Dutch and Belgian officials moved the border between their countries on Wednesday, with the Netherlands ceding eight acres along the Meuse River to Belgium, which will gain 40 acres of territory. Image courtesy of Belgian Foreign Ministry/Twitter

Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Belgium and the Netherlands peacefully altered their national borders by swapping 48 acres of land along a river dividing the two countries.

Effective this week, the official border is the center of the Meuse River. While that border was established in 1843, shifting of the river left adjacent land difficult to police. Two uninhabited Belgian peninsulas on the river ended up on the Dutch side, and a section of Dutch territory became a part of Belgium.

The area of interest is east of Vise, Belgium, and west of Eijsden, Netherlands. The trade of territory was agreed upon in November. The Netherlands gains 40 acres of territory, while ceding eight acres to Belgium. While the deal was effective Monday, a formal ceremony at the border occurred on Wednesday.

Because Belgian authorities required Dutch permission to travel to one of the peninsulas, it became accessible to them only by boat. The land developed a reputation for drug deals, prostitution and illegal rave parties. Four years ago a headless torso was found on the land. Dutch police could not investigate a crime committed on Belgian territory, and Belgian officials ferried prosecutors, crime laboratories and investigators to the peninsula, which has no docking provision for boats.

The Netherlands will now control the peninsulas. Belgium's newly-gained territory includes scenic nature parks.

"The process has been carried out in harmony and with respect for one another. Diplomacy at its best," said Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. </s> Flemish diplomacy and a meandering river have merged to settle a borderline problem between Belgium and Holland.

But it has taken a land-swap, a little bit of lawlessness and the rather shocking discovery of a headless corpse to reach an agreement.

On New Year’s Day, the border between the eastern Belgian region of Vise and the southwestern Dutch municipality of Eijsden was moved back to its historic location – the middle of the River Meuse.

Over time, the river’s changing course meant two uninhabited parcels of Belgian land ended up on the Dutch side while a section of Dutch territory found itself effectively in Belgium.

But a peaceful 48-acre land-swap, equivalent to 27 football fields, has been reached, more than 170 years after the border was first agreed in 1843.

One strip of land had proved almost impossible for Belgium to police. Despite both being signatories to the EU’s passport-free Schengen Zone, Belgium needed special permission to travel through Dutch territory, so its police were forced to approach it by boat.

The enclave was reportedly popular for illegal raves, drug deals and prostitution. Four years ago, a headless body was discovered on the peninsula and reported to Dutch police.

The Dutch could not investigate on Belgian territory, while the Belgian police had to ferry prosecutors, labs and investigators there – with nowhere to berth. The land swap has therefore been hailed as a triumph of diplomacy.

The Dutch will now police the land with their newly acquired nature parks, while Belgium is just happy the jurisdictionary headache is over.

“Diplomacy at its best,” said Didier Reynders, Belgium’s foreign minister. </s> “Long live Wallonix,” declared Libération, the French newspaper and standard-bearer for the left, showing its support for the Belgian region of Wallonia, after it stopped Europe from signing a massive trade deal with Canada.



Borrowing from the French cartoon Asterix, Libération depicted Wallonia as plucky Gaul holding out against Pax Canada. Three days after the Libération front page, and following further negotiations, Wallonia’s parliament voted in favour of the trade deal with Canada on Friday. Wallonia’s leader, Paul Magnette, declared that the region had won “a better treaty”.

There are still several more chapters in the stop-start drama over the European Union’s comprehensive economic and trade agreement (Ceta) with Canada. The lifting of the Walloon veto clears the way for 28 EU governments to sign the treaty, allowing it to come into force on a temporary basis.

But 38 national and regional assemblies will have the final say on whether the treaty becomes a permanent legal document. It is a story that is likely to have implications for EU trade policy, but also for post-Brexit Britain.

“This Ceta saga has illustrated an additional layer of complexity that the UK will have to deal with,” said Lourdes Catrain, a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells. 



Wallonia withdrew its opposition to the treaty on Thursday, declaring it had secured important safeguards. “The standards that we have in Ceta will become the norms for all future international trade treaties,” Magnette told Belgian television. He declared that “TTIP is dead”, referring to a parallel trade deal the EU is negotiating with the US.



Not everyone shares his views. Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, said “not a comma had changed” in the 1,598-page trade treaty with Canada.



After days of negotiations, Belgian representatives from the federal government and the country’s five regional parliaments agreed on a four-page text to interpret the treaty. A leaked draft shows what the Belgians agreed: for instance, the trade treaty would not change EU law, which restricts cultivation of most genetically modified crops.

Belgian authorities have pledged to monitor socio-economic and environmental impacts of Ceta. “There are no substantial changes,” said Guillaume van der Loo, a trade expert at the Centre for European Policy Studies, although he did single out one point. Belgium will ask the European court of justice to deliver a verdict on whether a new system of specially created investor courts proposed under Ceta is compatible with EU law.

The fact that senior EU diplomats approved the Belgian text in a hastily convened meeting on Thursday suggests that national governments do not see important changes to a treaty that was seven years in the making.

However, Kathleen van Brempt, a Belgian socialist MEP, argues that the important change is political not technical. “What we might call a small crisis in Belgium relates very much to the way the European Union works and the way we deal with these sort of treaties.” She is convinced that the EU will change how it does trade policy, leading to greater openness and transparency.



In some ways, Ceta was a typical EU story: a tortuous “will they won’t they” wrangle that ends with a feverish round of meetings and a legal document.



It was also a very Belgian story. Magnette and his socialist party are under pressure from the hard-left Maoist-leaning Workers’ party of Belgium that is making inroads into Wallonia, a region of above-average unemployment.

Magnette, supported by centre-right Christian Democrats, has genuine objections to Ceta, says Dave Sinardet, professor at the Free University of Brussels. But his tactics also helped to put Wallonia’s Parti Socialiste back on the map, “certainly among leftwing voters who have felt the PS was too pragmatic, too centrist and not a real leftwing party anymore”.

Meanwhile, according to one EU diplomat, EU leaders meeting at a summit last week expressed frustration that the Belgian prime minister, a liberal, could not do more to fix up a deal with the socialists in Wallonia.

If it had not been Wallonia, it could have been somewhere else. German judges and Austrian MPs have raised concerns about Ceta in recent months; Romania and Bulgaria threatened to veto the treaty to secure visa-free travel to Canada for their citizens. The Dutch government warned on Friday that it may have to veto a trade deal with Ukraine following a referendum that was seen as a vote against Europe, rather than the specifics of the bilateral treaty.



The drawn-out cliffhanger over Ceta and the Dutch problem over Ukraine have prompted recriminations about how the EU manages trade negotiations. Some say the commission blundered by allowing the member states a veto over trade agreements, instead of relying on the older method of a qualified-majority vote.

The commission blames member state governments for not doing enough to sell trade deals to an increasingly sceptical public. Speaking before the Ceta crisis blew up, the EU trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrӧm, said countries “are queuing up to negotiate with us”, but were asking questions. “Is it worth it? Is it worth negotiating with an EU that can’t deliver? Member states have to put themselves into that question. Do we want trade agreements or not?”

In a phrase that would be repeated by exasperated EU leaders, she said: “If we fail with Ceta, with Canada, the closest country to us all, the most European, one of the most democratic, least corrupt countries in the world … if we can’t make a trade agreement with Canada, then who can we trade with?”



Brexit Britain is one answer, although probably not the country the commission has in mind, as it pursues trade deals with Japan and the US. The Conservative government wants to secure a trade agreement with the EU as soon as possible.

Liam Fox, the secretary of state for international trade, this week called on the EU to agree a trade deal before the UK leaves the bloc. That would mean negotiating a trade agreement in parallel with the separate article 50 divorce procedure to disentangle the UK from the EU institutions.

Such a rapid timetable leaves legal experts wincing. “Negotiating both the withdrawal agreement and the framework is a herculean task,” said Catrain. “On the withdrawal agreement [alone], even two years is very tight.”



She advises the British government to engage with EU member states and regional parliaments if they want a trade deal.

The British government is wary of parallels with Canada, although a government source acknowledged that Ceta showed “if we do end up in a world of an FTA [free trade agreement] outside the EU it isn’t going to be terribly easy”. But the source rejected “slightly spurious analogies” with Canada. “Far from a free trade deal demolishing existing barriers, as with Canada, [the UK would be] in some ways erecting barriers that used not to be there, so it is a very different process.”

Moreover, any trade deal with the UK would be closely watched by EU governments. During the Canadian negotiations, the commission had free rein to negotiate the fine points on protection of Roquefort cheese or competition for maritime services, with relatively little oversight from governments. Any Brexit trade deal will be political from day one. Each member state will fight for its own interests.

The UK will need to meet the concerns of all EU countries, stresses Van der Loo. “Member states are no longer reluctant to put their foot in the door and stop an agreement in order to gain what they want.” </s> Image copyright Press Eye

The government is to end an arrangement that allows other countries to fish in UK waters, it has been announced.

The convention allows Irish, Dutch, French, German and Belgian vessels to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of UK coastline.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the move would help take back control of fishing access to UK waters.

The European Commission said it "took note" but felt the convention had been superseded by EU law.

Ireland's minister for agriculture, food and the marine, Michael Creed, however, said it was "unwelcome and unhelpful".

"Brexit poses very serious challenges to the seafood sector and this announcement will form part of the negotiations," he said.

The Scottish government backed the idea, saying it had been pressing for it "for some time".

The London Fisheries Convention sits alongside the EU Common Fisheries Policy, which allows all European Union countries access between 12 and 200 nautical miles of the UK and sets quotas for how much fish nations can catch.

The relationship between the UK and Ireland is further governed by a separate arrangement.

'Historic step'

Withdrawing from the convention, which was signed in 1964 before the UK joined what became the EU, means UK vessels will also lose the right to fish in waters six to 12 nautical miles offshore of the other countries.

What happens to the 12 to 200 mile area will be one of the issues at stake in Brexit negotiations.

Michael Gove told the BBC's Andrew Marr the change was about "taking back control" of UK waters, 6-12 miles from the coast.

When the UK left the EU it would become an "independent coastal state", he said.

He said the EU's common fisheries policy had been an environmental disaster and the government wanted to change that, upon Brexit, to ensure sustainable fish stocks in future.

But the SNP's Richard Lochhead, who held the post of fisheries minister in Scotland until last year, has concerns around fishing being used as a "bargaining chip" by the government, which would "let down UK fishermen".

"Michael Gove is doing his best to get maximum publicity out of the easy bit," he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend. "But the difficult, complex bit is still to come [with] the Common Fisheries Policy.

UKIP's fisheries spokesman Mike Hookem also said he feared another "wholesale betrayal" without assurances about the 200-mile zone.

"Fishing communities across Britain voted to leave the EU to get back the rights to earn a living, support their communities and to stop the EU plundering our seas of fish that the UK could exploit economically," he said.

He added that the announcement was "no victory for the fishing community" and was instead a "government attempt to use smoke and mirrors to placate British fishermen, while at the same time having the option of handing most our fishing rights to the EU".

Inshore boost

Government figures say fishing contributed £604m to UK GDP in 2015 and employed around 12,000 fishers. In 2016, the fish processing industry supported around 18,000 jobs.

The industry's body, the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, welcomed the decision.

Chief executive Barrie Deas said: "This is welcome news and an important part of establishing the UK as an independent coastal state with sovereignty over its own exclusive economic zone."

Its chairman Mike Cohen said a 12-mile exclusive zone for UK boats would be "a good thing" for the UK's inshore fishing fleet.

'Aggressive tactic'

Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK head of oceans, said leaving the convention would not in itself deliver a better future for the UK fishing industry, and that for years governments had blamed the EU for their "failure" to support the small-scale, sustainable fishers.

He said, for example, that the UK had had the power since 2013 to decide how to allocate its EU fishing quota but that a report by Greenpeace in 2016 had found almost two thirds of that quota was concentrated in the hands of three companies.

He said the UK would also still be bound by the UN convention of the law of the seas - which requires cooperation with neighbours.

But Mr McCallum said he was "excited" that the government was making fishing a priority, after fearing fishing communities would end up "at the bottom of the heap" amidst complex Brexit negotiations.

Environmental law firm ClientEarth consultant Dr Tom West said the move appeared to be an aggressive negotiating tactic.

"As a country outside the EU we need to consider how we can best co-operate with our neighbours, rather than unilaterally withdrawing from all agreements in the hope that standing alone will make us better." </s> BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The Belgian region of Wallonia rejected new amendments to a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement on Thursday, reaffirming its opposition and so threatening the entire deal, a flagship of European Union trade policy.

Demonstrators protest against CETA outside the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

All 28 EU governments support the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but Belgium cannot give assent without backing from five sub-federal administrations and French-speaking Wallonia has steadfastly opposed it.

Failure to strike a deal with such a like-minded country as Canada would call into question the EU’s ability to forge other deals and damage credibility already battered by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc and disputes over the migration crisis.

The moves came as leaders began a two-day EU summit in Brussels with trade policy the main topic set for Friday. European Council President Donald Tusk, chairing the summit, said in a tweet that the Europe’s credibility was at stake.

Wallonia is home to some 3.5 million people, less than 1 percent of the 507 million Europeans CETA would affect.

The European Commission, which negotiates trade deals for the bloc, offered new concessions in the form of changes to an EU declaration to be appended to the treaty. One EU diplomat said these sought to answer Walloon concerns about farming and how trade disputes with Canadian companies would be settled.

Walloon premier Paul Magnette called an emergency session of his government and was due to address the Walloon parliament on Friday. The government recognized improvements, but believed they did not go far enough, an official said, adding it needed time to reflect.

“At this stage, for us, the document is not sufficient,” Magnette told reporters in the regional capital Namur.

Magnette said he hoped to meet Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland again on Friday. The two met on Wednesday.

Related Coverage Juncker says EU working on getting Canada trade deal agreed Friday

“We’ll see how we can modify the text that we were given,” he added.

At the summit in Brussels, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “I am still hopeful that we will come to a good result in the course of the night and tomorrow morning.”

TRUDEAU TRIP

In Ottawa, an official confirmed Freeland would meet Magnette on Friday and said she was in constant contact with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom.

“This is now a question for the Europeans to decide,” said the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Canada’s Liberal government has shown increasing signs of impatience with the EU over challenges to a deal that supporters say will increase bilateral trade by 20 percent.

CETA is set to be signed at an EU-Canada summit next Thursday in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Tusk said the issue was greater than just a trade deal with Canada, the EU’s 12th largest trading partner. CETA would be the EU’s first agreement with a G7 country.

He told reporters there would be no public support for free trade if people could not be convinced that trade agreements were in their interests, adding: “Which means, I am afraid, that CETA could be our last free trade agreement.”

Slideshow (2 Images)

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, whose liberal-led coalition wants the deal, spoke of a looming “moment of truth”.

Wallonia’s lawmakers share concerns voiced by many on the European left that CETA, and a stalled plan for a similar deal with the United States, risk watering down consumer, labor and environmental protections. </s> BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium’s regions agreed to a free trade pact with Canada on Thursday, ending weeks of uncertainty when internal divisions in just one country blocked the European Union of 500 million people sealing the landmark deal.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said the regions and linguistic communities had drafted a four-page addendum to the pact that answered their concerns.

The text addresses fears that a system to protect foreign investors could let multinationals block new rules on the environment, labour rights or public services - specifying that the “investment protection” regime would not come into force during an initial period. It also has a safeguard clause to protect agriculture in the event of a “market imbalance”.

“As a unilateral Belgian declaration, Canada’s approval will not be sought or needed,” a source close to the talks said, indicating the path was now clear to finalise the deal.

European Council President Donald Tusk gave the Belgian agreement to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) a cautious welcome.

Belgium’s regional governments have until the end of Friday to consult their parliaments if needed, and ambassadors from other EU countries will also review the addendum.

All 28 EU governments back CETA, which supporters say could increase trade by 20 percent, but Belgium’s central government had been prevented from giving its consent because of objections led by the French-speaking Wallonia region.

Wallonia, along with the capital Brussels and Belgium’s groupings of French and German speakers, had opposed the deal for weeks, with fears about a flood of Canadian farm imports one of the main sticking points.

The premier of the Flemish region, Geert Bourgeois, said the original 1,598-page text of the trade deal stood.

“This (the addendum) is a clarification, the actual treaty does not change,” he said.

Minister-President of Wallonia Paul Magnette arrives at a meeting on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement, at the Lambermont Residence in Brussels, Belgium, October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Canada has already agreed to a binding declaration to answer concerns raised by others, principally setting out the right of governments to regulate.

“POLITICAL HOSTAGE-TAKING”

Belgium will ask the European Court of Justice whether the investment protection system is in line with EU rules, with Wallonia still expressing reservations. Friends of the Earth described these as potential time bombs under the deal.

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the investment protection system did not yet exist and the EU and Canada had time to set up a panel of independent judges to settle disputes.

“We are quite confident that it is perfectly in line with European law,” she told Reuters.

In Ottawa, Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland played down the suggestion that the Belgian addendum could effectively result in parts of CETA being unwound.

“Every trade agreement ... has exit provisions,” she told reporters. “Trade agreements must be structured that way to permit national sovereignty.”

CETA could apply provisionally next year, assuming the European Parliament backs it. Its final implementation could take a few years, after all relevant national or regional parliaments have had their say.

Supporters say the deal will boost the EU economy by 12 billion euros ($13 billion) per year and Canada’s by C$12 billion ($9 billion) at a time of low growth. For Canada, it reduces reliance on the U.S. export market.

German trade groups said the CETA debacle should trigger a revamp of EU procedures.

Slideshow (3 Images)

“This is not a victory for democracy. It is political hostage-taking,” said BDI business association president Ulrich Grillo.

Failure to agree CETA with such a like-minded country as Canada would have undermined the EU’s ability to forge other deals and damage credibility already battered by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc and disputes over the migration crisis.

“I’m sorry for all other Europeans and our Canadian partners that they had to wait, but what we managed to get here is important not just for Wallonia but for all of Europe,” said Wallonia premier Paul Magnette. </s> FILE PHOTO - British and EU flags are seen prior to the arrival of British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, ahead of the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch financial markets authority (AFM) said on Monday it was preparing for a 20-fold increase in financial trading taking place on its infrastructure in the event that Britain leaves the European Union in March with no deal in place.

The AFM said that while banks are shifting operations to Frankfurt and Paris, and asset managers to Luxembourg and Dublin, trading houses are converging on the Netherlands as an alternative to London after Britain leaves the bloc.

“While border and customs negotiations are attracting attention, there is a fairly invisible shift taking place in European capital markets,” it said in a statement.

“The AFM is conducting conversations with more than 150 parties that are interested in a (Dutch trading) license.”

AFM Chairwoman Merel van Vroonhoven said she expected 30-40 percent of European trading in financial instruments will wind up being housed in the Netherlands, making it the center of EU financial trading. </s> Two Belgian universities have been ranked in the world top 100, a fugitive Belgian arms dealer has been arrested in Portugal and Brussels airport cargo handlers are in the red once more.

Here’s a recap of the news you should know in Belgium this morning:

According to the Shanghai Academic Ranking, an annual ranking of universities, both the University of Ghent and the University of Leuven are in the world’s top 100 universities. The University of Ghent comes in at number 66, while the University of Leuven comes in 85th place. Read more.

2. Train service reduced by half on Saturday due to strike

One in two trains will run on Saturday, 17 August, due to the train strike called by the Railway Workers’ Union. However, 70% of trains are confirmed for the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt. Read more.

A notorious arms trafficker who was sentenced in 2018 to four years in prison and has since been a fugitive, has been arrested in Portugal. According to VTM, there has not been an armed conflict in 35 years in which he was not involved as a trafficker of weapons. Read more.

A 38-year-old man was stabbed during a brawl in Roquefort on the evening of 10 to 11 of August and has since died. The suspect will appear before the Namur Council Chamber on Friday. Read more.

5. Up to 30% of total food produced worldwide is lost or wasted

A new report released by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that land is being put under critical pressure from both human activity and climate change. The report recommends better land management and food production for tackling climate change and, according to an IPCC spokesperson, was written for the most part by authors from developing countries. Read more.

6. Brussels Airport cargo handlers again in the red

Brussels Airport’s rival cargo handlers, Swissport Belgium and Aviapartner Belgium, were both operating at a loss in 2018. The two companies stressed in their final reports that they have been taking measures to improve their finances. Read more.

7. Colleagues of dead firemen come to the aid of bereaved families

Colleagues of the two firemen who died last Sunday in a fire in Beringen in Limburg province will donate their bonuses to the families of the dead firemen. According to the Commander of the North Limburg zone, death allowances for firefighters are not satisfactory. Read more. </s> George Eustice, who works with Michael Gove, has promised to "reset the imbalance" in Europe's fishing waters. Taking a firm stand, the Environment minister promised to take back control of Britain's own waters, stretching up to 200 miles off the mainland. This comes after the UK announced its exit from the London Fisheries Convention, which means Britain has now regained control of the waters 6 - 12 miles off its coast. Sophy Ridge quizzed the DEFRA minister on today's announcement, claiming that UK vessels caught almost 700,000 tonnes of fish last year while overseas vessels only caught 10,000 tonnes within this 6 - 12 mile strip of sea that has been taken back under control.

She asked Mr Eustice if taking back control of 1.4 per cent of fish was really a big victory for the Government. Responding on Sky News, Mr Eustice said this move was only the beginning - with the next step a negotiation of the wider EU Common Fisheries Policy. He told Ridge: "We are absolutely clear that when we leave the EU we will leave the fisheries convention. "We actually catch very little fish in the 6 - 12-mile zone of other European countries. It’s almost entirely in Ireland, a very small amount. "But, actually it is a big victory, because having lots of foreign vessels in that 6 - 12 miles does increase the competition with our fishermen. "Also, in our waters more widely, that is up to 200 miles out, access to foreign vessels is around 700,000 tons of fish, and we only fish about 150,000 tons in each people’s waters. "Our priority is to fix that imbalance and get the best deal for this country's hard-working fishermen."

Earlier today, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, claimed the UK was “taking back control” with today's withdrawal. He announced that the UK will leave the London fisheries convention, signed in 1964 before the UK joined the European Union, giving two years notice of its intention. The convention allows vessels from the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of each other’s coastlines. Mr Gove explained that leaving the European Union would involve exiting the EU common fisheries policy, which allows all European countries access between 12 and 200 nautical miles off the UK and sets quotas for how much fish nations can catch.
Belgium and the Netherlands, by swapping 48 acres of land, agree that one section of their border is now the center of the Meuse River. This is expected to fix a police jurisdiction problem.