The above is the national motto of Belgium, and means "strength through unity".
A few years ago, the then Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt said, “Belgium is the laboratory of European unification”.
I have long had great respect for Belgium, and her contributon to the European Project. As a student of the history of the EU, I well know the hard work and vision of people like Paul-Henri Spaak, Jean Duvieusart, Victor Leemans, and Jean Rey amongst many others.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Belgium herself is an "artificial" construct, where the Francophone Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemings, have been living together in relative harmony for nigh on 180 years.
Her contributions to international peace is well-documented with Nobel Prize winners like Auguste Beernaert, Henri La Fontaine, and Georges Pire.
Belgium's artists have been very important, writers like Maurice Maeterlinck, and Georges Simenon, painters like René Magritte and James Ensor, architects like Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde, musicians like Adolphe Sax and César Franck, and of course, my hero Jacques Brel.
I won't even mention sportsmen and sportswomen like Eddy Merckx and Jacky Ickx, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, and of course the great Ivo Van Damme.
Whoops I just did.
I've never bought into the anonymous grey boring Belgian thing, the "Name Ten Famous Belgians", "Tin Tin, Plastic Bertrand, ... er that's it!"
The point I'm trying to make is that somehow it is meet that earlier last night, Herman van Rompuy was chosen to be the first full-time President of the European Council. He had unanimous backing from the 27 EU leaders, and is a consensus-builder who brought stability to Belgium after months of uncertainty.
The whole point of the European Project is to pool sovereignty, to move forward by debate, discussion, and negotiation.
Our traditions are different from the US model of presidential politics of seeking a Messiah, which is why (amongst many, many other reasons) Tony Blair was such a bad idea.
Bon chance/Veel geluk/Good luck to him. Van Rompuy, that is, not Blair!
I'm going to listen to Brel's live album, Olympia 1964, especially the first track, Amsterdam.
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