BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium’s caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme was to tell Prince Laurent Friday to abide by strict new rules or lose his allowance after the errant royal’s conduct angered both the king and the government.

The 47-year-old prince, 12th in line to the throne, made an unauthorized trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo last month, prompting rare criticism from his father.

It has since come to light that the prince also recently met a Libyan diplomat, a meeting Leterme described as “very risky and unwise.”

Leterme was due to meet the prince Friday afternoon to set out new rules on his conduct and to repeat that he would not be allowed to repeat such “unacceptable activities.”

Speaking in parliament Thursday, the prime minister did not say what the new rules were.

A number of lawmakers have called for and end to Laurent’s 300,000 euro ($432,100) annual tax-free royal stipend.

Leterme is due to report back to a parliamentary committee next week about his meeting with Laurent.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium’s Prince Laurent has faced rare criticism from the king over an unauthorized trip to Congo last month that has led some lawmakers to say the errant son should lose his state allowance.

The palace confirmed Tuesday reports that King Albert, 76, was angry about his youngest son’s visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony, which the government and the monarch had advised against.

The 47-year-old prince, 12th in line to the throne, travelled to Congo for a week in mid-March, officially to study deforestation. During his trip, he was greeted by Congolese President Laurent Kabila.

Belgian has strained ties with Congo, which was the personal fiefdom of King Leopold II in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and was ruled over by Belgium until independence in 1960. During the colonial era the country was stripped of mineral wealth and tens of thousands of people died in indentured slavery.

Belgian caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme told parliament last week he planned to remind the prince of his duties, raising the possibility that Laurent could lose his tax-free 300,000 euro ($425,500) annual royal stipend.

“I have no doubt that he will take my comments to heart and make a clear choice between respecting the balance or renouncing his rights,” Leterme said.

Laurent’s lawyer, Pierre Legros, told magazine Humo in an interview published Tuesday the palace and the government were treating Laurent as a child and that the king’s chief adviser was orchestrating a campaign against the prince.

LONDON/BRUSSELS, April 1 (Reuters) – European banks heavily supported by the U.S. Federal Reserve at the height of the financial crisis have since weaned themselves off these loans, even as the struggle for funding in Europe gets tougher.

Belgian-French bank Dexia (DEXI.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), revealed as the biggest user of U.S. central bank funding after Lehman Brothers’ collapse in September 2008, said on Friday it no longer had any outstanding loans from the Fed.

These were reduced to zero in January 2010, the lender said, while its reliance on funding from the European Central Bank (ECB) has dropped to 17 billion euros ($24.06 billion) from a peak level of about 40 billion euros.

“The Fed’s emergency-lending facility has been used by Dexia to finance U.S. assets only,” Dexia said in a statement.

Data released this week by the Fed showed European banks to be the main beneficiaries of loans from its co-called discount window on Oct. 29, 2008 at the top of the funding crisis, when borrowing peaked at $111 billion. [ID:nN31261042]

But while the data sheds a rare light on some of the manic borrowing that went on at one of the most turbulent moments in financial history, it only provides a partial picture of the funding sought by European banks at the time.

The European Central Bank has never disclosed bank-by-bank borrowing data, but commercial banks’ use of the ECB’s open market operations was almost ten times the U.S. amount on the day borrowing at the Fed discount window peaked.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – This is a European country riven by ethnic tensions. Its public debt is almost as big as its total annual output and it’s in the middle of a political crisis so deep that this week it passes Iraq as the modern-day state whose politicians have taken the longest to form a government.

Yet the buses run more or less on time, the garbage is collected twice a week, exports of pharmaceuticals, steel cord, chocolate and beer are uninterrupted — and it can still take about a month to get a new telephone line.

Governing is never easy. In the past year or so, it has sometimes seemed impossible. Just ask North Africa’s rulers who, after a long period of stability, not to mention repression and abuses, have faced popular uprisings demanding their ousters. In the United States, the big two parties have fallen victims in different ways to the upstart populist Tea Party movement. In Europe, governments in Britain and Ireland have been kicked out in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This month, the government in Portugal collapsed.

Meantime in Belgium, whose Dutch- and French-speaking parties can’t agree on what powers should be devolved from the centre to the regions, the absence of government is hardly commented on. More than nine months after a June 2010 election, talk in bars and cafes strays only occasionally to the country’s political predicament. “We’re not really following it anymore,” says a bartender in the Flemish town of Mechelen with a shrug.

“It’s a crisis without an audience,” says Carl Devos, politics professor at the University of Ghent. “It’s a bit absurd.”

In a world of upheaval, the fact that one of its oldest democracies has kept ticking over without validated political leadership is remarkable, even if its citizens don’t see it.

Belgium managed the whole of its six-month presidency of the European Union last year with a caretaker government. That same government has laid out a 2011 budget and dispatched fighter jets to play their part in guaranteeing the no-fly zone over Libya. In the first three months of 2011 it’s reached almost half its target for this year’s bond issues.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – This is a European country riven by ethnic tensions. Its public debt is almost as big as its total annual output and it’s in the middle of a political crisis so deep that this week it passes Iraq as the modern-day state whose politicians have taken the longest to form a government.

Yet the buses run more or less on time, the garbage is collected twice a week, exports of pharmaceuticals, steel cord, chocolate and beer are uninterrupted — and it can still take about a month to get a new telephone line.

Governing is never easy. In the past year or so, it has sometimes seemed impossible. Just ask North Africa’s rulers who, after a long period of stability, not to mention repression and abuses, have faced popular uprisings demanding their ousters. In the United States, the big two parties have fallen victims in different ways to the upstart populist Tea Party movement. In Europe, governments in Britain and Ireland have been kicked out in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This month, the government in Portugal collapsed.

Meantime in Belgium, whose Dutch- and French-speaking parties can’t agree on what powers should be devolved from the center to the regions, the absence of government is hardly commented on. More than nine months after a June 2010 election, talk in bars and cafes strays only occasionally to the country’s political predicament. “We’re not really following it anymore,” says a bartender in the Flemish town of Mechelen with a shrug.

“It’s a crisis without an audience,” says Carl Devos, politics professor at the University of Ghent. “It’s a bit absurd.”

In a world of upheaval, the fact that one of its oldest democracies has kept ticking over without validated political leadership is remarkable, even if its citizens don’t see it.

Belgium managed the whole of its six-month presidency of the European Union last year with a caretaker government. That same government has laid out a 2011 budget and dispatched fighter jets to play their part in guaranteeing the no-fly zone over Libya. In the first three months of 2011 it’s reached almost half its target for this year’s bond issues.

BRUSSELS/LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) – With Bud swallowed and almost digested, there is growing speculation that Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) may be thirsty for another deal.

Some brokers have already been exploring the possibilities and see SABMiller (SAB.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), AB InBev’s nearest rival, as a prime target as this would increase the world’s largest brewer’s exposure to fast-growing emerging markets.

Such a takeover would combine AB InBev’s Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s brands with SABMiller’s Miller Lite, Peroni and Grolsch and produce about a third of the world’s beer.

Belgium-based AB InBev bought Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion in the world’s second biggest cash deal in 2008 and with its three-year savings target of $2.25 billion likely to be exceeded, its debt although still high is falling fast.

AB InBev executives are focused on internal growth and bringing its net debt to core profit (EBITDA) ratio down to 2 times by 2012, but Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra said the debt ratio target did not preclude it buying again.

Net debt has fallen to $39.7 billion at the end of 2010 from $56.7 billion just after the Anheuser-Busch deal, bringing its net debt/EBITDA ratio down to 2.9 from 4.7.

If AB InBev is back in the market for another mega deal, here are some of its options:

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – Belgian bancassurer KBC Group NV (KBC.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) canceled the proposed 1.35 billion euro ($1.9 billion) sale of its private banking arm to Indian group Hinduja after failing to win regulatory approval for the deal.

The collapse of the deal sets back KBC’s plan to free up capital to pay back state aid and means any eventual sale could be done at a lower price. “There is no denying this is a disappointment to us,” said KBC Chief Executive Jan Vanhevel in a statement on Tuesday.

KBC shares dropped as much as 6.9 percent in morning trading to 27.30 euros, a near eight-week low. At 1120 GMT, they were down 5.4 percent, underperforming the European banking sector index , which was 2.7 percent weaker.

The sale of KBL European Private Bankers (KBL epb), part of a restructuring required by the European Commission, had not gained clearance from Luxembourg financial markets regulator CSSF, KBC said. It gave no specific reason for the deal being rejected.

It said it would assess its various options in coming weeks in pursuit of its strategic plan. A KBC spokeswoman said the Belgian group remained committed to the divestment.

A source close to the matter said: “We think the process will start again soon, KBC won’t want to wait around … The business has improved (since the deal was agreed with the Hindujas) and we think that previous and new bidders may take another look.”

MORE COMPLICATED

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone employment grew year-on-year for the first time since the financial crisis in the last months of 2010, data showed Tuesday, driven by job creation in the region’s core as its periphery struggled.

Employment in the fourth quarter rose 0.1 percent from the third quarter and 0.3 percent year-on-year, offering signs of a strengthening labour market that one analyst said should boost growth in consumer spending in Germany, the region’s dominant economy.

It was the first annual increase in the typically lagging indicator since the third quarter of 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global slump and the euro zone’s worst recession in decades.

The number of employed increased in the October-December period to 144.8 million, the data from statistics office Eurostat showed.

The agriculture, financial services, public administration, health and trade and transport sectors added jobs over the quarter, while headcounts in construction and manufacturing fell.

SOUTH EUROPE LAGS

Employment increased in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Slovakia, but declined in debt-laden southern European countries Portugal and Spain, as well as in Finland and Slovenia.

BRUSSELS, March 15 (Reuters) – Belgian bancassurer KBC (KBC.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has cancelled the proposed 1.35 billion euro ($1.9 billion) sale of its private banking arm to Indian group Hinduja after it failed to get regulatory approval.

The sale of KBL European Private Bankers (KBL epb), part of a KBC restructuring plan required by the European Commission, did not win clearance from the Luxembourg financial markets regulator CSSF, KBC said on Tuesday.

“Over the coming weeks, and in relation to implementing its strategic plan, the group will thoroughly assess the various options so that, given current market conditions, it can take the best decision regarding the future of KBL epb,” KBC said.

The sale to Indian family-owned investment firm Hinduja Group, which would have been the largest of KBC divestments to date, was originally due for completion in the third quarter of 2010. Its delay unnerved KBC investors.

KBC shares dropped as much as 5.6 percent in early trading to 27.68 euros, a near eight-week low, underperforming the Eueropean banking sector index , which was down 2.9 percent.

“It is a disappointment. They have lost almost a year, but there is still time. The question is whether they can still sell it as a whole or will need to split it up, which would make a sale more complicated,” said Albert Ploegh, banking analyst at ING.

A KBC spokeswoman said the Belgian group was committed to the divestment of KBL epb. No one was immediately available at the CSSF to explain why the Hinduja deal had been blocked.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. and Brazilian beer drinkers are paying higher prices and moving to more expensive brands according to Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest brewer.

The maker of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s reported a better-than-expected 22 percent fourth quarter profits improvement on Thursday as higher margins offset falling sales in the U.S. and slowing volume growth in Brazil.

It saw a first quarter drag on volumes caused by high U.S. unemployment and floods in Brazil but improvement thereafter.

“It’s (the second quarter) going to be better than the first quarter and the second half tends to be even better,” Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra told a conference call.

The company, which sells about one in five of beers worldwide, revealed that volume growth in Brazil had slowed sharply due to price hikes, while it continued to sell less beer in the United States, its two major markets.

Beer volumes in Brazil, where AB InBev has some 70 percent of the market, grew 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter, a sharp slowdown from the 14 percent of the first nine months of 2010.

However, the average selling cost per liter in Brazil and its near neighbors rose 9.9 percent, helping to swell margins.