Earlier this summer, more specifically at the end of July, there was already a similar meeting with the Ineos CEO to discuss the file. That was after the Council for Permit Disputes annulled the environmental permit for the chemical giant’s much-discussed ethane cracker in Antwerp. Ratcliffe then went to the Antwerp Port House for an emergency meeting about how to proceed with the billion-dollar project.
Prime Minister Jan Jambon subsequently stated in a committee of the Flemish Parliament that nothing had been put in writing about that emergency meeting and that the Ineos CEO mainly wanted guarantees that the authorities would support him to bring the project to a successful conclusion. “No reports were needed for that,” Jambon said.
VRT journalist Bart Verhulst reported today via a message on X, the former Twitter, that there was a second conversation between Jambon, De Croo, De Wever and Ratcliffe. That message was confirmed to Belga. No details are yet known about the content of the conversation.