News and Events -----------

This month’s UNICEF Anagram Quiz features well-known artists as the answers. As ever, the quiz is set and organised by quiz-maestro supreme Stuart Cummings, who is also setting the questions for the BBCA Quiz night on 24 March.

The answers for UNICEF quiz will be names of well-known artists. You can download the entry sheet here. On the entry sheet for each question the number of letters corresponding to each clue is in parentheses and the number in bold represents the total number of letters in the name of the artist.

As usual a future sporting event is used for the tie-break question and this month you are asked to guess the total number of points scored by the teams playing at home on the scheduled last day of the Six Nations rugby championship: March 20, 2021. The three games to be played on that day are Scotland vs. Italy, Ireland vs. England and France vs. Wales - the home teams are in bold.

Prize winners

The winner and ‘Artist Anagram Quiz Champion’ will be the person who has the highest score and whose tie-break answer (if applicable) is closest to the actual number of points scored by the home teams.

The winner will receive three bottles of Saint Emilion Grand Cru. There will also be a prize of a bottle of champagne for the person whose tie-break answer is closest to the actual number of point scored by the three home teams..

All entries for the March UNICEF Quiz must be emailed to unicefquiz@gmail.com by 1.00pm Brussels time on Saturday 20 March.

The suggested entry fee of EUR 10 should be paid directly to the Ex-Pats for UNICEF account: BE83 3630 2680 8315 with the reference ‘Anagram Quiz March’.

Even if you do not wish to participate in the quiz, consider making a donation to UNICEF. During the pandemic charities have struggled to maintain levels of support across a wide spectrum of activities. All the money raised by UNICEF Belgium this year will go to supporting the WASH (WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene) project in Rwanda.

Please feel free to distribute this announcement widely to your friends, colleagues and fellow quiz team members.

You can access the Quiz sheet here.

On Wednesday 24 March 2021, the BBCA will be holding its first online ZOOM Quiz. The Quiz will last for around two hours and will kick-off at 19:30 Brussels time, but participants will be asked to join online no later than 19:00 to go through the technical/logistical aspects of the event.

Our Quiz master for the evening will be Stuart Cummings who, as many of you will know, has been running regular monthly quizzes in support of UNICEF in Belgium for several years. Over the COVID lockdown period Stuart has also run web-based quizzes that the BBCA has helped to promote.

To take part in the BBCA Quiz, an entry fee of €8 per person will be charged with all proceeds being donated to the BBCA Community charities (British Charitable Fund, CHS, Royal British legion, and the Wednesday Club).

Team event

The BBCA Quiz will be run as a team event with general sessions (where everyone will be online together) and break-out sessions (where teams will be able to discuss their answers in private ‘virtual rooms’). The topics covered will include Geography, History, General Knowledge, Music and one or two Picture Rounds.

Team members may be, but do not need to be, under the same roof; however, the maximum number of members in any team is four. You can organise your own team or enter individually and ask to be allocated to a team.

Prizes

Prizes will be awarded to the members of the winning team in the form of coupons for Stonemanor. We are all incredibly sad that Stonemanor has been experiencing so many problems with the new post Brexit export/import rules and would like to encourage as many people as possible to shop with them when they return to business as usual – hopefully in the not-too-distant future (see the BBCA article published on 26 February).

The BBCA Quiz Night is an opportunity for you to spend a fun evening with a team of friends and/or family.

How to enter

If you wish to take part in this Quiz, and we sincerely hope that you do, please inform Nikki Hayes (by email to: hayesnicola6@gmail.com) mentioning, where applicable:

(1) Your team name, team captain and the names and email addresses of the members of your team (if you have already a ready-formed team), or

(2) Your name and email address (if you are joining as an individual or a group of less than four people) so that you can be allocated to a team.

To participate and receive the Zoom invite for this event, please send the above information and transfer your participation fee of €8 per person to the BBCA account BE38 3631 6982 1172, with the reference ‘BBCA Quiz 2021’, no later than 19 March 2021.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Stonemanor has been supplying British delicacies and favourite foodstuffs to anglophone and cosmopolitan Belgian consumers since the early 1980s. Over the years, the company has grown within its flagship store in Everberg, and also through its newer outlet in Sint-Genesius-Rode, to bring its customers the very best of British produce. But recently, Stonemanor has been forced to temporarily close due to Brexit-related supply issues. Now as supplies are gradually returning, we caught up with store manager Ryan Pearce to see how Brexit has affected the store and what the future holds.

January and February 2021 have been difficult months for the business. Despite extensive preparations, a wave of unexpected logistics issues has hit supply chains out of the UK in the New Year. Due to low stocks, on the weekend of 6 and 7 February the two Stonemanor stores were forced to temporarily close for the first time in their 39-year history and a further week-long closure will end today (26 February). But we can reveal that the first significant deliveries of 2021 have now arrived at the ‘manor’ and shelves and fridges have been partially refilled.

The store worked to stockpile before Christmas with three or four major deliveries a week rather than the usual two, but the plans were subverted by higher than anticipated sales. “We had a very good run up to Christmas,” says Ryan. “Which was good for the business, but not so good for our stockpiling plan. As fast as we were filling the shelves, they were emptying!”

Fortunately, the week after Christmas two full deliveries temporarily refilled shelves and stock room reserves. Ryan and the Stonemanor team had anticipated a possible two week delay due to the end of the Brexit transition, but added delays again resulted in reducing stock levels as January turned into February.

Now, at last, the store has received deliveries from some smaller suppliers, including sausages and bacon, cheese and tea, and has arranged to receive one full truck a week from Ireland. The first full Irish shipment will be arriving early next week – it is setting off today from the Emerald Isle.

“This arrangement will continue until at least our usual UK suppliers are able to confidently export to the EU again,” explains Tom.

What was the problem?

Essentially the issue is new paperwork and understanding the needs of import and export systems now the UK is a third country outside the EU single market and custom union. Normally, Stonemanor works with Ramsden International as their main logistics partner – a company with decades of experience in international food supply.

“We placed orders for delivery in the first week of January with Ramsden and they were confident that deliveries would be made,” says Ryan. However, despite assurances from UK government authorities, issued to Ramsdens and other logistics firms on Christmas Day, that the use of meursing codes (used to determine which commodity code and how much duty is applicable) would not be required to enable export, in practise in the New Year it turned out they were needed.

With up to 22,000 product lines on the shelves of the stores, full itemisation and correct customs coding of all the items in a large, mixed consignment is not a trivial matter. And everything must be double-checked and 110% correct before orders can be released to avoid delays, or worse, rejection during border checks.

There has been a huge learning curve for Ramsden and Stonemanor. The store also runs its own truck alongside the Ramsden service for some items. “We have now set up our own master file of commodity codes,” says Ryan. “Once we have got all products finalised and validated then the supply issues should ease.”

Consequences?

Obviously, the delay and extra paperwork has a cost, and this is yet to be fully quantified. In addition, in the short term there may be changes to the stores offer. “Waitrose products will be limited for a while,” explains Ryan. “We use our own truck for them but are focusing on getting the main Ramsden supply line right first.”

Importing chilled meat products is also now problematic from the UK. So where are we to get our British bangers? “We are still able to import frozen sausages,” says Ryan. “But not chilled. There are thoughts that some sausage recipes – like a Cumberland with a certain herb content – could make it through the import regulations. We are hoping this will be an opportunity for UK producers to innovate.” Or alternatively, at the moment, it is an opportunity for Irish suppliers to step in.

While we wait for the new model UK Export Sausage some other services traditionally offered by Stonemanor will need to be re-evaluated once the basic logistics for groceries are in place.

The UK post service has been an extremely popular free service run by Stonemanor. “We sell British stamps and have provided a free service to take postal items back to UK,” says Ryan. “But that service is currently suspended due to the uncertainty over the transport links.” And the long-term future of the service could be problematic too, due to the need to know the customs status – and therefore have correct declarations and paperwork – for any post taken back to the UK. “We will need to see what we can do here,” says Ryan. “Obviously, we don’t want our trucks being turned back because of a post item that doesn’t have the right documentation.”

Similarly, the store sells its magazines on a sale or return basis, but that requires regular deliveries to ensure timely return. In addition, the Argos catalogue service is currently suspended while the logistics are being sorted.

Food focus

Ryan’s full focus now is on getting the food side of the business back on track with regular predictable deliveries. “We will need to scrutinise how we operate the Argos service and re-evaluate before, hopefully, relaunching it. The food side of the supply chain now looks promising with the trucks moving. We hope to soon return to business as near our previous normal as possible,” he concludes.

For the latest information on the supply situation, visit the Stonemanor website or Facebook page.

The implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is now underway and the vast majority of British citizens resident in Europe on or before 31 December 2020 will be able to obtain their new residence documentation under the WA without difficulty. However, our friends in the British in Europe campaign group are hearing of some issues across different EU countries and have compiled a summary of what you can do if you hit a bump in the road.

The new British in Europe summary

• Explains the circumstances under which you may be refused a right of residence under the WA
• Outlines what the WA and the EU Commission’s Guidance Note say about refusal of, or restrictions to, your right of residence, and
• Provides you with some resources which may help if you are encountering difficulties or you think you may do so.

You can find the full summary here. 

On Tuesday 9 February the Expat Welcome Desk (EWD) of the Brussels Commissioner’s office held a midday webinar on residence formalities and work/single permit procedures for UK citizens already residing and working in or intending to relocate to Belgium.

Speakers at the event were from Fragomen’s Benelux Immigration Practice based in Brussels: Jo Antoons, Managing Partner, Natali Afsar, Associate, and Andreia Ghimis, Senior Consultant.

The webinar was moderated by Amélie BOVY, Legal Advisor at the Expat Welcome Desk. Presentations from the event were made available to registered participants, but can now be accessed by everyone via this ‘gated’ link.

A large number of questions were raised during the webinar including:

• Are we protected during the process of obtaining a M card (if we lose our job, change status…)
• Communes do not have much information regarding the M card, how long the process takes , can I already apply now ?
• Is there a return right linked to the M card?
• Freelancers in UK with Belgian clients do need or not a work permit ?
• Can we introduce a request of nationality on the ground of a M card, or an annexe 56 or 58?
• For holders of a special ID (SIC) card for EU civil servants within the EU institutions:
• • when they cancel the SIC before applying to the M card how do we prove work, residency and travel rights waiting for the appointment and M Card?
  • a recent ruling of the Belgian Supreme Court (Court de Cassation). A special ID card can constitute proof of lawful residence for EU nationals applying for BE nationality by declaration. Does this include British citizens?
  • what is the need/point to change from a Special ID to an M Card if the time on Special ID Card counts towards the 5yr residency requirement? Does the M Card give anything else which the Special ID does not?

Did you know?

The EWD organises seminars on specific themes for target audiences. These seminars are conducted by specialists selected by the EWD to provide in-depth knowledge of the topics covered.

If you would like to be informed about these seminars, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail mentioning “Registration for future seminars” to seminars@commissioner.brussels.

Earlier this week (16 Feb) our friends in Brexit and the Belgian Brits (BAABS) held an interesting webinar with Anthony Valcke on M Cards, residency and routes to becoming Belgian. Presentations from the webinar should be posted via a link on their Facebook page soon.

However, in the meantime there were a few very clear takeaways from the event that apply to many ex-pat Brits in this group and have sparked a lively discussion over on the BABBS facebook page.

The main points from the webinar are:

• If you need legal support or have a really specific question for a lawyer about your residency rights or application to become Belgian, then Your Europe Advice offers free legal advice. NB/ Anthony Valcke works as a lawyer here.
• The annexes you receive while waiting for your M Cards are not travel documents. *There is a risk that you may* not be able to re-enter Belgium with them as a resident *(particularly if you are travelling through other Schengen countries)*.
• If you want to apply for Belgian nationality this year, you should not apply for an M-Card *until you have signed the nationality declaration* as an M-card is not valid as **proof of lawful residence towards* your nationality application. If you have already applied for or made an appointment to apply for one then cancel it, *if you intend on applying to become Belgian later in 2021.*
• When you submit an application for the M Card, do not* give in your E (E+, F, F+) cards until you actually have the M Card handed to you. If the commune asks for you tell them to refer to the Royal Decree, or ask Your Europe Advice/a lawyer to write you a letter to take to the Commune.
• All UK nationals who have no prospect of applying for Belgian nationality before the end of this year must apply for an M-card well before 31.12.2021.
• *Finally, M Cards are not currently listed in the Royal decree as proof of lawful residence for the purposes of applying for Belgian nationality. However, we will work with Anthony in the future to lobby to change this, I would like this to be something we can help to change together and I'm sure we will be calling on you for help in due course.

BABBs – The Movie

Don’t forget BABBS is raising funds for a documentary project that aims to tell the world about how how Brexit is affecting us all! BABBs webinars and events are free (like BBCA Brexit events) to be as open, democratic and inclusive as possible, but if you could help BABBS to create the new film, the BABBS team would be very grateful! Find out more and how to donate here. 

Today (5 February) the Belgian governments met to discuss the coronavirus situation and decided to allow hairdressing salons to reopen under strict conditions from 13 February  and also that outdoor activities in animal parks and zoos will also be authorized from that date.

Currently, the coronavirus situation in Belgium remains mixed. The number of infections has remained stable since December, while the number of hospitalisations and deaths is decreasing slightly. However, there is a need to prevent the spread of more contagious variants of the virus and therefore extreme caution is still required.

However, the government recognises that care of the person undeniably contributes to better social and mental well-being. For this reason the gradual reopening of non-medical contact professions will be allowed. Hairdressers will be able to resume their activities from Saturday 13 February. Other non-medical contact trades, such as beauty, massage and nail salons, may restart from 1 March.

Strict conditions

However, the reopening of non-medical contact professions will be subject to very strict conditions and reinforced protocols. These include:

• A waiting time of 10 minutes between two treatments, for cleaning and disinfection of the treatment area
• Strictly by appointment only
• Customers must wait outside not within premises
• Thee must be sufficient ventilation, for example by opening windows and doors
• The ban on at home services continues

Animal parks, holiday homes and real estate

From 13 February, animal parks will be able to open their doors according to the same rules as natural parks. This means, among other things, that only outdoor activities are allowed and that strict access control must be provided.

From 8 February, following the ruling of the Council of State of 2 February, holiday homes in holiday parks, bungalow parks and campsites will be able to resume their activities under the same restrictive conditions as other types of holiday accommodation. This means, among other things, that their restaurants, bars and other communal facilities will have to remain closed.

It was confirmed that visits to properties from 13 February in the context of real estate activities of professional real estate agents will be authorised.

The next meeting of the Consultation Committee is scheduled for Friday 26 February.

If you’re a British expatriate, or spend a lot of time overseas, UK tax may be a topic you’re keen to keep an eye on. To help, The Fry Group is holding a webinar on Wednesday 10 February covering the subject of 'How much time can I spend in the UK, without becoming UK tax resident?'

The pandemic may have forced you to spend more time in the UK than you originally planned. Any unexpected or extended period of time in the UK could now accidently trigger UK tax residency, which could have a serious effect on your finances.

In the webinar Peter Webb,  Fry's Head of Tax Advisory, will explain how the UK tax rules might affect you in a range of situations, and what you need to be aware of. There will also be opportunity for Q&A.

What will you learn?

The webinar will cover the following topics:

• How many days can I spend in the UK without becoming a UK tax resident?
• Is there any extra allowance for the time I can spend in the UK if I am trapped there due to Covid-19?
• When do 'exceptional circumstances' apply?
• What happens if I've spent longer in the UK than I'm allowed to for tax reasons?
• Will my worldwide income and gains be affected?

Two sessions are available to suit your time zone. Please choose the most suitable and register online to receive the webinar link.

How to register

The webinar will be held on Wednesday 10 February in two sessions in order to cover Fry's global client base. To register just pick the time below that suits you best (in Belgium the webinar will be from 06h00 or 11h00) and follow the link to book your place.

Session 1: UK 5am, Europe 6am, Dubai 9am, Singapore/Hong Kong 1pm

Session 2: UK 10am, Europe 11am, Dubai 2pm, Singapore/Hong Kong 6pm

Please feel free to forward this invitation to friends, colleagues or family members if you feel it would be of interest to them. We look forward to you joining the webinar.

Tomorrow (4 February 2021), will be the one-year anniversary of the confirmation of the COVID-19 virus having spread to Belgium. Healthcare workers have constantly been on the frontline of the COVID-19 battle for 12 months now. They have worked tirelessly throughout the first and second waves and many are exhausted.

To support and thank our healthcare workers for their dedication, the ‘Meals 4 healthcare‘ campaign delivers ready to eat meals to several hospitals in Brussel for staff to eat in or take home. The participating hospitals are Ixelles, Moliere, Bracops, Hopital Brugman, and St Pierre.

All meals are supplied by the Hearth Project ASBL - the brainchild of Gourmet chef Elliott Van de Velde.

BUY A MEAL NOW!

And you can help support the campaign by donating and buying a meal (or more) for a health worker.

All funds raised are used to pay for the meals for healthcare workers, through the participating hospitals and institutions listed above. The campaign is a very lean machine run via the Full Circle organisation and no overheads are charged to the campaign, so 100% of your money goes to providing the meals.

You can donate by bank transfer to:

Account name: Meals4healthcare (Full Circle asbl)

IBAN/Account number: BE86 7350 5644 0850

BIC code: KREDBEBB

Reference: (Your organisation or your name)

Or you can donate via credit card using this link.

For more information on the campaign you can contact the campaign by email to: info@fullcircle.eu.

On Tuesday 9 February the Expat Welcome Desk of the Brussels Commissioner’s office will be holding a webinar (in English) focusing on residence formalities and work/single permit procedures for UK citizens already residing and working in or intending to relocate to Belgium. The webinar will commence at 12 noon and will end at 13h00.

The speakers are all experts from Fragomen Brussels: Jo Antoons, Managing Partner, Natali Afsar, Associate, and Andreia Ghimis, Senior Consultant. They will cover key issues including:

• The type of residence permit and application process for UK citizens residing and working in Belgium prior to 31 December 2020
• Options for family members to join them
• The requirements for applying for permanent residence and Belgian nationality (for regular and special ID holders)
• Entry requirements for new UK arrivals in Belgium (from 1 January 2021): workers, trainees and self-employed
• The application process for work/single permits
• The applicable rules for frontier workers

The webinar will be moderated by Amélie BOVY, Legal Advisor at Expat Welcome Desk

To register for the event, which has a limited number of places, send an email to inscription@commissioner.brussels. Practical information including the link to access the meeting will then be sent to you.

About the Expat Welcome Desk

The Expat Welcome Desk (EWD) organises seminars on specific themes for target audiences. These seminars are conducted by specialists selected by the EWD to provide in-depth knowledge of the topics covered.

If you would like to be informed about these seminars, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail mentioning “Registration for future seminars” to seminars@commissioner.brussels.