Belgium: The State and the Sub-State Entities Are Equal, But Is the State Sometimes Still More Equal Than the Others?
C. Panara and A. de Becker (eds.), The Role of the Regions in EU Governance,
DOI 10.1007978-3-642-11903-3-11, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
Belgium is for many reasons a peculiar federal State within the European Union. The main principle of Belgian federalisme is "in foro interno et in foro externo". This means that the Belgian Communities and Regions are fully competent to exercise their exclusive competences at the national level as well as the EU level. Shaping this principle in international and European public law is, however, very difficult. The European Union normally only recognises its Member Stats as constituting "elements" of the European construction. Nevertheless, Belgium has achieved many goals when it concerns the participation and the integration of the Communities and the Regions into European governance. Ministers of the Communities and the Regions can, in applying Article 203 of the EC Treaty, represent Belgium in the Council of Ministers. Representatives of the Communities and the Regions are fully part of the Permanent Representation at the EU. However, this integration process at the Eu level demands a lot of internal organisation and cooperation. A lot of cooperation agreements have been concluded in a spirit of federal loyality.
Belgian federalism is evolving daily. The cntrifugal power within the Belgian federal construction remains extremely active. This stems from the fact that Belgium is used to searching for flexible solutions for its internal evolution. Belgium has volved from a unitary nation towards a federation of regions. It is the conviction of many Belgians that such an evolution would help the EU to overcome its current image of being too bureaucratic and too distant from the people. A centrifugal power (inclusing stronger regionalisation) brings, in their opinion, power closer to the EU citizen.
Prof. A. (Alexander) de Becker, Ien Dales Chair, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Universiteit Hasselt (BE)
More information: l.spaans@caop.nl