The British press has, once again, been full of ill-informed and often abusive comments about Belgium and the Belgians. This time, the pretext was the nomination of Herman Van Rompuy as President of the European Council.

Of course, you have to expect this kind of thing from papers like The Sun. It doesn't even need instructions from boss Rupert Murdoch, who is viscerally anti-Europe, the paper's journalists are perfectly capable of being prejudiced without help from him.

What is surprising is not so much the viciousness; it is how ill-informed many of these remarks are. David Lowe of The Sun uses Van Rompuy's appointment as a pretext to make snide, rather unintelligent and not very funny remarks about as much of Belgian memorabilia as he can muster: Manneken Pis, Charleroi (he may have passed by the city when taking a cheap Ryanair flight - and it's not very pretty, but then neither is Sheffield), Brussels sprouts, Belgian beer (that's sacrilege!), Belgians generally, the Belgian Congo (right there, but how about the Boer War?), Belgian roads (which he thinks are all straight!), muskrats on the menus (huh?) and, inevitably, famous Belgians of which he, like a lot of other Brits, think there are none.

Well, the last time we drew up a list, we got to over 80 and gave up. Our list ranged from sports personalities like Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Jacky Ickx, Eddie Merckx and the IOC President Jacques Rogge, to artistic 'greats' like the Breughels, Rubens, van Dyck (who the British like to think was a Brit, like Händel), Magritte and James Ensor (who really was a Brit).

How many Brits realize that both Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium and Dirk Bogarde had Flemish blood? They may be forgiven for not realising that Johnny Hallyday is Belgian, though, because they probably haven't heard of him…

There have been many influential Belgians, before Herman Van Rompuy, in the mainstream of public life. Going back in time, Paul-Henri Spaak and, further back, the Emperor Charles V - born in Gent (Ghent to the British), the Crusader Godefroid de Bouillon (most British hacks won't even have heard of him) and no less than Charles Martel who saved Europe from becoming Arab in the 'Dark Ages'.

Van Rompuy and Spaak share a precious quality that sets most Belgians apart and one that is so important in public affairs, EU or otherwise: negotiating skills and, equally important, mediation skills. Belgians have turned to good account their sorry history, with uninvited and unwanted visitors crowding in on their turf, time and time again over the centuries. Far from forcing their culture and convictions on others, they keep their counsel and listen carefully.

When they come up with a solution, it is often a wise and creative one. No less than a Dutch research team at Rotterdam University concluded, rather reluctantly, that "Belgians are known to put the need to find a solution before the logic of the arguments involved. This can encourage creative results."

Indeed! Ask international consultants and headhunters who of all the European nationalities make the best mediators, and many of them will say "Belgians". Some of them will add that, for the same reasons of self-effacement and patience, they make the best international managers too. Unfortunately, the British media equate self-effacement and patience with the image of "a faceless nation".

In his book Belgian Adventures Dutch journalist Derk-Jan Eppink concluded: "After much reflection, I am now convinced that a Dutchman who comes to live in Belgium will never be the same Dutchman ever again. Belgium reforms you. Belgium deforms you - but in the nicest possible way. So what has Belgium changed in me? Above all, Belgium has helped me to put things in their proper perspective; to see that there is not just one universal truth, but a whole range of different truths; to understand that no one person is always right, but that lots of people are sometimes a little bit right."

Coming from a Dutchman, a race that knows the Belgians a lot better than the Brits do, that's a real compliment! Herman Van Rompuy will prove the point...

The Belgian character (yes, there is one) is a complex thing. Richard Hill, who has spent 40 years in the country, gives his interpretation in his book The Art of being Belgian.

"Every couple of millenia someone comes along and tries to define Belgians. Julius Caesar wrote that among all the Gaullish tribes, the Belgians were the most courageous. Another giant of a man, Richard Hill, says being Belgian is all about humour, anarchism, scepticism and appreciation for the finer things of life. The problem is that the rest of the world either doesn't know or doesn't care. He sets out to redress the balance in his new book, 'The Art of being Belgian'." SN Brussels inflight magazine Richard Kubitz