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RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ
DE RUEHBS #2199/01 1781310
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R 271310Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2343
INFO RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 002199 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB/ESC, EUR/ERA AND EUR/UBI 
TREASURY FOR OASIA/ICN - ATUKORALA 
USDOC FOR 3133/USFCS/OIO/EUR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN EINV EAID EWWT EAIR BE
SUBJECT:  BELGIAN STEWPOT: June 26, 2006 
 
Ref: (A) Brussels 1876 (B) 05 Brussels 4385 
 
1-2. Belgium More Wired than EU Average 
¶3.  Ten Candles for Thalys 
4-5. Economy Grows, Though Savings Drop 
¶6.   Quickenborne Lives Up to His Name... 
7-9. Women Under-represented in Corporate Boards 
10-12.Peace Corps-Type Voluntary Service for Belgian Youths 
¶13. Chocolate: Good Tasting and Good For You Too 
¶14.  A/C Workers Protest Hot Working Conditions 
 
------------------------------------ 
Belgium More Wired than EU Average 
------------------------------------ 
¶1. (U) In May, EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding 
levied a general criticism at European countries for lagging behind 
on implementing fast new technologies.  The commissioner lamented 
Europe's slow take-up of new high-speed communications technologies 
such as broadband internet, telecommunications, and digital 
broadcasting.  Belgium, however, is doing better than most.  A 2005 
survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 
(OECD) ranks Belgium 10th overall among OECD countries in broadband 
penetration, with a total of 18.3 broadband subscribers per 100 
inhabitants.  Just four EU countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, 
and Sweden), Switzerland and Norway rank ahead of Belgium.  Belgium 
surpasses the U.S., which ranks 12th with 16.8 broadband subscribers 
per 100 inhabitants. 
 
¶2. (U) Meanwhile, three Belgian Federal Ministers are doing their 
part to make internet access more widely available in Belgium. 
Under the slogan "Internet for All," a letter from Prime Minister 
Verhofstadt, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Reynders, 
and Minister of Employment and "Informatization" Vanvelthoven, was 
sent to nearly every Belgian household this spring.  The letter 
offers an internet package that includes: a computer with basic 
accessories, internet connection for one year, installation, and 
elementary training.  As a further incentive, subscribers may deduct 
the 21 percent VAT from their Belgian taxes for 2007.  The package 
costs 850 euros for a desktop or 990 euros for a laptop - a bargain 
compared to prevailing costs of similar equipment and service in 
Europe. 
 
---------------------- 
Ten Candles for Thalys 
---------------------- 
¶3. (U) Thalys, the high speed passenger train that links Brussels 
with Paris, Amsterdam, and Cologne celebrated 10 years of service in 
early June.  The Thalys venture is 70 percent owned by the French 
national railway operator, SNCF, and 30 percent owned by Belgium's 
national railways, SNCB/NMBS.  More than 52 million passengers have 
traveled on the Thalys during its first decade.  In 1997, the line's 
first full year of operation, revenue exceeded 110 million euros. 
By 2005, earnings had more than tripled to 335 million euros.  The 
fast train has largely supplanted air travel between Paris and 
Brussels, and Belgian officials credit the line with a 10 percent 
increase in French tourists visiting Belgium during the 10 years 
since the line's inception.  For hoteliers, there is a downside. 
The rapidity of travel means that many visitors return to France the 
same day, rather than overnighting in Belgium.  The Brussels-Paris 
route, which takes about one hour and twenty-five minutes, is the 
only Thalys route making a profit; both the Brussels-Cologne and 
Brussels-Amsterdam routes operate at a loss. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Economy Growing Smartly as Consumer Savings Drop 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶4. (U) Confirming earlier estimates (ref A), the Belgian National 
Bank reports that Belgium's economy should grow by 2.5 percent in 
2006 and by 1.8 percent in 2007.  This growth could yield 80,000 
jobs in the next two years. "Belgium is no longer the sick man of 
Europe -- as it was in the early Eighties," National Bank Governor 
Guy Quaden said on June 12 when he presented his interim forecast. 
Quaden also lauded the spectacular rise in Belgium's business 
confidence indicator, which reached a record in June; this indicator 
has become a reliable forecaster of Eurozone growth in the 9-12 
month timeframe. 
 
¶5. (U) He warned against overoptimism, however, because Belgium's 
labor costs remain higher than in neighboring countries, which 
dampens both domestic and foreign direct investment.  Quaden also 
warned that without additional revenue enhancement or 
belt-tightening, Belgium's 2007 Federal budget is heading for a 4.5 
billion euro deficit. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Quickenborne Lives Up to His Name 
--------------------------------- 
 
BRUSSELS 00002199  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶6. (U) Belgian Secretary of State for Administrative Simplification 
Vincent van Quickenborne seems determined to live up to his name. 
On June 1, a program conceived by his office went into effect, 
reducing the average days required to create a new business in 
Belgium from 56 to 3.  Van Quickenborne claims this is the shortest 
in Europe.  This vast reduction in processing time was achieved by 
removing some of the formalities of the application process and by 
the introduction of an "e-depot" at the office of the notary.  The 
e-depot allows the entrepreneur to fill out and sign electronically 
a single form sent instantaneously to the appropriate Belgian 
agencies, eliminating duplicate paperwork and time spent waiting in 
lines to receive operating permits.  This improved registration 
procedure should help encourage new business creation and investment 
in Belgium. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Women Under-Represented in Corporate Belgium 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶7. (U) According to a study by the European Board Women's Monitor, 
Belgian companies score below the EU average for the percentage of 
women with corporate board functions.  Of Belgian companies 
surveyed, women occupy only 5.8 percent of corporate board slots, 
against an EU average of 8.5 percent.  Although this reflects almost 
a doubling of the 2004 score of 3 percent, Belgium joins five other 
EU countries at the bottom on this statistic. 
 
¶8. (U) When asked why Belgium scores so poorly on this criterion, 
the president of the Belgian Association of Women Business Leaders 
said Belgium still exhibited the "glass ceiling" that slows entry of 
women into the highest levels of corporate responsibility.  She also 
noted that Belgium lags other countries in providing structural 
assistance through social services to help women entering the 
workforce, such as affordable daycare and flexible working hours. 
The lobbyist faulted Federal Minister of Social Integration and 
Equal Opportunity Christian Dupont for not doing more to promote 
women in executive authority. 
 
¶9. (U) At a recent AmCham event, Flanders Region Economic Minister 
Fientje Moerman was asked her view of the study.  She noted that 
partly the society did not provide the tools women needed to 
succeed, but partly women made choices favoring family and other 
interests over career advancement.  Moerman, who has a young adult 
daughter, has worked in the private sector as well as at the local, 
regional, and federal levels of the Belgian government. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
Peace Corps-Type Voluntary Service for Belgian Youths 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶10. (U) On June 22 Belgian Federal Minister of Cooperation and 
Development Armand De Decker announced a program that will allow 
Belgian young people to offer concrete support to Belgium's 18 
"development partner" countries.  The program, signed into law by 
Royal Decree in May 2006, calls for youths to work together in 
"solidarity" to provide assistance to targeted developing countries 
while informing the Belgian public about aid and development issues. 
 Another goal of the program is to groom members of the next 
generation to become aid workers.  Open to persons age 20 or under, 
the program envisions sending up to 100 young people abroad annually 
for three-year missions in one of five sectors:  health care, 
education, agriculture and food security, infrastructure, and 
community building. 
 
¶11. (U) After a screening process and successful passage of written 
and oral examinations, selected candidates will undergo brief 
training before being sent overseas.  While in the field, volunteers 
will receive a monthly stipend and defrayed expenses for travel, 
lodging, health care, and insurance.  Registration for the first 
cycle of 50 volunteers is underway until July 2; more than 1,000 
young Belgians have already applied.  Belgian officials hope that 
the first wave of 50 volunteers will be ready to ship out by the end 
of 2006, and a second wave of 50 in the spring of 2007. 
 
¶12. (U) The 18 destination countries are those with which Belgium 
already has direct bilateral aid programs, including 13 in Africa: 
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, 
South Africa, Mozambique, Morocco, Algeria, Benin, Niger, Senegal, 
and Mali.  Bolivia, Ecuador, Palestine, Peru and Vietnam complete 
the list. 
 
----------------------------- 
Good Tasting and Good For You 
----------------------------- 
¶13. (U) Belgian chocolate producer Barry Callebaut, which claims to 
be the world's biggest processor of cocoa beans, has developed a new 
processing method said to preserve more of chocolate's natural 
health benefits in the final product.  Chocolate is a good source of 
antioxidants, and according to Callebaut, his "Acticoa" process 
 
BRUSSELS 00002199  003 OF 003 
 
 
brings as much as 80% of chocolate's naturally occurring 
antioxidants to consumers, compared to 25% with standard cocoa bean 
processing technology.  The first products using the new method are 
due on the market in 2007.  This development adds to a growing 
emphasis on health-focused publicity for chocolate (ref B).  It may 
also be a boon for the industry as a whole, as health-conscious 
consumers find a justification for having just one more little 
piece. 
 
--------------------------- 
Hot Irony for A/C Workers 
--------------------------- 
¶14. (U) 1200 Workers at the Daikin Europe N.V. air conditioning 
manufacturing plant in Oostend (on Belgium's seacoast) are 
protesting ... hot working conditions. A recent heat wave saw 
temperatures in the plant soar to above 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 
Celsius), which union representative Diego Vermeerch called 
unbearable.  Plant manager Dirk Salembier acknowledged that 
temperatures in the factory had been an issue, but claimed that the 
union-specified limit of less than 26.7 degrees Celsius was being 
maintained.  A new ventilation system will be installed in August, 
but (oddly) not air conditioning, which Salembier claims the plant's 
construction will not support. 
 
Korologos