The End

After each memeber had posted 10 posts, we've decided to quit!
So this is the end of our blog, this was the last week we’ve posted!
Thanks for reading!
The EU-team!

Veolia Cargo becomes the new competitor of the NMBS!

The French railway society “Veolia Cargo” hopes to become the new competitor of the Belgian railway society “de NMBS”. Veolia Cargo received an approval for his rolling staff and hopes to receive another approval for his material (trains). Veolia Cargo is not an unknown in our country, Veolia Transport (the mother company of Veolia Cargo) is the biggest controller of our city- and region lines for “De Lijn”.

Nowadays, Veolia Cargo is active in 3 countries: French, Germany and the Netherlands. In 2006, the French railway society had a turnover of 100 million Euro. This with 850 employees and 189 engines. The turnover for this year would be estimated to 226 million Euro, an increase with 126 million.

This is not good news for “de NMBS”, because with Veolia Cargo the competition in Belgium grows to 9. Now there are 4 companies who submitted an application: CFL Cargo, the British EWS, the Dutch ACTS and Veolia Cargo. The other 5 companies have already an approval to ride on the Belgium net: Dillen & Le Jeune Cargo, SNCF Fret, Rail4Chem, Trainsport and ERS. So the competition is raising.

But there is one obstacle that prevents a fast grow: there is not a balance in the supply and demand of engines and the most important obstacle is a shortage of train drivers.

My opinion: I think that for the consumer nothing will change. Because the competition is for the transport of cargo. But I think that it is not a good thing, “de NMBS” needs a lot of money to exist. So when there is more competition, they lose a lot of money.
Source: http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/942/Economie/article/detail/96884/2007/12/08/Veolia-Cargo-wordt-nieuwe-concurrent-NMBS.dhtml
(Bram)

Colruyt is doing better than expected.

Colruyt has booked good results over the first half year of exercise 2007/2008. Better than they expected. They had bad market circumstances: it was a bad summer and there is more competition. But Colruyt held his results.The turnover (revenue) was 2.714,7 million Euro, this was also the expects of the analysts. The company profit was 197,3 million Euro, against an average expect of 186,5 million Euro. The net profit was 143,1 million Euro against the 132,1 million Euro the analysts had expect. All of this has a result of a profit/share of 4,36 Euro. And I think that is great for al the shareholders.

Despite of the circumstances this is a very good result. And because of this reason, the management of Colruyt raises the profit expectations with 2 million Euro. To achieve this 2 million Euro extra profit, Colruyt has invented a new extra-discount card and on the tickets they show the price comparison with the competition.

The activities in the retail made the best results of the whole group, an increase of the turnover with 6%. Colruyt is one of the biggest groups on the market, and they are still growing. In the 3th quarter of 2007 to 21,04%. There is only one problem coming. The increase of the food prices! Till march next year the price of some good will increase, but it will not be a big problem.
Source: http://www.hln.be/hlns/cache/det/art_674297.html?wt.bron=hlnBottomArtikels
(Bram)

Our Second Podcast!

We present you:

Our second Podcast!

http://rapidshare.com/files/71657302/Podcast2.mp3.html

For people who are not that technological-minded:
click on the URL
Scroll down and click on "free"
and then you must show that you are valid user!

Profit of Roularta increase by taking over Express-Expansion.

Media company Roularta has generated in the 3th quarter 34.8% more turnover. This is the result of the taking over of the French Group Express-Expansion. The turnover of Roularta in the period July-September was 151,1 million Euro. Last year it was “only” 112,1 million. Most of this grow comes from Print-division, and also thanks to the taking over of the French Group.


The products of Roularta grew with 1.5%. Other reasons of the turnover increase are the taking over of some small magazines. Like a Dentist paper, Pharmacy paper, …. The best original product is the free newspaper, “De Zondag”.


According to Roularta, there is a lot of pressure on the Belgium and French market. The audiovisual media has grown with only 2%, this is not much. The reason is the failing of the distribution contract with Carrefour. It was especially VMMa (VTM and KanaalTwee and Q-music) that grew a lot, 9.1%.


The results of radio station 4FM are not that good. But Roularta hasn’t got yet some prospects. The prospects of Television and Radio are good.The advertising market in Belgium is doing better than in French. In French the social climate has a negative influence on the money for advertising.


Source: http://www.hln.be/hlns/cache/det/art_661256.html?wt.bron=categorieArt4

(Bram)

Expensive oil delivers the government 11 million extra!

De oil prices keep on growing, but the taxes won’t decrease. Because of this, the government gets 11 million euro more! But the pressure is coming to decrease the taxes.
Last week, the oil price reached a new record, 1.252 euro/litre. Many people give comment because the government won’t decrease the taxes on the fuel prices.

The 11 million euro is only the extra income on the diesel prices. The profit on the petrol is not calculated in those 11 million euro. But the taxes on the bio fuel are also taken in the extra income. The total extra turnover of the bio fuel taxes is 2.2 million euro. So we are paying extra money for a product (bio fuel) that not exist.

Guy Verhofstadt said that the government will maybe decrease the taxes. But on 1 condition, the price of diesel in Belgium must be higher than the price of diesel in our neighbouring countries. At the moment Belgium has the second highest price, Germany is on number 1. But before the price raise, we had almost the lowest prices, just Luxembourg did better. At the moment, the government has decrease the taxes, but it is only a small decrease. If we fill our car, we only get 1 euro discount.

If we believe the secretary of the BPF, the 11 million euro is not the total sum of revenue. Apparently it must be more, but the BPF won’t give the correct number of money.
Source
(Bram)

The price of beer is again going up!

Inbev the biggest beer producer in Belgium will raise the price of his products with 3% starting from February 1st. This means that we as customers will have to pay 5 to 10 eurocent more for a lager.

But why announced Inbev the price increase 4 months ahead? The reason is the cost of the resources that increases. Especially the cost of energy and food is going up. Because of this, they have to raise the price of the beer. Otherwise the profit will go down.

Not every price will increase the same. There are differences, Jupiler in the bottle and in the can will increase 3.5%. Whereas the price of the Hoegaarden remains the same. When al of this is completed, there won’t be any difference between beer at home as in the pub.

The price increase will come on the head of the customers. They will feel the price increase, because when the owners of restaurants and pubs won’t change the price, they won’t survive. As the beer producer increase the price, than the sellers of those products have not a choice. They must follow Inbev and increase their prices also.

Normally the price will increase with 5 eurocent, but sellers do not calculate with prices under the 10 eurocent. So starting in February the price will increase with 10 eurocent.
At the moment it is only Inbev, the concurrent Alken-Maes and De Koninck will not follow. But this will only take some time, everybody will change their prices.
Source
(Bram)

1 on 7 persons in Belgium is poor!

The poverty line for a person alone is a loan of less than 822 euro/month. And the poverty line for a family (2 grownups and 2 children) is a loan of less than 1762 euro/month. This is not much. According to the numbers of the FOD Economy almost 15% of the Belgium population lives under the poverty line. This is to much, especially for a country with so much wealth. It are especially women, children under the age of 16 and older persons who live under this circumstances.
The most of these persons are also not active on the labour market.
How can they survive? The most Belgians living under the poverty line spend 40% less than the others. They save al lot of money because they travel less (they do not go on vacation). Maybe the can not afford a car, so the save also money on private transportation.

Strange is, that they also save on health and food. I thought that food and health were some basic needs, but these peoples spend more on tobacco.
This is a strange phenomenon. More than half of the persons who live under the poverty line lives in a rent-house. Their house is in most of the cases too small.

Poverty is phenomenon that is passed on from generation to generation.
My opinion: I had no idea that so many Belgians under the poverty line live. Because we have a good social system and the OCMW’s. But apparently there are still persons who need help.

Source
(Bram)

The biggest airplane of the World, the A380

Airbus, the European airplane constructor has delivered the biggest airplane of the history. On Monday the 15th of October they finished the first plane. It is Singapore Airlines that receives the worlds first A380, but this with 18 months delay.

This makes an end to all the disappointment of the delay. But it comes in a period where the mother company EADS is suspected of fraud. The delay did also decrease the rate of the shares.

The first commercial flight is not for this week, it will be on the 25th of October, with destination Sydney in Australia. But people who want to see the airplane have tomorrow the chance. Then leaves the A380 France with destination Singapore.

But it wasn’t al good, the delay came because of technologic problems.
The target of Airbus is to take over the first place of Boeing. The A380 is the rival of the Boeing 747.
The Boeing 747 was long the only plane that could transport 450 passengers. But now the A380 of Airbus can transport standard 525 passengers.

At the moment Airbus has 189 sales agreements, especially from Asia and Europe. But cause of the delay, Airbus lost millions of dollars. So in stead of 270, they have to sell 420 planes.

My opinion about this: This is good for the economy of Europe. Now Airbus can compete again with Boeing. But there was also bad news, the delay cost Airbus a lot of money. So it will be difficult to sell 420 types of A380.

Source

(Bram)

Our Podcast!

We present you:

Our first Podcast!

http://rapidshare.com/files/62257352/Final_Podcast.wav

For people who are not that technological-minded:

click on the URL
Scroll down and click on "free"
and then you must show that you are valid user!

The growth in the technological industry is going down.

The car industry in Belgium is at a loose end. Early this year there were some restructurings by VW Vorst. A cause of this, the technologic growth was only 1.9%. If there were no restructurings the growth would have been 7%. The numbers come from Agoria, this is the federation of the technological industry.

But it is not all negative. There are also some sectors who did grow. One of the biggest is the electro industry. It has a growth of 7.1%. The employment was the same, but the car industry had al loss of 7.5%. A cause of this, the technological industry lost 1.1%.

The shortage of personnel slows down the growth of the company’s. So when nothing changes, there will be no growth anymore.

Why did it stopped? According to Agoria, the reason is the low dollar price and the low expectations in the construction sector.
A solution would be: more investments, those would involve into more constructions.

My opinion about this:
Maybe the government in Belgium can make some special proposals towards the industry. They can lower the taxes, so the company’s won’t leave Belgium. Now all those company’s restart their production in the East. There is the cost for personnel lower.
Another solution would be more subsidies. With those subsidies, the company’s could invest in a better production.

Source

(Bram)

2010 the start of more competition into Europe's rail networks

Finally the European lawmakers gave their blessings to reform the Europe rail networks. In 2010, the passengers will have more choice and the train societies will do their best to be on time. Because, when the trains aren’t on time, the rail networks have to pay the customers a compensation.

When a train has a delay of 60 minutes or more, the passengers receive 25% of their fare. When a train has a delay of 120 minutes or more, the passengers receive 50% of their fare. This sound good but you only receive the compensation when the rail network can be held responsible for the delay.

Starting from 2010, new competitors are welcome on the railroad market. This leads to a bigger choice for the passengers, but will the new competitors be able to guarantee the safety? Not every land of the EU is happy about this new law.
The meaning of al this, is to promote the railroad. So it become a more popular way of transport.
Conclusion, it is positive for the passengers that they have more choice. Maybe the price will decrease. But if they can’t guarantee the safety it isn’t positive.
Source

(Bram)

Northern Rock goes bankrupt

A few weeks ago, the news arrived that a bank in the United Kingdom had some financial problems. But nobody had thought that the problems with ‘Northern Rock’ were so big.

The bank had not enough money to help all the people so it lent 3 billion British Pound at The Bank of England. That is about 4,3 million Euro.
The past week everybody who has a bank account at Northern Rock started to worry.
Almost everyone reacted the same, they started to take their money of the bank account. This reaction is the end for Northern Rock.

According to the ‘Financial Times’ the 3 billion British Pound is equal to 10% of the bank accounts. The Prime minister of the United Kingdom wants that the government create the same system as in the United States of America. There, all the bank accounts are protected against a bankruptcy. Meanwhile the government has promised to pay for all the bank accounts, so nobody will lose their money.

My opinion about this: I thought that in the economical en political system of today it was impossible that a bank goes bankrupt. Especially a bank in Europe, where they have al those control organisations. Last year we have seen that it was almost impossible that a big bank goes bankrupt. Because there are so many controls to see of everything is still ok.

Source: Tijd.be
(Bram)