Hello from Avenue Louise.
Our former editor-in-chief Philip Herd has moved on to pastures new, so today you’ve got me, Katie Westwood, in the BIB hotseat delivering your daily dose of Belgian news for an English-speaking audience.
As managing editor, I will be sharing newsletter writing duties with our Political Editor, Maïthé Chini. We hope you enjoy this week's matriarchal takeover of our Belgium in Brief newsletter.
Our newsroom here in Brussels is as international as the city itself. Our reporters have moved here from all over the world and chosen to make Brussels their home. We love the city – warts and all – for its cosmopolitanism and raw energy.
We will do our best to give a voice to the city’s diverse communities while continuing to publish all the news that’s fit to print about Brussels and Belgium.
In this spirit, I wanted to highlight a couple of our weekend features about the city. First off, Isabella Vivian, our resident feature writer, wrote a lovely piece on Sunday about the “gregarious Greeks” of Brussels. In her article, Izzy explores the history of the Greek community in Brussels and speaks to people from across the city about why they chose to up sticks and leave Greece to settle here. The story also contains some great insider tips on where to find the best Greek cooking in the city.
Over in Schaerbeek, meanwhile, Kosmos Khoroshavin visited the Great Market, a fabulous Mediterranean supermarket which was built from the ground up by Syrian immigrants. It’s one of my favourite places to go in Brussels, and I hope that the foodies among you might be inspired to visit this independent store on the back of reading Kosmos’s article.
Today’s lead story on the website is a piece on the renovation works at Brussels-Central station. Passengers have been warned they will face another two years of disruption as work continues on the project. Raphaël Jucobin looks at how the long-awaited project is taking shape.
If you have any comments, tips or suggestions to improve our coverage, please feel free to drop me an email at k.westwood@brusselstimes.com.
Bye for now,
Katie Westwood
Belgium in Brief is a free daily roundup of the top stories to get you through your coffee break conversations. To receive it straight to your inbox every day, sign up below:
1. Costlier transport, harder integration, higher fines: What changes in Belgium on 1 February?
Discover the most important new laws and regulations affecting Belgian residents in February 2026. Read more.
2. ‘The whole world is in this city’: Meet the gregarious Greeks of Brussels
Brussels is home to thousands of Greeks, each with their own stories and reasons for moving. One thing they can all agree on is that none came for the weather. Read more.
3. Behind the scenes at the Brussels-Central renovation works as huge revamp takes shape
We were invited to check out the site where, so far, nearly 600 tonnes of steel have been used — the equivalent of 36,000 Manneken Pis statues. Read more.
4. A taste of the Med in Brussels: The family-run supermarket where foodies go to fill their boots
A supermarket built from the ground up by Syrian immigrants has grown into one of Brussels’ best-loved culinary landmarks. Read more.
5. Belgian shops can keep offering sales after miserable January
"Just because the sales period is legally over does not mean that discounts can no longer be offered." Read more.
6. ‘Always on’? Belgians not cautious enough about data while working on Eurostar
"Travel today is more than simply getting from A to B. Many people answer emails, work on confidential documents or make calls on board." Read more.
7. Brussels sees slowest income growth of Belgium’s three regions
Real disposable income per capita also declined slightly in Brussels, while it continued to grow in Wallonia and Flanders. Read more.
