Neelie Kroes Is Furious About Uber Ban In Brussels
Neelie Kroes, the Vice-President of the European Commission is furious at Brussels for banning Uber, the taxi-service app. The French are crazy too.
A Brussels court has declared Uber to be illegal in Belgium, saying the company will be fined €10,000 for every ride.
Earlier this year the French government actually forced Uber chauffeurs to wait 15 minutes before picking up passengers in response, which now seems tame in comparison to Belgium’s actions.
Neelie Kroes About Uber Ban in Belgium
Kroes is furious. On her blog Kroes reacted: “Are they serious? What sort of legal system is this?”
Kroes stated:
Slamming the door in Uber’s face doesn’t solve anything. It sends a bad anti-tech message about Brussels, which is already in the 4G dark ages. People in Brussels are modern and open, they should have a chance to use modern and open services
Another great point of view from Kroes is this one: “Take a moment to consider the 23 recent gang-rapes of women by people posing as taxi drivers. You would think the taxi industry would be more worried by that damage to their reputation than by the threat of competition from Uber!”
My Opinion
It seems like Belgium and France are becoming more and more anti-English and anti-tech. Kroes is right about Belgium. It is indeed becoming a banana republic. Slow on 4G and now banning Uber?
What example is Brussels trying to set here? They are making a total fool out of the EU!
And how about France? In 2013 the French Government banned the Twitter term hashtag from all official documents in their latest bid to ban a torrent of English words invading their language.
The French ban includes words like: e-mail, blog, supermodel, take-way, chewing gum, parking, weekend and low-cost airline.
I have the following tips for the French Government:
1. Built a Chinese-alike firewall and block your population from Amazon and Airbnb.
2. Block Facebook and create your own local social network and call it VisageLivre.
3. Ban Tesla Motors and e-bikes now and go back to firing on coal.
4. Block LeWeb and exile Loïc Le Meur to Elba.
5. Leave the EURO and switch back to the French franc.
6. Leave the EU and put high fences around your borders.
If your countries keep acting like this, your economies will start to look like Italy in the Berlusconi era. No innovations, no new (rail) roads, poor ICT infrastructures, no economic growth and less jobs.
So leaving Belgium and France with my final thoughts: A pessimist sees danger in every opportunity, but an optimist sees opportunity in every danger.
In the last 150 years only a few generations have had the opportunity to reshape the nature of business and economy.
Be an optimist. Congratulations class of 2014: embrace change and lead the way.
What About You?
How do feel about banning Uber? We all get smarter from peer discussions, so share your opinion.
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About the Author
Igor Beuker is an acclaimed trendwatcher & pro speaker, serial entrepreneur, marketing consultant and board member at several disruptive media, technology and entertainment firms. Book Igor as keynote speaker, follow Igor on Twitter or contact him via LinkedIn.
Source: Neelie Kroes’ Blog.