Prosecutors said the alleged corruption was “under the guise of commercial lobbying”, and that several people had been detained for questioning.

According to officials, an address in Portugal was also searched by local police, while in France, one person was arrested.

Belgian newspaper Le Soir said the investigation was linked to Chinese tech giant Huawei and its activities in Brussels since 2021. Huawei said it was taking the allegations “seriously” and would “urgently communicate with the investigation”.

The Belgian prosecutor’s office said: “Corruption was allegedly practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, under the guise of commercial lobbying and taking various forms, such as compensation for political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses, or regular invitations to football matches.”

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for Huawei said it had “a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times”.

Le Soir reported that several people suspected of being lobbyists working for Huawei were detained, over the alleged bribery of current or former members of the European Parliament (MEP) to promote the company’s trade policy.

Belgian police sealed two offices inside the European Parliament at the request of the judge in charge of the case.

A spokesperson for the the prosecutor’s office told the BBC no MEPs had been directly targeted by Thursday’s raids.

A total of 21 raids were conducted in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia, the prosecutor’s office told the newspaper.

The investigation focuses on “active corruption within the European Parliament” as well as “forgery and use of forged documents”, all within the framework of a “criminal organisation”, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that it was also looking to uncover possible money laundering.

It took less than 10 minutes for the European Union to respond.

“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and worse for consumers,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU’s initial countermeasures will take effect on US products on 1 April, ranging from jeans and motorbikes to peanut butter and bourbon, just as they were with the Trump administration’s first tariffs in 2018 and 2020.

But there will be more to come in mid-April. A whole swathe of textiles, home appliances, food and agricultural products could be included, depending on a two-week consultation with stakeholders.

A list of items almost 100 pages long is being circulated that features meat, dairy, fruit, wine and spirits, toilet seats, wood, coats, swimwear, nightdresses, shoes, chandeliers and lawnmowers.

For consumers, higher prices loom on Europe’s supermarket shelves, especially for American products. But for businesses and some industries, especially steel, there is real danger.

The head of Germany’s BGA federation of wholesale, foreign trade and service, Dirk Jandura, warned that Germans might have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for American products in the supermarkets.

Orange juice, bourbon and peanut butter were the most likely products to be hit. “Margins in trade are so low that this cannot be absorbed by the companies,” he said.

In total, the EU will target €26bn (£22bn) of US exports.

“We’re not going to go into hypotheticals other than to say we’ve been preparing assiduously for all these outcomes,” said EU spokesman Olof Gill.

António Costa, the EU’s Council President, called on the US to de-escalate, although there was little sign of that on Wednesday, as Trump vowed to hit back at the EU’s countermeasures.

“We’ve been abused for a long time and we will be abused no longer,” he said.

In Austria too, there was concern about the escalation.

“The US is the second most important export market for Austrian products after Germany – and the most important for Germany,” said Christoph Neumayer, who is head of the Federation of Austrian Industries. It was “essential that Europe acts together and decisively”, he added.

One EU official pointed out that products such as soybeans and orange juice could easily be sourced from Brazil or Argentina, so consumers would not be hit too hard.

And there was a suggestion that some of the US exports targeted were also from US states under Republican control: soybeans from Louisiana or meat from Nebraska and Kansas.

A relatively large number of US exports enter the EU via the Dutch port of Rotterdam or Antwerp in Belgium.

Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Dirk Beljaarts said nobody stood to benefit from a “tariffs war”, but he was hopeful it would not hit his own country’s economy too hard: “It has an impact on companies and consumers – particularly consumers in the US.”

One area that will be hit especially hard on both sides of the Atlantic is in the drinks sector.

Pauline Bastidon of Spirits Europe said producers in the EU and US stood united, with risks facing European companies that produced US spirits and US companies that were heavily invested in Europe.

Chris Swonger, of the US Distilled Spirits Council, said that in the three years since the suspension of the EU’s earlier 25% tariff on American whiskey, US distillers had “worked hard to regain solid footing in our largest export market”.

Reimposing tariffs from 1 April was “deeply disappointing” and he called for a return to “zero-for-zero” tariffs.

For cognac producers in France, the prospect of a 25% US import tax is also a major problem as most of their produce is for export, either to the US or China.

French producers have already been hit by Chinese measures that have slapped heavy taxes on cognac.

“Morale is down in the dumps,” Bastien Brusaferro of the general winegrowers’ union told France Info.

Thousands of jobs are at stake in the Charente region alone, he says: “Cognac is a product that’s made for export.”

There was a dire warning too from the head of the European Steel Association, Henrik Adam.

“President Trump’s ‘America First’ policy threatens to be a final nail in the coffin of the European steel industry,” he warned.

Trump’s initial tariffs on European steel in 2018 saw EU steel exports to the US fall by more than a million tonnes, and for every three tonnes of steel that did not enter the US, two-thirds of it entered the EU instead.

“These new measures imposed by Trump are more extensive, therefore the impact of the US tariffs is likely to be far greater.”

The bank stuck to its plan to lower rates in the face of economic challenges, including threats of US tariffs and plans to boost European military spending.

The ECB cut its main interest rate to 2.5% from 2.75%, and once again reduced its forecasts for economic growth in the eurozone.

The latest cut came as a sell-off of German government bonds spread to other bond markets, including the UK.

The sell-off came after Germany’s move this week to increase military and infrastructure spending.

Political parties in talks to form a new government plan to pay for this by loosening Germany’s fiscal rules, raising the prospect of a big increase in debt.

In response, longer term German bonds saw their biggest sell-off in years on Wednesday.

This pushed borrowing costs – as measured by the yields on the Germany’s 10-year bonds – up by biggest daily amount since May 1997.

On Thursday, German borrowing costs – as measured by the yields on the country’s bonds – continued to rise.

Yields continued to rise on Thursday, hitting 2.929% at one point – the highest level since October 2023.

The increase has had a knock-on effect on other countries, with UK borrowing costs also increasing.

UK government borrowing costs have already risen due to concerns about persistent inflation and interest rates not coming down as quickly as previously thought.

However, Lindsay James, an investment strategist at Quilters, said the market was still expecting the Bank of England to make two further rate cuts in 2025, “with recent inflation data reasonably encouraging”.

With inflation getting closer to its 2% target, the ECB said its interest rate cuts were “making new borrowing less expensive for firms and households”.

But it trimmed its prediction for eurozone growth, putting expansion in 2025 at just 0.9%, only slightly above the 0.7% pace recorded last year.

The ECB faces a number of upcoming challenges as it tries to get inflation to its 2% target.

The eurozone economy may suffer if the Trump administration goes ahead with plans to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on every country that taxes US imports.

As well as rearmament, leaders are expected to discuss how the body can further support Kyiv in the face of US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday that he would suspend military aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is invited to the summit.

Nerves have grown increasingly frayed across Europe since Trump and Zelensky’s showdown at the White House last week, and the rhetoric around Thursday’s summit leaves no doubt about the importance EU officials are ascribing to it.

Three years on since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Trump administration’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin have left many in Europe concerned the continent would not be able to rely on US support for its security.

Washington’s decision on Wednesday to pause intelligence sharing with Ukraine did nothing to allay those worries.

In a sign of the depth of concern, President Macron said France was open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners, during an address to the nation on Wednesday.

That followed a call from Friedrich Merz, likely to be Germany’s next chancellor, to discuss increased nuclear sharing.

Europe was facing a “clear and present danger on a scale that none of us have seen in our adult lifetime”, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said, while European Council President António Costa said this was a “defining moment for Ukraine and European security”.

In a letter to European leaders, von der Leyen also said the continent had to “meet the moment” and “unleash our industrial and productive power and direct it to the goal of security”.

On Monday, von der Leyen announced an unprecedented defence package – dubbed ReArm Europe – and said that Europe was ready to “massively” boost its defence spending “with the speed and the ambition that is needed”.

Von der Leyen said the three proposals outlined in the ReArm Europe plan would both support Ukraine and “address the long-term need to take much more responsibility” for European security – probably referring to the fact many Europeans feel the continent can no longer automatically rely on the US to come to its aid.

The proposals include:

• Allowing countries to increase national deficit levels to give room for more defence spending
• €150bn (£125bn) in loans for defence investment in domains that could benefit the defence of the EU as a whole – for example, air and missile defence, anti-drone systems, and military mobility – helping pool demand, and reduce costs through joint procurement
• Allowing countries to redirect funds earmarked for cohesion policy programmes (policies aimed at levelling the differences between more and less advantaged regions) to defence spending

The European Investment Bank would also be allowed to finance military projects.

According to von der Leyen, the plan could free up a total of €800bn ($860bn; £670bn) in defence expenditure.

Many European leaders have signalled their support for swift, decisive action in regards to the continent’s security.

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said the Commission’s plan represented “a fundamental shift”, while Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that the summit would give Europe the opportunity to show “whether it’s just a debate club or whether we can make decisions”.

But dissent from certain European leaders sympathetic to Moscow is expected.

Earlier this week, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said the EU’s “peace through strength” approach was “unrealistic”.

And in a letter to Costa, Hungary’s Viktor Orban demanded that Ukraine not be mentioned in any written conclusions following the summit.

Orban – who has repeatedly attempted to block EU aid to Ukraine and has praised Trump for “standing bravely for peace” – said there was now a “strategic divide… between the majority of Europe and the USA”.

“One side insists on prolonging the war in Ukraine, while the other seeks an end to the conflict,” he added.

Yet Orban left the door open for a “greater probability for co-operation” with other leaders over issues of common security and defence.

While Thursday’s crisis summit is taking place in Brussels, UK Defence Secretary John Healey will be in Washington for discussions with his counterpart Pete Hegseth on the US decision to pause intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Their bilateral meeting will focus on a possible peace plan while efforts continue to bridge a transatlantic rift over Kyiv’s future security.

Perhaps in a final bid to try and achieve unity ahead of the summit, Macron – who has positioned himself at the centre of the EU’s efforts to bridge the gap between Kyiv and Washington – invited Orban to have dinner in Paris on Wednesday evening.

The two leaders met immediately after the French president gave a sombre address to the nation in which he said that France and Europe needed to be ready if the US was no longer by their side.

“We have to be united and determined to protect ourselves,” Macron said. He added that the future of Europe could not be tied to Washington or Moscow, and said that while he “wanted to believe that the US will stay by our side, we have to be ready for this not to be the case”.

The French president plans to hold a meeting of European army chiefs in Paris next week.

Macron said that “decisive steps” would be taken in Brussels, leaving European countries “more ready to defend and protect themselves”.

“The moment calls for unprecedented decisions,” he concluded.

Speaking at a defence summit in Brussels, Hegseth said the US would no longer “tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies and called on Nato members to spend much more on defence.

He also said it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders and downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato.

The comments came as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held a “lengthy” phone call in which they agreed to begin negotiations to end the war.

The new US defence secretary’s remarks are the clearest indication yet of the Trump administration’s position on the Ukraine war and what a peace plan to end the conflict could involve.

The positions set out by Hegseth will be met with dismay in Ukraine – which has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has rejected ceding territory as part of any peace deal – and will be welcomed by Moscow.

There will also be nervousness across the continent after Hegseth suggested the US would significantly scale back its support for Ukraine, insisting that European nations would now need to provide the “overwhelming share” of aid to Kyiv.

Hegseth, who was appointed defence secretary after Trump returned to the US presidency in January, was speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, a meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine.

He said: “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.

“But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed insurgency against Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, mainly in the east and south.

Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”.

However, he said “the United States does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”.

Instead, security guarantees should be backed by “capable European and non-European troops”.

“If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-Nato mission and they should not be covered under Article 5,” he said, referring to the alliance’s mutual defence clause.

Hegseth also told Nato’s European members that they would need to provide the lion’s share of future aid for Kyiv, warning that Washington “will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies.

“Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of Nato,” Hegseth said. “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.”

The US has been Ukraine’s biggest financial and military backer but Trump has been repeatedly critical of US aid spending and has said his priority is to end the war, which escalated in February 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Hegseth echoed calls by Trump for Nato allies to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, instead of the current 2% target – saying the latter is “not enough”.

The US currently spends roughly 3.4% of its GDP on defence, while the UK spends about 2.3%. Countries closer to Russia, like Poland and the Baltic states, spend the most proportionately at around 4%.

It will be difficult for Ukraine to hold back Russia’s advances without the same scale of support provided by Washington during Joe Biden’s administration.

While Russia is losing large numbers of troops in the conflict, the country’s commanders are prepared to throw everything at Ukrainian front lines.

Russia is also now spending more on defence than the whole of Europe combined, according to figures from The Military Balance, an annual comparison of the strengths of armed forces around the world.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to negotiate a peace deal with Russia but wanted his country to do so from a “position of strength”.

Speaking to the Guardian, Zelensky said if Trump was able to get Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, the Ukrainian president planned to offer Russia a straight territory exchange, giving up land Kyiv has held in Russia’s Kursk region since the launch of a surprise offensive six months ago.

“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, but added that he did not know which part of Russian-occupied land Ukraine would ask for in return.

Zelensky also said he would offer US firms lucrative contracts to rebuild Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to get Trump onside.

In November last year, he and the US president spoke following Trump’s election victory.

Zelensky said he had a “constructive exchange” with the then president-elect and that he was certain the war with Russia would “end sooner” than it otherwise would have once Trump became president.

But Trump’s Democratic opponents have accused him of being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and say his approach to the war amounts to surrender for Ukraine, which would in turn endanger all of Europe.

It also remains unclear whether a diplomatic solution to the war could be reached anytime soon that would be acceptable to both sides.

Speaking at a defence summit in Brussels, Hegseth said it would only be possible to establish a “durable peace” with a “realistic assessment of the battlefield”.

During an uncompromising speech, he also downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato, ruled out deploying US troops to Ukraine under any future security arrangement and said European nations needed to spend much more on defence.

The Nato military alliance has previously pledged Kyiv an “irreversible path” to membership.

Hegseth’s comments will be met with dismay in Ukraine – which has repeatedly called for Nato membership and has rejected ceding territory as part of any peace deal – and will be welcomed by Moscow.

The new US defence secretary’s remarks are also the clearest indication yet of the Trump administration’s position on the Ukraine war and what a peace plan to end the conflict could involve.

There will also be nervousness across the continent after Hegseth suggested the US would significantly scale back its support for Ukraine, insisting that European nations would now need to provide the “overwhelming share” of aid to Kyiv.

Hegseth, who was appointed defence secretary after Donald Trump returned to the US presidency in January, was speaking at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, a meeting of more than 40 countries allied to Ukraine.

He said: “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.

“But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed insurgency against Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, mainly in the east and south.

Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”.

However, he said “the United States does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”.

Instead, security guarantees should be backed by “capable European and non-European troops”.

“If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-Nato mission and they should not be covered under Article 5,” he said, referring to the alliance’s mutual defence clause.

Hegseth also told Nato’s European members that they would need to provide the lion’s share of future aid for Kyiv, warning that Washington “will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies.

“Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of Nato,” Hegseth said. “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.”

The US has been Ukraine’s biggest financial and military backer but Trump has been repeatedly critical of US aid spending and has said his priority is to end the war, which escalated in February 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Hegseth echoed calls by Trump for Nato allies to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP, instead of the current 2% target – saying the latter is “not enough”.

The US currently spends roughly 3.4% of its GDP on defence, while the UK spends about 2.3%. Countries closer to Russia, like Poland and the Baltic states, spend the most proportionately at around 4%.

It will be difficult for Ukraine to hold back Russia’s advances without the same scale of support provided by Washington during Joe Biden’s administration.

While Russia is losing large numbers of troops in the conflict, the country’s commanders are prepared to throw everything at Ukrainian front lines.

Russia is also now spending more on defence than the whole of Europe combined, according to figures from The Military Balance, an annual comparison of the strengths of armed forces around the world.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to negotiate a peace deal with Russia but wanted his country to do so from a “position of strength”.

Speaking to the Guardian, Zelensky said if Trump was able to get Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, the Ukrainian president planned to offer Russia a straight territory exchange, giving up land Kyiv has held in Russia’s Kursk region since the launch of a surprise offensive six months ago.

“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, but added that he did not know which part of Russian-occupied land Ukraine would ask for in return.

Zelensky also said he would offer US firms lucrative contracts to rebuild Ukraine, in an apparent attempt to get Trump onside.

In November last year, he and the US president spoke following Trump’s election victory.

Zelensky said he had a “constructive exchange” with the then president-elect and that he was certain the war with Russia would “end sooner” than it otherwise would have once Trump became president.

But Trump’s Democratic opponents have accused him of being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and say his approach to the war amounts to surrender for Ukraine, which would in turn endanger all of Europe.

It also remains unclear whether a diplomatic solution to the war could be reached anytime soon that would be acceptable to both sides.

The 60-year-old Frenchman has replaced Italian Domenico Tedesco, who was sacked last week after less than two years in the post.

Garcia’s last job was at Serie A side Napoli, but he was dismissed after just 16 games in charge in 2023.

“We are ambitious and want to win every game,” he said on Friday.

“I feel this is an environment with a lot of positivity.”

Garcia said “the signals are positive” Thibaut Courtois, who he called one of Belgium’s “greatest players”, will make a return to the squad.

Real Madrid’s Courtois, 32, has not played for Belgium since June 2023 following a dispute with Tedesco over the captaincy.

“We still have good goalkeepers, but Thibaut is the best goalkeeper in the world in my opinion,” he said.

“It would be good to be able to count on him.”

Garcia added he will also be travelling to speak to Napoli striker Romelu Lukaku and Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne.

“They have already experienced a lot, so it can be interesting to discuss and consult with them,” he added.

Former Belgium midfielder Eden Hazard, who made 126 appearances for the country and scored 33 goals, will be assisting Garcia.

Hazard, 34, was part of Garcia’s Lille team when the club won the Ligue 1 title and French Cup in the 2010–11 season.

“I talk to Eden a lot,” he said. “He will also be a part of the adventure to the [2026] World Cup. He will help us a little.”

Belgium, who are ranked eighth in the Fifa world rankings, face Ukraine in the Nations League play-offs in March.

Before taking the Napoli job, Garcia – who has also managed Lille, Marseille and Lyon and had a three-year spell at Roma – took charge of Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League in 2022.

He left the club by mutual agreement after 10 months in charge.

The 36-year-old was one of several suspects apprehended by Belgian police on Monday morning, after a series of raids were carried out across the country.

“The investigation concerns alleged facts of importation of cocaine from South America to Europe, via the port of Antwerp, and its redistribution in Belgium,” the Brussels prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

No further information has been released to the public.

The arrest comes just six days after Nainggolan came out of retirement to sign for Lokeren in the Belgian second division.

He scored on his debut, giving his side a point in their 1-1 home draw to K. Lierse.

Born in Antwerp, the midfielder spent most of his career in Italy, playing for both Roma and Inter Milan.

Between 2009 and 2018, he made 30 appearances for the Belgium national team.

Maros Sefcovic referred to the idea of Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM).

These are common rules that allow parts, ingredients and materials for manufacturing supply chains to be sourced from across dozens of countries in Europe and North Africa to be used in tariff-free trade.

But Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook told the BBC the government was “not seeking to participate in it at the present time”.

However, the BBC understands the UK government has begun consultations with business over the benefits of the PEM plan that could help cut red tape and improve trade. No final decision has been made yet.

The Conservatives did not pursue PEM as part of its post-Brexit deal, but some businesses have said it will help the UK rejoin complex supply chains that have been hit by customs barriers.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Sefcovic said the idea has not been “precisely formulated” by London yet and the “ball is in the UK’s court”.

Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the post-Brexit agreement negotiated by the Tories had “all kinds of holes” in it.

“Within that agreement there is a mechanism for improving it, and we need to seize that opportunity,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.

“We need to make sure that within the constraints of the vote to leave the European Union, we nevertheless do everything that we can to get rid of barriers to trade with our nearest neighbours and the people who we trade with the most.”

Mr Sefcovic also said that a full-scale veterinary agreement that helped reduce frictions on farm and food trade should be reviewed.

Single market treatment for UK food and farm exports would mean “we would have to have the same rules and we have to upgrade them at the same time, we call it dynamic alignment”, he said.

Dame Emily described the current agreement as “uneven and difficult”.

“At the moment the reality is that for reasons of capacity, food coming in from the EU isn’t really checked and yet food from Britain is checked a lot going into the EU,” she said.

The EU-UK fisheries deal is also due to expire next year. “A solution for fisheries is very important for the EU, again, we communicated this on multiple occasions,” Mr Sefcovic said.

He also said he was surprised at how a European Commission proposal on youth mobility had been “spun” in the UK.

The scheme would allow 18 to 30 year-olds from the EU to travel, work and study in the UK for a period, “with reciprocity for young UK nationals”, according to the European Commission.

Both Labour, when it was in opposition, and the then-Tory government rejected the idea, stating that free movement within the EU had ended with Brexit.

But Mr Sefcovic said it was hoped the scheme would “build bridges for the future for the European Union and the UK”.

“That was the idea,” he said. “[But] we’ve been a little bit surprised what kind of spin it got in the UK.

“It is not freedom of movement,” Mr Sefcovic added. “We have been very clear what we’ve been proposing.”

Nevertheless, Mr Sefcovic said that relations between the UK and the EUwere “definitely” in a better place and his British counterpart Nick Thomas-Symonds was “on speed dial”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will attend a defence and security focused EU summit next month.

As well as relations with the UK, Mr Sefcovic acknowledged that the EU needed to be “extremely cautious and responsible” in addressing trade with the Trump administration in Washington but said he was willing to negotiate.

He added that while the EU did have a surplus in goods such as cars, the US had a surplus in services.

“It’s an opportunity for us to exist as people,” Sophie says.There are tens of millions of sex workers worldwide. Sex work was decriminalised in Belgium in 2022 and is legal in several countries including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey. But establishing employment rights and contracts is a global first.

“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.”

Critics say the trade causes trafficking, exploitation and abuse – which this law will not prevent.

“It is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” says Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala – an NGO that helps sex workers on the streets in Belgium.

For many sex workers, the job is a necessity, and the law could not come soon enough.

Mel was horrified when she was forced to give a client oral sex without a condom, when she knew a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was going round the brothel. But she felt she had no option.

“My choice was either to spread the disease, or make no money.”

She had become an escort when she was 23 – she needed money, and quickly started earning beyond expectations. She thought she had struck gold, but the experience with the STI brought her sharply back to earth.

Mel will now be able to refuse any client or sexual act she feels uncomfortable with – meaning she could have handled that situation differently.

“I could have pointed the finger at my madam [employer] and said: ‘You’re violating these terms and this is how you should treat me.’ I would have been legally protected.”

Belgium’s decision to change the law was the result of months of protests in 2022, prompted by the lack of state support during the Covid pandemic.

One of those at the forefront was Victoria, president of the Belgian Union of Sex Workers (UTSOPI) and previously an escort for 12 years.For her, it was a personal fight. Victoria regards prostitution as a social service, with sex being only about 10% of what she does.

“It’s giving people attention, listening to their stories, eating cake with them, dancing to waltz music,” she explains. “Ultimately, it’s about loneliness.”

But the illegality of her job before 2022 raised significant challenges. She worked in unsafe conditions, with no choice over her clients and her agency taking a big cut of her earnings.

In fact, Victoria says she was raped by a client who had become obsessed with her.

She went to a police station, where she says the female officer was “so hard” on her.

“She told me sex workers can’t be raped. She made me feel it was my fault, because I did that job.”

Victoria left the station crying.Every sex worker we spoke to told us that at some point they had been pressured to do something against their will.

Because of that, Victoria fiercely believes this new law will improve their lives.

“If there is no law and your job is illegal, there are no protocols to help you. This law gives people the tools to make us safer.”

Pimps who control sex work will be allowed to operate legally under the new law – provided they follow strict rules. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to employ sex workers.

“I think many businesses will have to shut down, because a lot of employers have a criminal record,” says Kris Reekmans. He and his wife Alexandra run a massage parlour on Love Street in the small town of Bekkevoort.

The massages they offer clients include “tantra” and “double pleasure”.

It is fully booked when we visit – not what we were expecting for a Monday morning. We are shown meticulously furnished rooms with massage beds, fresh towels and robes, hot tubs and a swimming pool.

Kris and his wife employ 15 sex workers, and pride themselves on treating them with respect, protecting them and paying them good salaries.

“I hope the bad employers will be shut out and the good people, who want to do this profession honestly, will stay – and the more the better,” he says.

Erin Kilbride from Human Rights Watch is of similar mind – and says, by putting restrictions on employers, the new law will significantly “cut away at the power they have over sex workers”.

But Julia Crumière says the majority of the women she helps just want help to leave the profession and get a “normal job” – not labour rights.

“It’s about not being outside in the freezing weather and having sex with strangers who pay to access your body.”

Under Belgium’s new law, each room where sexual services take place must be equipped with an alarm button that will connect a sex worker with their “reference person”.

But Julia believes there is no way to make sex work safe.

“In what other job would you need a panic button? It’s not the oldest profession in the world, it’s the oldest exploitation in the world.”

How to regulate the sex industry remains a divisive issue globally. But for Mel, bringing it out of the shadows can only help women.

“I am very proud that Belgium is so far ahead,” she says. “I have a future now.”