This paper is an institutional study of the patent systems of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and its successor states Belgium and the Netherlands in the nineteenth century. The patent law of 1817 gave the state wide discretion to accept or refuse patents and to customise their duration,...

Regional mobility is crucial for addressing labour shortages, as jobseekers from one region may fill vacancies in another region with few local candidates. However, this requires a willingness amongst employers to consider candidates from across regional borders. This study examines the...

This paper explores the distributive impact of a hypothetical carbon tax on households' transport and energy consumption in Belgium. It focuses on the welfare effects across population groups and along the income distribution, as well as on the expected budgetary and environmental effects,...

In the absence of a wealth register, Belgian wealth inequality needs to be estimated. Here I apply the mortality multiplier approach to Belgian inheritance tax tabulations and administrative microdata, collectively covering 1935 to 2022. Belgian wealth inequality has strongly declined during the...

This paper explores the distributive impact of a hypothetical carbon tax on households' transport and energy consumption in Belgium. It focuses on the welfare effects across population groups and along the income distribution, as well as on the expected budgetary and environmental effects,...

Objectives: We investigate the long-run impact of changes in prescription drug sales on mortality and hospital utilization in Belgium during the first two decades of the 21st century. Methods: We analyze the correlation across diseases between changes in the drugs used to treat the disease and...

At the time of this assessment, Belgium had submitted pdf RBMPs for all of its eight RBDs. Electronic reporting was only partially complete (only covering the 2 Flemish RBDs, the Brussels Region RBD for the Scheldt and the Noordzee RBD). The Flanders Region merged the RBMPs for Scheldt and Meuse...

This policy brief produced by Cedefop presents a snapshot of vocational education and training (VET) policy developments in Flanders, Belgium, between 2020 and the end of 2024. It presents the context and the challenges the country faces, a selection of the latest VET-related statistics as well...

This VET policy brief produced by Cedefop presents a snapshot of vocational education and training (VET) policy developments for the French speaking part of Belgium, between 2020 and the end of 2024. It presents the context and the challenges the country faces, a selection of the latest...

The Floods Directive (FD) established a framework for flood risk management. It foresees 6-yearly cycles aiming at the reduction of the adverse consequences associated with floods in the European Union (EU). The first cycle covered the period 2010-15. The second cycle covers the period 2016-21....

The Floods Directive (FD) established a framework for flood risk management (FRM). It foresees 6-yearly cycles aiming to reduce the risk of flood damage in the European Union (EU). The first cycle covered the period 2010-15. The second cycle covered the period 2016-21. The third cycle will cover...

Belgium maintains high levels of participation in early childhood education and care, but staff shortages and capacity problems exist. In school education, the Communities are implementing major reforms to improve educational quality and school accountability. Nonetheless, educational...

The Education and Training Monitor's country reports present and assess the main recent and ongoing policy development at all education levels in the 27 EU Member States. They give the reader more in-depth insight into the performance of a country as regards the EU-level targets agreed within...

The Education and Training Monitor's country reports present and assess the main recent and ongoing policy development at all education levels in the 27 EU Member States. They give the reader more in-depth insight into the performance of a country as regards the EU-level targets agreed within...

Over the past decade, Belgium has taken important steps to improve surveillance and stewardship related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial consumption (AMC), including the development of the National Action Plan on AMR (NAP-AMR 2020-2024) and the BELMAP report, published in 2021...

This paper assesses the impact of the COSME Loan Guarantee Facility (LGF) on SMEs in Belgium, France, and Italy between 2015 and 2023. Using advanced econometric methods, we compare SMEs that received a guarantee with a control group of similar companies and find that beneficiaries experienced...

The research note explores the mismatch between educational qualifications and job outcomes, introducing a novel mismatch indicator, the linkage score, which can be considered a significant innovation to the mismatch literature. The novel indicator is applied to Belgium, as a case study, and 18...

In Belgium, which has a population of 11 million, the main religion is Roman Catholicism (50 %). Other religious groups are Muslims (5 %), Anglicans, Protestant and Orthodox Christians (2.5 %), persons of Jewish faith (0.4 %) and Buddhists (0.3 %). In addition, nearly 42 % of people identified...

Using rich administrative data from 2005 to 2021 for Belgium, this paper analyses how earnings dynamics differ across socio-demographic groups, focusing on gender and education. We find that while permanent earnings inequality remains the dominant source of overall earnings inequality in...

This paper explores the distributive impact of a hypothetical carbon tax on households’ transport and energy consumption in Belgium. It focuses on the welfare effects across population groups and along the income distribution, as well as on the expected budgetary and environmental effects,...

The aim is to identify gaps in the monitoring network for Belgium according to the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/2881). The analysis is conducted considering the data officially reported by Belgium for the last five years (2019-2023) to EEA's Repornet2. Data has been...

The principle of equality is recognised by the Belgian Constitution in Articles 10 (equality of women and men), 11 (equality of Belgian citizens without discrimination) and 11bis (promotion of equal access to elective and public mandates). Under Belgium's federal structure, policy competences...

In the absence of a wealth register, Belgian wealth inequality needs to be estimated. Here I apply the mortality multiplier approach to Belgian inheritance tax tabulations and administrative microdata, collectively covering 1935 to 2022. Belgian wealth inequality has strongly declined during the...

Belgium's total factor productivity (TFP) growth slowdown since the late 1990s has been worse than peers' despite significant spending on innovation. This is largely explained by subdued business dynamics, insufficient firm access to financing, labor and capital misallocation, and the...

Educational outcomes in Belgium are comparable to peers but achieved at a higher cost. The public wage bill for education is higher than in peers, reflecting smaller student-to-teacher ratios and less teaching time. Yet, Belgium experiences teacher shortages. Reforms should aim at increasing the...

Against a backdrop of constrained fiscal space, Belgium faces considerable investment needs. Improving infrastructure governance processes can enhance investment efficiency, achieving more "bang" for each investment "buck". This paper analyzes public investment management practices in Belgium,...

The economy has been resilient to a series of shocks, but growth is slowing, and disinflation is facing headwinds. The labor market has been strong but shows early signs of cooling. Labor-cost competitiveness has declined with wage growth outpacing sluggish productivity. Successive shocks have...

This unique insight into the corporate investment in Belgium examines companies' finance needs and the constraints they face. The 2024 edition also provides insight into the pressing issues facing firms, such as climate change, high energy costs and the green transition. The survey, which has...

The VAT Gap represents the difference between expected VAT revenues and those actually collected, reflecting compliance challenges, policy inefficiencies, and enforcement gaps. As part of the European Commission's ongoing efforts to improve VAT compliance and revenue collection, these 27 country...

This report is an analysis of the labour market in the cross-border territory at the Flemish-Dutch border, in particular the geographical territory of the EURES network Scheldemond, that was established in 2003 and officially came to an end in 2023. The territory comprises the Belgian Provinces...

Global catches of sole species reached 20.779 tonnes in 20221, consisting almost entirely of the common sole. Catches decreased by 43% compared to 2013. In 2022, the EU accounted for 66% of total catches with the Netherlands, France and Belgium as the main producing countries. Main non-EU...

In 2023, Belgium's score on the World Bank's Government Effectiveness Index increased to 1.23, compared to a pre‑COVID‑19 score of 1.11 in 2019. The score has now almost returned to the 2017 level (1.24). Belgium also gained two places in the ranking of European Union (EU) Member States,...

This report documents the work done in the most recent annual update for Belgium. This work was carried out by the EUROMOD core development team, based at the JRC in Seville, in collaboration with the national team.

Global catches of sole species reached 20.779 tonnes in 20221, consisting almost entirely of the common sole. Catches decreased by 43% compared to 2013. In 2022, the EU accounted for 66% of total catches with the Netherlands, France and Belgium as the main producing countries. Main non-EU...

There were four ELD occurrences of environmental damage and no ELD occurrences of an imminent threat of environmental damage in Belgium between the time that the ELD was transposed into the law of the Flemish and Walloon Regions (30 April 2007), the Brussels-Capital Region (14 November 2008),...

The Belgian fishing fleet is relatively small in terms of number of vessels and fishers employed. Belgium's approach to the training and certification of fishers is regulated (based on STCW-F). All maritime education programs and training courses in Belgium are offered by institutions...