Belgium’s unions will try to prevent any aircraft from leaving or arriving during a nationwide strike in a protest over the government’s planned pension reform and budget cuts. ACV-Transcom joined fellow trade union ACOD on Friday in calling on air traffic controllers to follow the example of ground staff and flight personnel and not work at airports on the day of protest. The center-right government of Prime Minister Charles Michel, which took office in mid-October, plans to raise the retirement age and skip a scheduled inflation-linked wage increase that was due in 2015. Among the passengers that could be affected by the protest are European Union foreign and agriculture ministers due to arrive for meetings in the Belgian capital. Eurostar, which operates high-speed rail services between Brussels and London, said all trains to Brussels would terminate in Lille, France. Thalys said it too had canceled most trains to Germany, France and the Netherlands. Belgium needs to keep its public sector deficit below 3 percent of annual output this year and next and is already at risk of EU disciplinary proceedings over its debt of around 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). If Belgian air traffic controllers decide to strike, then no planes would be able to land or take off. Flights could still cross Belgian airspace. A spokesman for Belgocontrol, the national air traffic control agency, said he was aware of the union call, but would have to wait until Monday to see how many staff turned up. Some 48 percent of flights at Brussels Airport were canceled during a regional strike centered on Brussels. The airport said the figure was likely to be well over 50 percent next week. (Reuters)