Benelux Update I — the girl with a pearl earring

Hello World!

Here in my stories, I will share news, updates, and happenings on different topics related to the Benelux region.

Netherlands

• Expat spouses’ who are looking for job in the Netherlands built a union called “Expat spouses Initiative” with active1800 members by May 2020. Finding a job is challenging despite their high level of education and training. Half of the expat spouses are actively looking for a job and it takes around 6 months to find one. It is considered as a wasted talent for the Netherlands economy.
• ABN Amro (3rd biggest bank in the Netherlands with 400 billion EUR asset); announced €395M loss in Q1 of 2020. last year the same quarter bank announced €478 net profit. Dutch government still owns 56% of the bank. 2019 annual net profit was €2 bn. Lower than expectations and 13% less than in 2018. Low-interest rates and loans outside of the Netherlands seem like the biggest reason for the downturn
• North-Brabant region is cutting expenses on arts and investing in farmers to support the public from the effect of covid-19

Belgium

• The country is going to make some business back to normal on Monday 18th of May. Children will go back to school, hairdressers are allowed to serve customers and weeding and funerals can be held up to 30 people.
• Belgium reopens the border starting by the 15th of June and also Brussel airlines will resume part of its operation on the same date. The airline company suspended its flights since March 2020.
• The nuclear waste disposal decision of the Belgium government creates tension between Luxemburg and Belgium. Luxembourg environment minister blames Belgium counterpart for being irresponsible to the environment and human health by choosing disposal sides close to the Luxemburg border.
• The government is funding 4 million € to help the business to convert their operations, products, and services online. That online transformation is a big preparation for post corona crisis
• The city council of Ghent is launching an EU supported project to decrease the number of homeless people living in the street of the city

Luxembourg

• Luxembourg and Germany are opening borders again starting from the 15th of May.
• The government updated covid-19 numbers for the country. Total number of infections is 3930 in overall 61000 tests.
• The association of municipalities announced that all governmental coworkers will always be paid by respective municipalities. In the general municipality, spendings must always be inferior to earnings. It is under consideration that either or not the government will do an exception for 2020.
• EU is considering to apply additional tariffs to Turkish steal to support local producers such as ArcelorMital and Thyssenkrupp

History

Johannes Vermeer, is baroque style Dutch painter, was born in Delft 1632 and died in 1675. His paintings took attention through the way he used the light in his works. He never went abroad in his life. “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is considered as Vermeer’s masterpiece