News

On 17 July, Minister-president Geert Bourgeois had a first meeting with the new president of Catalania Quim Torra. Bourgeois was the first official head of government to be warmly welcomed by the Catalan president in the Paulau de la Generalitat, Barcelona.

On the occasion of Flanders Day, minister-president Bourgeois made a plea for free trade and the modernization of the multilateral trading system in his speech for the diplomatic corps.

On 5 July, Minister of Agriculture Joke Schauvliege and a delegation from the Flemish agricultural sector paid a working visit to the Netherlands.

The World Choir Games took place in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa from 4 to 14 July.

From 6 to 9 July, Minister of Culture Sven Gatz visited the festival of Marseille and Avignon. During the weekend of 7 July, Gatz was invited at the Marseille theatre-/dance festival, led by Flemish director Jan Goossens since 2016.

On 28 June, the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva presented the final report of a global survey on care economies. Flanders, which has been working closely with ILO for 25 years, co-financed the research.

On 26 June, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) published its report on decentralised development cooperation. The report identifies global trends related to the decentralised development cooperation over the past 10 years.

On 6 July, Minister-president Geert Bourgeois met his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte. They discussed current EU affairs in “The Little Tower” (het Torentje) in The Hague.

From 25 to 27 June, seven representatives from American universities and knowledge institutions visited Flanders. At the invitation of the Department of Foreign Affairs, they got acquainted with the Flemish universities and their research campuses.