Relations seem to be changing for the better in some municipalities with language facili-ties, thanks to the arrival of a younger generation of French-speaking politicians. However, appearances are often deceptive.

In the coming months we will be giving people who live in Rand the opportunity to ex-press their opinions. People from different backgrounds, in the hope of being able to present a broad and varied picture of how the region will be within 10 years.

What does fate have in store for the Rand? What sort of region do we want? As part of the Visionary series of articles, RandKrant will be talking to a number of people over the next few months to find out their ideas about the future of the Rand.

In Drogenbos nearly twice as many people die of heart and vascular diseases as in Kraainem. Where you live in the Rand and your position in the social and economic pecking order have a huge impact on your health.

Mindful that living in the Rand is an expensive business, the Flemish Authorities decided in 1992 to set up Vlabinvest, an investment fund tasked with trying to offer affordable housing.…

More than 30% ofoffice buildings in a radius of 12 km around Brussels is empty. That works out at nearly half a million square meters ofoffice space. The situation is particularly dire in Zaventem, where 75% of all Rand offices are established. The vacancy rate there is about 40%.

The choice is between an intense development of the area to the north of Brussels or pressing on with the green belt policy of the last 50 years. The first option is being plumped for in a mission statement recently issued by Ruimte Vlaanderen (Spatial Planning Department Flanders).

Schemes to boost the capacity of the Brussels ring road have been floated since the 1990s but the Flemish Mobility Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) is now committed to getting the work started in 2019. The programme may take 10 years to complete.

The number of Dutch-speaking children attending schools in the Flemish Rand is falling in both the primary and secondary education systems. The level of Dutch is also on the decline.

Flemish Brabant is set to have a net zero carbon footprint by 2040, according to the provincial authority, citing a study to confirm the plan's technical and social feasibility. Towards this end, the municipal authorities are being called upon to achieve a 20% cut in their CO2 emissions by 2020.

The Ghelamco construction company's plans to build a new national football stadium on what is now the Parking C of the Heizel complex in Strombeek-Bever has caused quite a stir…

A school infrastructure capacity monitor has been developed by researchers at KU Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) and the VUB (Free University of Brussels). This instrument is designed to evaluate the primary…

Solheide hilltop in Overijse is a haven of peace and quiet. Everything revolves around grape production there. Fourteen of the 18 greenhouses on the site enjoy protected status.…

People cycling along the Leuven-Brussels high-speed train line sometimes see him. A thin, grey-pigtailed man on a racing bike, a retro bike or a self-constructed, open reclining bicycle.…

A spectacular level of growth equal to 8.6% during the first seven months of this year is reported by Brussels Airport. The Zaventem-based hub catered for 2.5 million passengers from…

A treatment for Parkinson's disease has led to a breakthrough in cancer research. A discovery by Pierre Sonveaux from Sterrebeek attracted the attention of the international press last year.

‘The level of unemployment in the Halle-Vilvoorde district is fairly low compared with the rest of Flanders but there is a large group of people who find it impossible or very difficult to gain access to the regular labour market', says Jan Creten, from the Halle-Vilvoorde RESOC.

A number of cooperatives from the region have come under the spotlight in previous issues. An increasing number of people are keen to invest in cooperative entities, where the public good is the prime concern rather than profits.

Ring-TV was launched 20 years ago, an anniversary that is definitely worth celebrating, if only in a small way, because producing regional television programmes in our diverse region is no mean feat. Innovation is paramount: new programmes, sets, techniques and ways to keep the viewers tuning in.

Fewer staff, less investment, extra taxes. The municipal authorities in the Flemish Rand are having to take steps to keep their finances on an even keel. Under the so-called policy and management cycle, the municipalities are required to establish a multiannual planning perspective for the period up

She is a face familiar to many people owing to the newscast on the Eén television channel and the news report magazine Login on the Canvas channel: 24-year-old Danira Boukhriss Terkessidis from Vilvoorde is one of the youngest faces working for the Flemish radio and television broadcaster, the VRT.

When she came to Belgium with her husband three years ago the move signalled the start of an exciting story for Jutta Schubert. A story of learning to let go and accepting the new. Wezembeek-Oppem is a place where she and her husband have increasingly felt at home over the past few years.

Ecopower is the focus this month of our Strength of cooperatives series. This cooperative society is set to build four wind turbines in Asse this coming autumn, with the overall capacity to generate environmentally sound electricity to cater for the power requirements of 6.000 households.

Cooperative ventures employ over 100 million people, creating more jobs than all the multinationals together. Successful examples can found in this country's agricultural, energy, retail and insurance sectors but Barrez and Jacobs are keen to stress just how many opportunities are still available.

One option is to follow the one you love back to Belgium, where you can sit in your corner full of romantic feelings but wondering what on earth to do with yourself. Or you can take a cue from Verónica Demaría...