Petition to Ms. Schauvliege: The signatories plead to reconsider your decision to merge the Royal Ballet of Flanders with the Flemish Opera. More precisely: a) To maintain the independence of the company in its present form. b) To raise the budget for this world-renowned company to help it continue to develop. c) To strive to give the company a higher visibility in order for it to reach a broader audience. Justification of the petition: In your official memorandum you state that you intend to appoint an intendant who would take the lead over the ballet as well as the opera where decades ago the founders of ballet in Flanders struggled to give the ballet an identity of its own. In the current cultural politics a company of world-class needs to work with a budget much higher than 5, 6 million €, as where elsewhere in the world companies of this quality are granted budgets up to 20 million€. Higher budgets would allow the company to buy new works and continue to attract well-known choreographers resulting in a ballet group of even higher quality than is already the case. At present not much is done by the government to make this art-form better known to a broad audience. In the media we rarely see or hear that any attention is being paid to ballet even though the public television and radio stations are supposed to have an educational function and therefore should make the Belgian people better acquainted with the Royal Ballet of Flanders which is a highly respected company both at home and abroad. We sincerely express our hope that you will do everything possible to find a solid solution in order to ensure the further development of the company, instead of carrying out a plan which is virtually ensuring the death of the Royal Ballet o Flanders.