands in respect of Brussels. “Just like De Wever, we are not prepared to sign any blank cheque,” asserted SP.A president Caroline Gennez.

His willingness to organize bilateral talks shows some attempt from Di Rupo to concede to De Wever’s requests, but no real negotiations occurred, as the PS president had clearly rejected De Wever’s proposal to address the remaining issues in a consultation with only PS  and the N-VA. In PS circles it is heard that this proposal proved De Wever’s lack of respect for the other five parties.

The PS is further annoyed by De Wever’s and Peeters’ criticism about Di Rupo’s failure to record the accords, but added that producing written documents of the agreements is not exactly a stumbling block between the PS and the Flemish parties. Similarly the CD&V are set on the importance of the N-VA and SP resuming talks, criticizing the harsh comments of the other party presidents yesterday and Monday, saying “this only prevents us from making any progress”.

During the past five years the Flemish budget for the disabled has risen by 36 percent, with the number of citizens asking for support increasing by 50 percent. “It seems like a bottomless pit,” says Flemish Welfare Minister Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V), admitting that these waiting lists will not simply disappear. For this reason legally enforceable, guaranteed care can only become a reality for those with the greatest need for support by 2020. Vandeurzen further stressed that he could not accomplish this with partial improvements each, adding that an “an extensive change strategy’ in collaboration with administration and facilities had to be implemented by 2020. Therefore he has carefully drafted a white paper showing the direction the disability policy should go. Inclusion and socialisation of care are the key concepts of this strategy. The latter refers to his expectation that regular services like family care and assistance, home nursing etc should also open their doors to those disabled persons in need of care. The tram and bus company, De Lijn, the railway company NMBS and other public services will also be expected to maximize accessibility.

The minister further intends to facilitate budgets that “stick to the consumer,” with beneficiaries receiving a voucher with which to purchase care on demand. Those keen to organize their own care will receive financial assistance in the form of, for example, a personal assistance budget (PAB). Vandeurzen further believes both systems should work closer together, with the PAB falling under the same system as the one for handicapped persons who are cared for at institutions. The PAB statute is further open for improvement, he believes. In addition to a proposed new care grading system that is more focused on accurate and objective evaluation, easier and more direct access to care is also envisaged. Finally the sector has been given the challenge to come forward with their own “clever alternatives” to meet the increase in demand for care, and so far eighteen new projects with a collective value of 1.2 million euros, are being rolled out.

Meanwhile the budget for disabled care continues to increase each year. This year an additional 13 million euros was allocated for 644 new beneficiaries. The minister believes the demand for disability care will continue to increase annually during the next ten years.

"The party that provides the prime minister must try and separate itself from its own community sometime," N-VA chairman Bart De Wever believes. It is for this reason that he is urging `preformateur' Elio Di Rupo (PS) to reach an agreement on paper between the Parti Socialiste and the N-VA with regard to the financing act, funds for Brussels and the splitting up of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district. In De Wever's proposal the result would be a compromise between the two largest political parties, which the other five parties can then take or leave. And according to De Wever those parties that don't agree can simply move to the opposition benches. So, doesn' exclude the possibility that one or more parties presently at the negotiating table drop out, which means that other parties will have to be invited to join the coalition so as to form a two-thirds majority. But De Wever's proposal immediately hit a veto by a united francophone front, including Di Rupo's own PS party. At a press conference the latter shifted the blame for the impending final failure of his assignment to form a government almost fully onto the N-VA. Di Rupo believes the only alternative to this compromise is chaos, a threat that left little impression on De Wever and his party. The N-VA are not interested in refinancing Brussels if this is not linked to a comprehensive review of the financing act. Speaking in interviews on various national TV stations, De Wever said that he wants concrete guarantees on paper, reiterating that he did not want to give a blank cheque to Brussels. The pre-formation process has consequently hit a deadlock. The French-speakers want additional funds for Brussels, and only want a part of that financial injection to be linked to the overhauled financing act, while the N-VA maintains that the half billion Euros the French-speakers want for Brussels is the only big stick the Flemish have for introducing a system of financial accountability for the regions. De Wever made an approach to Di Rupo and the French-speakers in his television interviews as well as to the Flemish socialists and environmentalists, who are prepared to accept Di Rupo's compromise, which would fragment the Flemish front. The French-speakers as well as the Flemish parties SP.A and Groen! are all believing that the N-VA is actually not interested in a compromise, consequently causing the country to collapse at an accelerated pace. But De Wever denies this. "If I don't want to reach a compromise, I would not have done my best throughout the summer," he said. "I would have already pulled the plug after three weeks."

Buying more competences for the Flemish with more money for the French-speakers: that seems to have been the formula to date for keeping the negotiations on state reform in Belgium running smoothly. This concept has been repeated this time as well, with an additional 1.5 billion Euros for Brussels over the following legislative term (four years) in exchange for additional competences for Flanders and splitting up the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district, which are supposed to support the reaching of a compromise. The French-speakers maintain that Brussels is underfunded, with the capital representing 19 percent of the Belgian gross domestic product, but collecting only eight percent of Belgian taxes due to the fact that many people working there are commuters and pay taxes in Wallonia and Flanders instead. The Brussels government consequently misses out on 500 million Euros a year, it estimates. Aside from lost taxes, it also suffers from greater expenditure for roads, trams, buses and the metro. The budgetary deficit for the Brussels Capital-Region this year also happened to be 500 million Euros. In order to back up the demand, Di Rupo even called on the services of the ratings agency Standard & Poor's, who already warned in June that the solvability of the capital region would be under threat if it was not refinanced, which would lead to the region's credit rating dropping. Debt at the end of 2009 amounted to 2.1 billion Euros, while the Capital-Region only receives 2.3 billion Euros in income. Catholic University of Leuven academic, Koen Algoed, who is now chief of the minister's office of Flemish budget minister Philippe Muyters (N-VA), says that Brussels is not underfunded, but shifts the money on to the 19 municipalities and to the French Community, leaving insufficient funds for transportation. Commuters are not only a burden, they also create additional income, says Algoed, who says that Brussels operates inefficiently when it comes to training and supporting the unemployed. For the PS and Brussels' minister-president, Charles Picqué, an additional 500 million Euros will mean a sizeable weapon, pushing up the budget by over one-fifth. The party however does not want to enter into any arrangement on what this money will be spent on.

Some 60 to 70 million tons of apples are grown commercially around the world every year, and it's the most popular fruit in Belgium with an average of 18.8 kilograms consumed annually per Belgian. Despite its commercial value, scientists had never been able to crack the apple's genetic code, matching success met with rice, grapes and poplars. But a Ghent-based Flemish Institute for Biotechnology team under Yves Van de Peer has now managed to identify the most important elements of the apple's DNA. Together with scientists from Italy, France, New Zealand and the United States, they have won the race to publish in the renowned journal `Nature Genetics'. The apple research specifically revolved around the Golden Delicious, but the discovery applies in principle to all types of apples. The apple scan cost ten million Euros, which was funded by the Italian province of Trento, one of the biggest apple-producing regions in Europe and a Mecca for the Golden Delicious. Van de Peer's team has identified some of the most important genes of the 742.3 million `letters' or DNA strands, including ones for their taste. The discovery will allow growers to cultivate the nicest, strongest and best-looking apple, although this does not involve genetic manipulation. "We are not fiddling with the genes, merely identifying them,' says Van de Peer.'Growers will now be able to cross types of apples in a more considered manner. It used to be hit-and-miss, and now it can be targeted. Although our discovery does allow for the possibility of greater genetic manipulation.' Industrial growers can use the study free-of-charge, as all findings are to be released to the public.

Waiting lists currently exist for children under 15 that require psychiatric treatment, and children with urgent psychological problems (such as aggressive behaviour or suicidal tendencies) are sent home. To date there was only an accelerated procedure for youngsters between 15 and 18 with a psychiatric disorder to be admitted into hospital.
But that is set to change on 01 September, when the child and youth psychiatry department at the Academic Psychiatric Centre of the KU Leuven university will launch the first emergency admittance procedure for child psychiatry in Flanders. Children up to the age of 15 suffering from urgent psychiatric disorders will henceforth be admitted for treatment by a team led by child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens. The new division will accept a maximum of eight children for a period not longer than five days. Another new facet is that referral by a GP will suffice for this emergency admittance. The child does not even have to agree with the treatment. The system will be subjected to evaluation within a year.

`Preformateur' Elio Di Rupo met with the King yesterday without an agreement on state reform. All the political parties had reached a consensus on the compromise proposal aside from the Flemish nationalist N-VA and the Christian democrats of the CD&V. The reason why they rejected the proposal of the preformateur was the separation of the additional funds for Brussels and the effective review of the financing act, which lays down the rules for the flow of money between the federal authorities, the regions (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia) and the communities (French, German and Flemish). According to the proposal, the smallest region (Brussels) would receive 300 million Euros (a year), with a hefty bonus as soon as the financing act is reformed. Consequently, the annual 300 million Euros would likewise apply to Brussels should the financing act not be reviewed. This means that Brussels would receive 1.2 billion Euros over a period of four years (a full parliamentary term). However, the centre-right Flemish parties argue that the money problems of the Brussels Capital region must be solved through a system of structural support incorporated into the financing act. 'The financing act is essential for obtaining a sense of responsibility within the state reform,' is their message. Both parties are not prepared to hand a blank cheque to Brussels while the Flemings receive no guarantee whatsoever that the financing act will be comprehensively applied. There is no point in state reform without a sense of regional responsibility, the Flemish nationalists say. It is only the introduction of responsibility mechanisms that will ensure that the regions become responsible for their own resources. The fact that the French-speakers refused point blank to structurally link the funds for the capital city to the new financing act has raised suspicions in the N-VA that the former were never planning to review the financing law.
The CD&V also considers a `blank cheque' for Brussels to be unacceptable. The CD&V is prepared to grant money to the underfunded capital, but only if it is linked to the principles of regional responsibility and solidarity, which will apply in the amended financing act. Moreover, the party points out that cutbacks of 25 billion Euros have to be implemented on federal level and granting 500 million Euros per annum to Brussels in exchange for the splitting up of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district is not justified as a result.
The francophone representatives in turn were unable to agree with a counterproposal by CD&V chairman Wouter Beke to grant 200 million Euros to Brussels as "interim financing" in 2011, followed by a settlement according to the financing act and a maximum of 200 million Euros per annum as of 2012.