Belgium got a little bigger and France a little smaller, thanks to an annoyed Belgian farmer.
Belgium got a little bigger and France a little smaller, thanks to an annoyed Belgian farmer. The farmer accidentally moved a boundary marker between his country and France, thereby expanding Belgian territory by a few metres.
The farmer in the border village of Erquelinnes moved a 200-year-old stone in the path of his tractor. It turned out not to be an ordinary stone, but one marking the boundary line between the two countries. In moving it, the Belgian farmer gave his country 7.5 more feet (2.29 meters), by taking that same amount away from France.
A local amateur historian taking a walk in the forest near the Belgian village of Erquelinnes discovered that the stone dating back to 1819 had been moved. The farmer's perimeter fence had also been shifted.
The border between France and Belgium stretches 620km (390 miles). It was formally established under the Treaty of Kortrijk, signed in 1820 after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The stone dates back to 1819 when the border was first marked out.
David Lavaux, the mayor of the Belgian village Erquelinnes, said the farmer will have to move the stone back or could face criminal charges.
"We have no interest in expanding the town, or the country. He made Belgium bigger and France smaller. It's not a good idea," he told French TV channel TF1.
"I was happy, my town was bigger," the Belgian mayor added with a laugh. "But the mayor of Bousignies-sur-Roc didn't agree."
"If [the farmer] shows goodwill, he won't have a problem, we will settle this issue amicably," Lavaux said.
"We should be able to avoid a new border war," Aurélie Welonek, the mayor of Bousignies-sur-Roc, told the newspaper La Voix du Nord.
If the boundary stone is not returned to its usual spot, a Franco-Belgium commission could be established to determine the exact border.
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