Like many a Eurocrat and tourist escaping from nearby Brussels, there’s one thing von der Leyen doesn’t get about Tervuren: why is the top tourist attraction, the café and restaurant by the lakes, not operating at full capacity? Instead of attracting tourists, expats and locals alike, the place has been abandoned to the cruel elements. So, what happened?

The Bootjeshuis burned down in November 2000. While some locals still point unfoundly at naughty teenagers from the town’s large expat community, police never clearly established the culprites. That unclarity may have been reason enough for insurers not to pay out the large sums to rebuild. Only in 2010 did the doors finally reopen. But the heavy financial burden from the past, inherited from unresolved fire insurance issues, and an unhelpful federal property office, forced closure in May 2016.

Conspiring against the reopening of the Boat House restaurant, together with the accompanying paddle boats, were the money and administrative power tussles between Tervuren grandees and Belgium’s Federal Property Office. And town grandees appeared more eager to attract clients and visitors a hundred meters away to the stylish café and restaurant at their newly opened €13 million cultural centre. After all the Boat House doesn’t belong to Tervuren town hall, but to the Federal Property Office.

Good with numbers, moonlighting by day as a senior insurance manager, Tervuren Mayor, Marc Charlier, refused to pay a rent till mid-century of €7,500 a year. After haggling with federal officials, the mayor has now pushed the price down to €3,500 a year for 40 years. Local councillor Serge Liesenborgh wonders whether the eight-year struggle was worth the difference. “With summer approaching, it would be scandalous to see this building rotting away. It’s a fantastic place,” he says. “It’s worth more than the €4,000 a year [price difference].”

Charlier says the 40-year contract would entail Tervuren paying to maintain and restore not only the Boat House but also the neighboring Royal Kitchen Gardens behind town hall as well as the magnificent Saint Hubertus Chapel, built at the beginning of the 17^th century in an early Baroque style.

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A provisional agreement to allow for the Boat House to be refurbished is now ready to be signed off. Hopefully more of a formality, the agreement, should not fall victim to busy federal politicians campaigning for reelection. Privately, officials are confident that the federal government’s signature will be forthcoming before June elections plunge Belgium into a year or more of political uncertainty.

The Boat House is currently empty, except for art exhibitions. When it finally reopens the Flemish Nature and Forest Agency is unlikely to allow reopening the boat rental service. Like many senior Tervurenaars, von der Leyen fondly remembers paddling out from the previous chalet.

Boat rentals were definitely an amazing tourist plus point for Tervuren. “Who hasn’t been there for a boat ride with their sweetheart?” a former alderman once said. “Unfortunately, I never went out on a paddle boat with a lover. Some of us have had a boring life,” counters Rosalyn, a Tervuren resident since 1988, although originally from Llanandras, in Wales.

Another native, Miriana Frattarola, also never had the opportunity to sail away with sweethearts on Tervuren’s choppy lakes. But she does remember the Bootjeshuis as a terrible teen. “My funniest memory is that of a girl falling in the lake because she wanted to show off how she could stand between two boats,” Miriana tells us.

A long-read version of this article is available at Tervuren+, a micro-level and multilingual community news service.

L’article Von der Leyen’s top attraction in ‘her beautiful Tervuren’ est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Off the record, Brussels admits that bike theft is a growing cross-border problem. But which officials at the European Commission should take charge? Those responsible for climate, transport, or for justice, business, and industry?

“Unless there’s a proven cross-border dimension, it will be difficult to raise interest at EU level because it will be seen as a local or national competence,” says an unnamed official.

“You can’t even buy an international [bike] insurance policy in Europe,” says Kevin Mayne, chief executive officer of bike-makers association Cycling Industries Europe (CIE). Fresh research by Cycling Industries Europe points to 12% of those surveyed having a bike stolen over the previous three years. CIE took nationally representative samples of 1000 people each in the eight largest markets (Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, UK, and Poland). “Bicycle theft is highest in Sweden and lowest in Poland,” Mayne tells Travel Tomorrow.

CIE’s statistics indicate another 13% of those having experienced theft going on to give up on cycling. “We work incredibly hard to get modal shifts of one or two percent,” adds Mayne. “So that’s a Europe-wide impact. You could roughly say a million people gave up cycling after their bike was stolen over the three-year period.”

Europe-wide technology may slowly help with increasing use of GPS and other trackers and bike passports, exemplified by France’s mandatory bicycle identification scheme. “It’s not a competence of any European agencies. But that will change, I think, with passports and registry,” says Mayne.

Bikes are still seen as “expendable leisure vehicles”, says Philip Amaral, director of policy at the European Cyclists’ Federation. “For lots of people, they’re their only or most used mode of transport.”

Governments, too, need to prioritise recovery of stolen bikes as high as for stolen cars. And Amaral also wants multi-country cooperation to recover stolen bikes such as Interpol’s two-week 2022 operation in 77 countries that recovered hundreds of stolen cars, motorbikes, and trucks. 

“The third or fourth time a bicycle is stolen, you stop cycling,” says Wies Callens from Fietsersbond, citing research by the Flemish cyclist association in Antwerp. Fietsersbond also regrets the lack of a European approach.

It’s really something that also has to take challenged at European level.

Wies Callens from Fietsersbond

Bike identification numbers 

France’s obligatory bike identification number does not apply to transferring ownership, unlike reselling cars where you have to fill in an online sale or transfer declaration. But is the French bike registration system showing results? “Before, we saw only 2% of stolen bikes recovered. Latest figures are around 11%. That’s not enough for Decathlon. We want to see recovery reaching almost 80%,” says Loïc Lammertyn, Decathlon’s cycle identification leader.

Lammertyn wants improvements to the system. He says if bike owners do not activate personal accounts, then the police don’t have a number to call. And if stolen and registered bikes end up in other countries, there’s little to be done.

The European Parliament has called for the commission to designate 2024 as the European Year of Cycling. Earlier this year, chair of parliament’s transport committee Karima Delli pushed through a resolution calling for cycling to be put on an equal footing with transport modes.

Sadly, though, parliament’s resolution only briefly mentions the lack of secured parking and measures to prevent theft. “We all agree about the many benefits of cycling: better health, less congestion, more liveable cities. But so far, we were lacking from the EU institutions a strong signal that recognizes the central role of cycling in our societies,” says Delli.

Delli is still pushing for a change of mind-set within EU institutions with dedicated European strategy. And the cycling industry should be recognized as key to European industry.

Conference information

The Press Club Brussels holds a conference entitled “Towards a theft-free EU for bikes and micro-mobility” on 8 June, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. The event begins with a keynote from Georges Gilkinet, Belgian mobility minister, and is followed by panel contributions, including by Kevin Mayne, Loïc Lammertyn and Philip Amaral.

L’article EU action on bike theft still far away est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.