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Ex - libris Alessio A. Morganti - Ambrogio Lorenzetti 1348 - Allegoria del Buon Governo - SIENA Palazzo Ducale

Rethinking Belgium

Alessio Morganti

Unive rs it Libre de B rux el les Institut dEtudes Europennes European Political Economy Prof. Benot S Y Crutzen

Noble Belgique! Mre chrie! A toi nos curs, toi nos bras A toi notre sang, Patrie Nous le jurons, tous, tu vivras Tu vivras, toujours grande et belle Et ton invincible unit Aura pour devise immortelle Le Roi, la Loi, la Libert

Title
How should Belgian political institutions be reformed to stabilize Belgium for the 21st Century?

Introduction
The following pages contain a brief analysis of the Belgian situation, and in order to answer to the question above I tried to propose different solutions comparing the Belgian situation to the one in other countries (especially Switzerland). All the articles used are reported in the bibliography at the end of this document. Between all the material used I found particularly interesting the Book Belgistan (available only in Spanish) that helped my Italian eye to understand some aspects that otherwise would be probably mistreated. Following the course of European Political Economy I found especially interesting some aspects that I tried to underline in the second part of this document where I propose different solutions for different scenarios. With this effort I would like to concentrate more on the concepts then in the real facts therefore the historical aspects are reduced to the minimum in order to enhance concepts and ideas. Last but not least, I would like to highlight that at the beginning of this page I wanted to report the refrain of the Belgian National Anthem, in which I would like to stress the recall to unity, for which this work has evidently been written.

Problems between the two communities: An overall view

Detect the main problems of Belgium from a social and a political point of view is definitely not a simple task. I found very interesting the article of Bruno de Wever (University of Gent) that summaries three main points: 1. A socio-economic fault line between labor and capital, the contrast between capitalism and the labor movement, or in contemporary terms, between employers and employees; 2. An ideological fault line between Catholics and freethinkers; 3. A linguistic fault line between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking people, which has now developed into a community fault line between communities and regions. Beside confirming what has been written by Mr. Wever with other facts I would like to integrate also some other aspects reported in the book BELGISTAN: LABORATORIO NACIONALISTA. The first point referred to labor and capital, recall the problem reported on the article The cartography of Belgiums Social Security Bea Cantillon, Seppe De Blust and Aaron Van den Heede, (Universiteit Antwerpen) where can be easily seen an heavy unbalance between the two parts in terms of taxpayers and unemployment rate. This is generating a drainage of value from Flanders towards the Wallonia side. BHV (Brussels-Halle Vilvoorde), is another hot theme that is confirming point 1, beside the extremely exhaustive literature and articles available on the site rethinking Belgium, I would like to add a concept well expressed in the book Belgistan, where seems incredible that the European Union, that in many cases, especially for the eastern European Countries for which has been extremely rigid, accepts instead a breach of free movement of people, freedom of establishment and most of all the protection of minorities at less then 10 kilometers from the headquarter. B. Knapp, Fdralisme et unit du droit idea referred to federalism as it should be the acknowledgement that several cultures can coexist in the same country. Awkwardly, the Belgian crisis brought to the annexation of Brussels-Halle-Vilvorde to the Flanders territory that surrounds Brussels region, immediately after the Francophones decided to leave the meeting in sign of protest. The BHV affair is relevant because for the first time the Flemish impose their decision to the

francophone minority, and is of course the worse example of cooperating federalism. The ideological fault line between Catholics and freethinkers, point number two, is today way less important then in the past centuries, but the main point to underline in this case is that the total absence of religion, that once was one the leading adhesive that allowed the existence of the country itself, lost most of strength for two reasons: the first is given by the European population that from a catholic point of view is not anymore religious as before, the second one is instead given by immigration that introduced in the country other religions, mainly Muslims. The third point is mainly related to the language difference, something that the Belgians never overwhelm. Together with the language difference is also present a cultural difference and in many cases an atavistic hatred between the two sides. From a sociologic point of view is easy to prove that the French language is not very welcome in the Flemish side, and vice versa. The Belgistan book also report an interesting example related to Kosovo and the eventual similarities that can be done in the Belgian case. In 2008 Kosovo declared unilateral independence, this has been highly criticized by several states and international institutions. Is hard to imagine, in fact that from a day to day situation a region of a country would declare independence unilaterally from the country itself. Like for example the Tuscany region would declare unilaterally independence from Italy. Is not the case in Italy, but this situation if pushed to the extremes can be considered realistic in Belgium. Of course unilateral independence should be avoided for several reasons, and moreover the Helsinki declaration (also known as Helsinki final act) dedicated mainly to the relations between the ex communists countries and the west Europeans in the respect of the borders contains the regulation to forbid an unilateral independence. In the complex relation between Europe and Belgium, a dissolution of the country would represent the victory of the little countries and of course the defeat of the dream of a real Europe as an unitary subject J. Lippert, Belgique, kleenex de lhistoire?, La Libre Belgique, 21 September 2007 Using the words of Francis Delpre, I would say: Et demain ? Vers quoi Belgique peut-elle voluer ? Est- elle capable de retrouver un minimum dunit ou est-elle voue une sparation douce?. F. Delpre, La Belgique fdrale, Bruylant, Bruxelles, 1994

Virtuous and Vicious examples

There are in history some virtuous and vicious cases that can be of a clear interest for this theme: A first vicious example is definitely the political history of Czechoslovakia that the 1st of January 1993 was divided in two parts, today two different countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia (both UE members) by decision of the Parliament. The two countries were created, or better re-created, beside the cultural differences, for economic reasons, the Czech part was always more prosperous and developed then the Slovak part, the linguistic difference was deep also in this case, causing, as usual, many problems between the two parts. Moreover the Republic of Czechoslovakia was created after the first world war, and in order to create a new nation different ethnic groups were merged with different cultures, traditions and of course economies. After Communism a separation of the two parts basically inevitable. This example can be considered vicious from the point of view of unification, but the reverse theory is that the example of Czechoslovakia is absolutely virtuous; the two countries suffered initially their separation but today their NDP is growing faster then the Italian one. Switzerland is definitely a virtuous example of cohabitation of different cultures and realities. Similar to Belgium in population (around three million less for Switzerland) and extension, the Confederation has four official languages, a highly developed sense of neutrality and federalism, and has direct democracy as one of the main instruments of government. This latter is definitely a key element that is missing in Belgium. After having faced a deep crisis in the 90s today Switzerland (that is not part of UE) has a growing economy, besides the well known chocolate watches and banks, is very important to underline the efforts in the research sector (around 10% NDP). Switzerland present today an advanced economy developed mostly in the tertiary sector and service providing. The Swiss economy is far more developed then the Belgian one and well distributed in the territory, the unemployment rate is lower and has a solid export. Moreover as described forward in this document Switzerland is a model to follow in terms of welfare state, social services and legislative management. In my opinion we should define the Swiss example as a benchmark to follow in the case of Belgium.

Proposed Solutions
Following the previous analysis, in this very complex situation is important to start thinking on establishing certain milestones. I consider crucial, in this case, to understand what is exactly Belgium today. The easiest way to understand a country, its government and the main features that embodies the institutions is to start form its Constitution. The Belgian Constitution has been reviewed several times during the history of the country, but even if we take in consideration all the reforms and revisions, a slight lack of democracy is present. What I think is missing are in fact the instruments of direct democracy (means democracy directly exercised by people), typical example is the referendum. The Belgian constitution provide a similar instrument called consultation populaire (art 134) in other words people are called for a direct vote on a specific matter, but, differently from referendum, their decision does not bind the National Government or Parliament on the matter, but is considered just as an orientation. Besides being one of the weaknesses of the actual Belgian constitution, in my opinion, this lack of power causes also other problems. Is then subsequent that Belgian politicians (Flemish and Walloons) can act with more independence then others then for example the Italian ones. Italy (a bigger country, with a bigger level of corruption) has in any case a referenda system established by Constitution and if the National Government takes a controvert decision on a certain matter the opposition parties or 500.000 citizens with a popular initiative can reply with a call for referendum. As an actual example is the case of the new nuclear policy introduced by the actual Government. Italy in the 80s already had a referendum on this theme and the Italians decided to ban the nuclear power plants from the country. In 2008 in the new Berlusconi government, in order to try to reduce the Italian dependence from other countries, (mainly France and Switzerland) prepared a new National Nuclear Strategy Plan. This decision was very conflict-ridden and criticised by the opposition parties. That is why the opposition parties with 500.000 signatures launched a call for referendum that will take place the next 15 of June, where Italian people will have the possibility to chose if the Country will follow the new National Nuclear Strategy Plan or will continue following the actual carbon-based one. In this context we are not interested to know which will be the Italian decision to follow or not the new nuclear energy policy, the main point is that the Parliament, the Government and the Italian Institutions (including the President) will be forced to follow the decision taken by the Italians. 6

This example clearly explains how powerful a referendum is towards the political system and the national institutions. In my opinion in the Belgian case is definitely not clear if the population wants to be part of a single country or not, therefore a new reform of the Constitution and a subsequent national referendum on the real existence of the country would be highly recommended. This would bring the population to a crossroad, where Belgian people will have the possibility to choose the future of their country. My judgment is coming from the analysis of several aspect of Belgium nowadays: As I said the Constitution is already a clear sign of what the legislator wanted to define. The first five articles of the Belgian Constitution not only define the country but also immediately underline the difference between regions, communities and how the country is separated. If we would repeat the same exercise for the Swiss Constitution, we will immediately see that is more descriptive, in the sense that of course defines the country and how is composed but consider also other rights like the Unity of the State (art 5) and the main principles. The fact that I would like to highlight is that even the legislator created the constitution not as something to unify (for example centred on the people or on the human rights) but seems a description of how the country is separated. The problem of Belgium is, of course, not only his constitution, would be very unwise from my side to explain to Belgian people that the two communities are completely separated nearly on everything, even televisions and radios. A complete unification is something definitely very difficult to reach, something that must be cultivated and prepared by several generations of politicians, a good example can be Italy, that celebrates this year the 150s unification anniversary and still several problems are there, another good example is the European Union, where a lot of thing still needs to be done. A unification process is therefore very important also for a federal state. My point is that if a State wants to be considered as such and is formed by communities, those last ones must have at least one point in common. According to my experience in Belgium I still believe that the communities want to be separated. Therefore, for those reasons, the most logic thing to do is a referendum to ask the Belgians if they want to be Belgians or they prefer to be Walloons or Flemish. In a more practical way the proposed referendum can be considered as a moment of truth for the Country, where two possible scenarios can be opened: The first one, the most sad, where the Belgians decides to divide the country. The second one, more promising, where the Belgians decide to unify the country (reforming the actual federal State, or rebuilding another simpler form of State). 7

The first solution

The first solution would be a defeat under several points of view: Would be a defeat for the people of a single country that tried to survive historically to several dominations and has its own history, for the Belgian political system, and, last but not least, would be a defeat for the European Union where instead of unifying different countries (like the motto says) the results will appears as a deeper fragmentation. Another aspect to be considered is that whatever number of countries would be formed from the separation, as variable number from two (Wallonie and Vlaanderen) to four (Wallonie, Vlaanderen, Bruxelles and Region germanophone), the new born countries will be considered external to the European Union and in anycase they will have to reconstruct their own monetary system, their army, and all their public services from the diplomatic to the social policies, this would bring even an heavier fiscal policy to the population. Of course after some years this will be managed by the new government but will take some time to reestablish equilibrium in different sectors on the other hand the European Union will be helpful when the new ex Belgian states will be recognised as candidate countries to the Union. Beside several problems that the new ex-Belgian states will face there will be in any case just few advantages on the newly gained independence: In fact the new born countries will finally solve the language, the cultural and the social problems aforesaid. For sure the solution will be radical and probably too effective but the real question in this case that every Belgian should ask himself, can be easily reported on a cost-opportunity question: Does independence worth all the additional costs and the sacrifices the population has to face? I personally think that this will be desirable, but I will leave the answer to the voters and the people involved. Before ending this paragraph a special suggestion should be done on Brussels. Several hypotheses have been done on the eventual future of the city in case of separation of the communities. I personally agree with the idea proposed by Charles Picqu in order to create a city state, something comparable to Washington DC, also called micro states, we have in fact several examples in Europe from micro monarchies (Monaco and Vatican City), micro diarchy (Andorra) or the oldest republic of the world (San Marino). Those are just some examples we can refer to create a new form of government for the new microstate. Is indubitable that the international right offers several possibilities but, as reported in the book Belgistan would be desirable a position from the European Union on the new future capital of the Union. 8

Second solution
The second solution should be the most promising one under several points of view. Once after the referendum the Belgian politicians will be forced to re-establish Belgium with deep reforms on Constitution and on the social state. This solution will open several debates on the weakness of Belgium. Starting exactly form their people. Camillo Benso conte di Cavour, once that Italy was unified by Garibaldi, stated a famous quote: Now that Italy is done, we have to do the Italians, no phrase is more appropriate also for Belgium. There are several examples of federal states of the same size of Belgium, and probably Switzerland is the closest virtuous example to the Belgian situation. Rethink Belgium in this way can be surely be effective. The construction of a federal republic with Brussels as a capital and the abolition of the communities can be a reasonable solution to lower the social state costs. One of the main features that the new Belgium should absolutely develop is a real central government with full powers with a subsequent subsidiary reduction (the state must be one), moreover the creation of real national parties (not half national ones), even if will be very difficult (the previous experiences were not successful). Again Switzerland can be the right example, where the cantons and regions (in a more linguistic sense) have a great autonomy but the central government has still all the legislative power. Two chambers manage the legislative power: the National Council, and the Council of the States (where cantons are present). Moreover in case of Switzerland, direct democracy is a very important instrument and the fact that the politicians are not career politicians but more part-time politicians has also a relevant importance. This second choice is normally very criticized but seems that this alternative has an excellent pay-off because the part-time politicians can enrich their mandate with their professional experience. Even the public administration is clearly simplified, for example there are only seven departments with an enormous advantage for the taxpayers. All those advices should be realised in a new Belgium, but of course, as the state of the art seems quite complex, would be very difficult to establish a starting point, even if extremely difficult to remove offices and institutions, probably the best solution nowadays is that the Belgian population should do the first move, in order to establish a better equilibrium for their country

Bibliography
From Belgian Nation State to Nations in Belgium: Past, Present and Future Bruno De Wever (Universiteit Gent) available at http://www.rethinkingbelgium.eu/ BELGISTAN: LABORATORIO NACIONALISTA, Jacobo De Regoyos Sainz (only in Spanish) The cartography of Belgiums Social Security Bea Cantillon, Seppe De Blust and Aaron Van den Heede, (Universiteit Antwerpen) available at http://www.rethinkingbelgium.eu/ S. Rossi Belgio: Note sulla crisi istituzionale dello Stato: www.forumcostituzionale.it/site/images/stories/pdf/.../0001_rossi.pdf B. Knapp, Fdralisme et unit du droit, Ann. Dr. Lv., 1986, 313 Time to call it a day, The Economist, 6 sept 2007 Declaration of Helsinki, http://www.wma.net/en/20activities/10ethics/10helsinki/ J. Lippert, Belgique, kleenex de lhistoire?, La Libre Belgique, 21 sept 2007 F. Delpre, La Belgique fdrale, Bruylant, Bruxelles, 1994 Belgian constitution available at http://www.senate.be/doc/const_fr.html Constitution of Switzerland available at www.admin.ch/ch/i/rs/1/101.it.pdf

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