A Belgian newspaper (source unknown as we only received a clipping from a friend) recently gathered what EU employees tend to think about Belgium and more specifically, Brussels...and also found out what the locals think of the "lazy, wealthy expats'". Not very flattering - on either side!
Some highlights - what EU officials think of Belgians
(see original article and full list here):
• They 'specialise' in making/eating chocolate, beer, waffles and French fries
• There is lots of painful 'Kafkaesque' administration red tape
• They like to make simple things very complicated
• There is often no government but the country keeps going
• Belgians are bad, careless and impatient drivers
• The customer service (e.g. in restaurants) is poor
• There are hardly any famous Belgians (except for Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters)
• There seems to be a chemist, cafe and fruit and veg shop on every street corner!
...and what Belgians think of EU officials and diplomats:
• They're arrogant and pretentious
• They hardly pay any taxes
• They don't take part in Belgian society - e.g. they don't go to watch Anderlecht or any another Belgian football team and they don't go to the theatre.
• They all have beautiful houses.
• They all go to Place Luxembourg and to the At Seven nightclub.
• Their wives don't work and spend lots of time at fitness clubs.
• They complain all the time.
• They have the 'cul dans le beurre' [an easy life].
• They don't do anything - they're pen-pushers, writing report after report
• They take long lunch breaks and don't have much stress
Is it really so? Or completely unfair? What do you think? 
(image credit: www.virtualtourist.com)
By JR | 14 Nov 2010
I would like to make a few additions to the list of "what Eurocrats think of Belgium and Belgians" - courtesy of the great book, "the art of being Belgian":
As a belgian, you are either: like the Dutch, just less efficient; like the French, just less romantic; like the Germans
All of the famous countrymen are imaginary
Only they can brew drinks out of fruit and still call it beer
They speak three languages, but none of them intelligibly
If another country wants to fight a war, they will probably do it here
But we love it anyway.
Thanks for the post!
By ArboGuru | 30 Oct 2010
Thanks for pointing it out - if we find out which newspaper the original article was published in, we'll let them know. It must have been an expat who wrote that article...! :-)
By Cocoliso | 30 Oct 2010
There seems to be an error in the article. The author writes 'Mannequin pis' instead of 'Manneken pis'.
Manneken is the Flemish dialect way of saying 'kid'
A 'mannequin' has nothing to do with it.