More than 140 British Citizens out of 1,535 living in the Ixelles commune, have already started exploring, through the commune's authorities, the procedure for acquiring Belgian nationality. This follows the Brexit announcement and was indicated in a communiqué on Sunday by the the Alderwoman for Europe, Delphine Bourgeois.
The commune of Ixelles is the Brussels commune with the largest number of residents who are British citizens. One third of its nationals are non-Belgian Europeans. Moreover, Ixelles is also home to the European Parliament.
An information meeting for such British citizens is very likely be arranged as soon as the summer holiday period is over to discuss the administrative aspects of acquiring Belgian nationality, Mrs Bourgeois announced.
She said, “This Brexit development should be seen as an opportunity for local and regional authorities, having a fundamental community role, to relaunch the European project to all citizens.”
She went further, “Faced with these new challenges, the Ixelles commune - and its Department for Europe - also intend to step up their efforts to raise awareness of European issues by means of its Advisory Committee on European Affairs and other activities, led jointly with other communes in the region.”
(Source: Belga)
