Today’s Het Nieuwsblad announces that Belgium is shrinking. The Belgian railway company NMBS/SNCB is dismantling the Vennbahn railway track. Since the peace treaty after World War I the railway belonged to the Belgian territory, althought it crosses German territory. This situation created five German enclaves in Belgium. It’s not clear yet if there will be any German compensation for the loss of Belgian territory.
Update January 11, 2008: The German Minister of Foreign Affairs has declared that Germany will not touch the Belgian territory as it was defined in historical treaties. So the Vennbahn will keep on being Belgian territory, even if the railway track has disappeared.
[...] Bélgica está encogiendo, en Maps & More, donde se comenta la situación una vez desmanteladas las vías, y confirman que, pese a no existir ya éstas, el territorio sobre el que estas discurrían continuará siendo belga. [...]
By: Los enclaves del tren « Fronteras on Sunday, April 13, 2008
at 9:13 pm