Belgian government in crisis over night flights from Brussels
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was grappling with a political crisis Tuesday caused by courier firm DHL's threats to abandon Brussels airport.
DHL's request to fly hundreds more night flights out of Brussels-Zavantem has the backing of the Flemish regional government and trades unions.
The company, the airport's biggest employer, has threatened to relocate its European hub from Brussels to the German city of Leipzig if its demand is not met.
But the Brussels city government is furiously resisting the demand, pointing to the noise and disruption that would be caused over one of Europe's most densely populated areas.
Stuck in the middle is Verhofstadt, who was planning to unveil his legislative programme and budget for the coming political year but is now working overtime to resolve the DHL dispute.
Verhofstadt, who has been holding "last-chance talks" since Monday in a bid to find a compromise, was forced to put back a parliamentary statement on DHL from Tuesday afternoon to the evening as his consultations dragged on.
The Belgian media has taken to speculating that the Flemish prime minister's government could even fall over the night-flights issue, which has been a hardy perennial of Belgian political debate in recent years.
The Belga news agency said Verhofstadt had presented a compromise proposal to the rival regional administrations in the hope of ending the political paralysis.
"It's now up to the regional governments to take the final step," said Hendrik Vermeersch of the SETCa trade union after a meeting with the prime minister.
"I think that we're not far from an agreement. But the last steps are sometimes the hardest," he said.
siu-jit/ga Belgium-politics
Belgian government likely to fall if no deal struck on courier company
BBC International Reports (Europe) 09-21-2004
By titled, "Guy Verhofstadt will either land or crash – reserving all additional night flights for DHL is in breach of EU competition rules", by Belgian newspaper De Standaard web site on 21 September Excerpt from of report by Steven Samyn and Tom Ysebaert
Brussels – Yesterday evening, the federal, Brussels, and Flemish governments entered a night of last-ditch negotiations on one dossier: DHL. If Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt fails to find a solution on the planned expansion of the courier service, his government will be heading for a crash.
The debate on the expansion of the DHL courier service has been going on for months. Time is very short now, because DHL is expecting an answer today.
Belgian government likely to fall if no deal struck on courier company
"The prime minister himself suggested adopting 21 September as a deadline. We simply adjusted our agenda to his," said DHL spokesman Xavier De Buck. "The dossier has been submitted to the different governments involved more than a year ago. First, we were promised an answer by late January. This date was subsequently postponed to 1 September. Every additional day is one day too many."
As of 2100 [1900 gmt] yesterday night, representatives from the three governments met at the prime minister's office to discuss a proposal elaborated by key federal government ministers and Mobility Minister Renaat Landuyt in the course of the afternoon. It suggests authorizing DHL to operate 22,000 night flights a year (currently 13,000) for a 25-year period. This means that the overall number of 25,000 night flights per year needs to be increased as well. In addition to DHL, other companies are also operating night flights at Zaventem Airport. The flaw of this "fifth scenario" is the spread of the additional night flights over the regions.
In addition, some technical and legal problems remain. A legal emergency advisory to the government which De Standaard has been allowed to see writes that "granting all the additional night flights exclusively to DHL may be in breach of the EU's competition rules. Other operators are also demanding additional slots for night flights. Reserving almost all additional night flights for DHL on the basis of an underhand agreement cannot really be regarded as an objective procedure".
[Passage omitted]
These last-ditch talks seem decisive not just for the future of DHL and its employees, but also for the prime minister. Over the past weekend, Verhofstadt was compelled to drop his plan to deliver the federal government's policy statement today. His position will be very precarious if, after his failure to settle budgetary, regional, and social-economic problems, an agreement on DHL also fails to materialize.
Source: De Standaard web site, Groot-Bijgaarden, in Dutch 21 Sep 04
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