Belgium: About Belgium - Part 1

From ExecutivePlanet.com

An introduction

For a small country with a high density of population [some 10m people in an area about the size of Maryland] Belgium is remarkably lacking in homogeneity. The Royaume de Belgique [in French] or Koninkrijk Belgie [in Dutch] gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1830 and became a unified, centralised monarchy with a new constitution on the accession of Leopold I in 1831, but today it is effectively a tripartite state in which central government plays a diminished role. Following the last constitutional amendment in 1993, Belgium is now a federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, consisting of three distinct autonomous regions--Flanders [in the north and west], Wallonia [in the south and east], and Brussels Capital--each with its own legislative body and extensive powers. At the same time Belgium is also divided into three administrative communities that reflect the three official languages: Dutch, French and German.

The root cause of what--to the outsider at least--looks like a recipe for bureaucratic chaos lies precisely in the fact that Belgium is split linguistically. French-speakers [ca 40%] inhabit the Walloon region, which occupies more than half of Belgium; Dutch-speakers [ca 60%] inhabit the more industrialised northwestern plains of Flanders; German-speakers [< 1%] are to be found in the region around Eupen along the border with Germany. Brussels is legally bilingual [Dutch and French] but it is in fact a predominantly French-speaking island surrounded by the Dutch-speaking province of Vlaams-Brabant. [There is also the tiny enclave of Baarle which is situated entirely within Dutch territory, but that is another story altogether]. The issue of Flemish as a language in its own right is a complete red herring; to quote the website of the Flanders Authority: 'The official language of Flanders is Dutch, although the region is rich in Flemish dialects.'

The so-called 'cock-pit' of Europe, then, is legally bilingual [Dutch and French] but Belgium is not a melting pot. The two dominant cultures co-exist in an uneasy, but positive tension that actually generates a creative dynamism. For the visiting businessman, even the linguistic friction is not a problem. If you speak French, do so in Brussels and Wallonia; if not speak English. If you speak Dutch, do so in Flanders; if not, speak English. For historical reasons, it is inadvisable to speak German at all outside the tiny German-speaking area. Belgium, then, is effectively trilingual: like the Netherlands, it has easy and direct access to printed and broadcast media from the UK and, as a consequence, most of the population have a high level of competence in English as a second or even third language.

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