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Prime Minister Alexander De Croo took part in a meeting at the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands in The Hague this evening to prepare for the NATO Summit in Madrid later this month. In addition to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg, Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen, Romanian President Iohannis, Portuguese Prime Minister Costa, Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki and Latvian Prime Minister Karinš also took part in the meeting.

The various governments of our country have reached a cooperation agreement on developing a foreign investment screening mechanism in sensitive sectors that are relevant for public order and for our security or strategic interests. The screening should prevent investors that are located outside of the European Union from gaining control, ownership or management in our country’s critical infrastructure.

The corona barometer, which had been at code yellow since March of this year, is deactivated. This has been decided by the Consultative Committee. As a result, as of Monday 23 May, the face mask requirement on public transportation and the Passenger Locator Form will disappear for most trips.

Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands are joining forces to make the North Sea the largest source of renewable energy in Europe, as they agreed today at the North Sea Summit in the Danish port city of Esbjerg.

The Kingdom of Belgium, as a founding member and the host nation of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, welcomes the application of the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden to become NATO member. The Finnish and Swedish decisions are the result of a democratic process and are in line with both nation’s sovereign right to choose their own security arrangements.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo had a meeting today with Nadia Murrad, the Yezidi human rights activist who was awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize along with Dr. Denis Mukwege for her efforts against sexual violence as a weapon of war. During the discussion, Prime Minister De Croo emphasized that the acts of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine cannot go unpunished.

Today, on Europe Day, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo held a Europa speech at the Französischer Dom in Berlin. Europe should repair the European dream, for everyone in Europe, by co-operating more in the area of energy and defence and extending the hand to countries embracing the European values of freedom, democracy and human rights.

On 19 April, the Belgian and Dutch governments held a joint "Thalassa Summit" in Ghent. We took stock of our intense collaboration and discussed how we will further strengthen our close relationship in the coming years. 

Speech at the Romanian military base near Constanta, in the presence of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the House of Representatives today. Read Prime Minister Alexander De Croo’s full reply here.