Belgium is around 100m² smaller after border post correction in Essen
From today Belgium has become a little bit smaller. The Border Post Commission ordered that a border post be moved in the municipality of Essen in the far north of Antwerp Province. The decision to order that the border post be moved came after it emerged that its previous position didn’t tally with the official border line between Belgium and The Netherlands. This means that Belgium is now between 50m² and 100m² smaller than it was on Wednesday.
The Border Post Commission in Essen noticed that a border post at one point within the municipality were in fact a metre into Dutch territory. In an interview with VRT Radio 2 Antwerp the Mayor of Essen Gaston Van Tichelt (Christian democrat) explained that this is because when the border post was put in place in 1849 there was a ditch where the actual border is.
"Of course the border post could be put in the water and they then opted to put it a metre further back. The ditch hasn’t been there any more for a long time, but the border post stayed where it was. There has been plenty of time to do something about it”, Mr van Tichelt added.
Moving the border won’t have any drastic consequences though. However, "It is the case that the Belgian customs building that is now used by Essen Social Services is now partly situated in The Netherlands”, the Mayor of Essen explained. .