What you see is not what you get: Belgium is not a country
Perception often takes precedence over reality these days. In a series of five articles, Belga English considers how Belgium is perceived and compares it with the facts. Today: yes, Belgium is a sovereign nation, independent since 1830, but decentralisation has gone so far that the realities on the ground are very different from one part of the country to another.
It is well-known that Belgium has a Dutch-speaking community and a French-speaking community. What is less known is how far apart these groups are.
The Constitution begins by summing up the constituent parts: “Belgium is a federal State composed of Communities and Regions. Belgium comprises three Communities: the Flemish Community, the French Community and the German-speaking Community. Belgium comprises three Regions: the Flemish Region, the Walloon Region and the Brussels Region.”
The regional governments have important competencies and large budgets. The federal level has been reduced over the course of six constitutional reforms. This is even recognised by the EU. Regional ministers represent Belgium in meetings of different configurations of the Council of the EU. Although the EU only recognises countries as member states, the Belgian regions and communities can also sit at the table.
The fact that regions are competent for economic matters, for example, and the communities for education, leads to major variations between the different parts of Belgium. Different rules apply in traffic, in construction, in social help, in employment, in agriculture.
The differences between the two biggest groups – Flemish and francophone – are growing. Most people don’t speak the other language fluently. The media are segregated. The political parties are different. And most of all, neither group is interested in the other.
Flemish and French-speakers live in parallel, with very few bridges between them. Even national ministers are focused on their own language group – in electoral terms, their own constituency.
In theory, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The Constitution established a system to coordinate the policies of the different governments, known as the consultation committee. The ministers competent for a certain topic meet regularly to discuss how to coordinate their decisions.
In practice, however, this system is dysfunctional. There’s little will to compromise and adapt to one another. Every government goes its own way, even if this goes against the general interest. And there’s little that can be done about that: no government has authority over the others.
Unlike other decentralised countries, Belgium’s national government has no higher rank than the regional ones. They’re all at the same level, so there’s no boss. As a result, Belgium is not a country, but rather a group of entities.
The lion is the symbol of Flanders, the rooster of Wallonia. © BELGA PHOTO JULIEN WARNAND and HATIM KAGHAT
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