Elections 2024: How local should local authorities be?

Sunday’s local elections concern municipalities and provinces. ​ About both levels, existential questions have been asked for years. Many Belgian municipalities are seen as too small to deliver modern-day services, and provinces are seen as a level that can be abolished.

Have you ever heard of Belgium’s “institutional lasagne”? This refers to the many layers of government. Until half a century ago, there were the national, provincial and municipal levels, and that was it. With the decentralisation (federalisation) of Belgium, communities and regions were added. And due to different evolutions in society, other, smaller partnerships were started.

The main problem with this is that in Belgium, it’s much easier to start new initiatives than to end outdated structures. This leads to a lasagna with ever more layers.

Provinces are seen by many as a level that has become irrelevant. They used to be a useful level between the central government and the local authorities (municipalities). But with the existence of regions and communities, there’s no longer a need for such intermediate structures. Today, provinces have several small competencies, all of them could be handled at other levels, probably more efficiently.

For the municipalities, the story is a bit different. Most Belgians identify strongly with their municipality, certainly in the rural areas. People see themselves foremost as citizens of this or that village. ​ The result: the 11,7 million people in Belgium are divided over 300 municipalities in Flanders, 262 in Wallonia and 19 in the Brussels region.

Experts agree that most Belgian municipalities are too small to offer the quality of services a modern local authority should deliver: security, handling of all waste, culture, mobility, … To do a good job, you need economies of scale, money, expertise, experience.

Small municipalities won’t say out loud that they are unable to do what they should do. Instead, they have organised different solutions for specific problems. There are now many partnerships, where municipalities collaborate to deliver specific services.

Merging municipalities would be much better, but politically, this is very difficult. Local politicians and citizens resist. In Flanders, the regional government promotes mergers with large financial incentives, but this has only convinced a limited number of municipalities.

 

Local elections will take place at municipal and provincial levels in Belgium on Sunday 13 October. In the run-up to the vote, Belga English explores the main issues to watch out for and provides an overview of events.

 

#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM

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