Activity 5: Which governance for Brussels?
Brussels, administrative city and and spy nest?
Activity 5: Which governance for Brussels?
In Belgium, 'the' government, in the singular, simply no longer exists. This is all the more striking when we look at Brussels. There are many public authorities active there. They are often located next to each other, sometimes even in competition with each other. Yet they still have to tackle a number of issues together. Areas in which the federal government has retained exclusive competence have become increasingly rare (the DOD (Department of Defence) for instance). Many competences are now "shared" by different authorities (remember what you learned in section 1). Their exercise requires regular contacts between different levels of governments (vertical), within governments themselves (horizontal) or both.
Do the many Belgian institutions seem complicated to you? Don't worry, you're not alone! Take a look at this short video which illustrates, even if it still has some shortcomings, the difficulty of trying to quickly explain the Belgian institutional system to foreigners.
Belgium for dummies (by Jerome de Gerlache)
Why is the system so complex?
As you have just seen in the video, Belgian institutions (and even more so those of the Brussels-Capital Region) are often difficult to explain. You may wonder why have we reached such a degree of complexity? As is often the case, you have to look at the past in order to fully understand the situation.
The complexity stems from two opposing visions of the state. Flemish policy-makers have generally advocated for the duality of Belgium. This meant that for them, Flanders and Wallonia were to be the main actors to which Brussels would be subordinated. French-speaking policy makers, on the other hand, were in favour of a Belgian trinity, in which Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels would be equals.
As is often the case in Belgium, a convoluted political compromise (what is often referred to in everyday language as a 'Belgian-style compromise') was reached, which combined the two requirements. The choice of duality resulted in the creation of Communities that are competent for so-called cultural, person-related matters and for education. This means that the French and Flemish Communities are both competent in Brussels for these matters, and that there is no unified Brussels education (we therefore speak of a 'shared competence'). On the other hand, Regions were created for territory-related matters. The Brussels-Capital Region is for example responsible for spatial planning, housing and mobility. The wish of the French-speaking political world was consequently met by granting "autonomy" in these matters to the political decision-makers of the capital. At the same time, practices of consultation and protection of the Dutch-speaking minority (quite similar to the mechanisms for the protection of the French-speaking minority at the national level) were integrated into this complex system of the Brussels governance.
Moreover, to deal with Community-related matters in Brussels, it was necessary to create so-called Community commissions, which are essentially the 'local agents' of the French and Flemish Communities in Brussels:
- the French Community Commission or Commission communautaire française (COCOF) ;
- the Flemish Community Commission or Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie (VGC) ;
- the Joint Community Commission or Commission communautaire commune (COCOM) which deals with certain issues specific to both communities, such as poverty or public hospitals.
In addition, it should be added that the 19 municipalities in Brussels also play an important role, as you saw in section 1. As everywhere in the country, the municipal authorities handle a flexible set of tasks with a certain degree of autonomy. The Brussels municipal authorities provide a wide range of services such as education, housing, culture, cleanliness, social policy, and so on. To this end, they employ more than 52,000 people, i.e. approximately one civil servant in five (all authorities combined) working in Brussels.
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