THE GERMAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITY AND ITS PARLIAMENT IMPRESSUM Legally liable publisher: Stephan Thomas, Secretary general Concept and text: Information Department of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community Design: Freddy Betsch Photos: Harald Lamberty Stephan Offermann Fotalia Printing: Parliament of the German-speaking Community © Parliament of the German-speaking Community, 2016 Platz des Parlaments 1 B-4700 EUPEN Tel.: +32 (0)87/31 84 00 Fax: +32 (0)87/31 84 01 [email protected] www.pdg.be 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Parliament of the German-speaking Community ...................................................... 4 The German-speaking Community ............................................................................................ 7 Key historical dates ........................................................................................................................... 10 Institutional development milestones ..................................................................................... 13 The German-speaking Community within the Belgian State structure .................. 19 The Parliament of the German-speaking Community - a legislative institution ................................................................................................................... 25 How does a decree come into being? ..................................................................................... 29 Competences ..................................................................................................................................... 30 The Government: the executive power ................................................................................. 36 The Community’s finances .......................................................................................................... 38 Cooperation and conflict settlement ...................................................................................... 41 Autonomy and the future outlook ........................................................................................... 45 Selected further reading............................................................................................................... 46 3 THE PARLIAMENT OF THE GERMAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITY The Parliament of the German-spea- • supervision and financing of munici- king Community is the legislative power palities. of this Community in Belgium. The Ger- The Parliament of the German-spea- man-speaking Community is officially king Community exercises its legisla- recognized by Article 2 of the Belgian tive powers by decree (“Dekret”). Constitution. Its legal status is defined, inter alia, by Articles 38, 115, 116, 121, 130, Even if the German-speaking Com- 139 and 176 of the Constitution. munity makes up only a small minority of the Belgian population (0.7%), its Constitutionally the German-speaking Parliament is on an almost equal foo- Community is a legislative institution in ting with the Parliament of the French- matters specific to the Community speaking Community and the Flemish (Article 130 of the Constitution), as Parliament. It can be compared with well as to regional matters that have the Länder parliaments in federal been transferred to the Community states like Germany or Austria, even if under Article 139 of the Constitution. these Länder’s powers are more signi- These are: ficant. • cultural matters, • people-related matters, i.e. family, The Parliament of the German-spea- health and social affairs, king Community was officially laun- • inter-community and international ched on 30 January 1984, under its cooperation former name of the “Council of the • education and training German-speaking Community”. This • monument and landscape protec- was the successor institution to the tion and excavations Council of the German Cultural Com- • employment policy munity, an initial decision-making forum, 4 5 The Plenary hall in the new building in which the desire for autonomy of munity and its Parliament. Obviously the German language area was deba- we first need to give some details as ted and the first decisions in cultural to the size, structure and history of matters were made. the German language area. We will also attempt to explain how the Ger- This leaflet aims to provide the reader man-speaking Community is incor- with a basic knowledge of the auto- porated into the structures of the Bel- nomy of the German-speaking Com- gian federal state. 6 THE GERMAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITY The German-speaking Community of trative matters are made by the fede- Belgium is located in the eastern part ral state and may not be taken indepen- of the country. It shares borders with dently by the German-speaking Com- Germany, the Netherlands and Luxem- munity. burg. The German-speaking Commu- The territory of the German-speaking nity counts around 77.000 inhabitants. Community is identical with the Ger- Most are German-speaking Belgians, man language region recognized in but this number also includes Walloon, article 4 of the Constitution. This area’s Flemish and foreign citizens. size is 854 km² and it covers the mu- The German-speaking Community is nicipalities of Amel, Büllingen, Burg- officially recognized by Article 2 of the Reuland, Bütgenbach, Eupen, Kelmis, Constitution. Articles 115, 121 and 130 of Lontzen, Raeren and St. Vith. the Constitution give it approximately The German-speaking Community con- the same legal status as the French sists in fact of two differently structu- and Flemish Communities; i.e. it has red sub-areas: the smaller, but more more or less the same degree of densely populated area around Eupen autonomy and powers, and the insti- in the north, and the Belgian Eifel in tutions for expressing its individuality the south. These two areas are sepa- are qualitatively equal. rated by the High Fens (in German: The administrative, educational and Hohes Venn), a moorland area exten- judicial language in the German-spea- ding partly over the municipality of king area is German. French-speakers Weismes (French language region). are, however, granted special rights. Several industrial companies of super- This is the reason why decisions con- regional importance are located in and cerning the language used in adminis- around Eupen. 7 Born The area lies close to major internatio- days, tourism is developing into a nal traffic routes. The city of Eupen major economic factor in this at- (18,000 inhabitants), an old cloth-ma- tractive, but structurally weak region. king city with a long historical tradi- tion, is the seat of the Parliament of St. Vith is the centre of the southern the German-speaking Community, its municipalities, especially when it Government and the BRF (“Belgian comes to schools and shops. This small Radio and TV Centre of the German- city was completely destroyed during speaking Community”). World War II but was later rebuilt. The surrounding municipalities are With its lake and the Worriken tourist more rural, though zinc ore was mined centre, Bütgenbach has developed in industrially for centuries in Kelmis, recent years into a major vacation and which was in the 19th century the lar- water sports centre for visitors coming gest zinc mining area in Europe. from everywhere. The Belgian Eifel consists of extensive woodland and grazing. Agriculture is The German-speaking Community has no longer an important source of in- an extraordinary rich cultural life and come contrary to earlier years. Nowa- boasts a high level of artistic creativity. 8 Kelmis Lontzen Raeren Eupen Bütgenbach Büllingen Amel St.Vith Burg Reuland 9 HISTORICAL MILESTONES ◀ Until 1794 1794 the northern area (Eupen region) belonged mainly to the Denkmalschutzplakette Duchy of Limburg, governed in perso- nal union with Brabant since the battle of Worringen (1288). The southern part (Belgian Eifel) belonged mostly to the Duchy of Luxembourg, except for Man- derfeld-Schönberg, which was part of the Electorate of Trier. German dialects were spoken in both the northern and southern parts: Lower Franconian, Rhi- nish Franconian and Mosel Franconian. ◀ 1794-1795: The French revolutiona- ries conquered the Austrian Low Coun- tries (including Limburg and Luxem- bourg), the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy. The Eupen area and the Eifel were pla- ced in the department of Ourthe, with the exception of Manderfeld-Schön- berg, which now belonged to the Saar department. ◀ 1815: With the defeat of Napoleon the map of Europe was redrawn at the Congress of Vienna. Eupen and its area, 10 the Eifel and part of the former abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy were included in “Büchel”-tower St.Vith the Rhineland, now Prussian (from 1830 Prussian province of the Rhine), as were the districts of Eupen and Malmedy. Neutral-Moresnet (Kelmis) remained a curious exception, being placed under dual Prussian-Dutch (after 1830 Prus- sian-Belgian) government, owning to its rich zinc deposits. ◀ 1914-1918: During the First World War the inhabitants of Eupen and Mal- medy fought for the German Reich. 766 persons were reported as dead or missing in the district of Eupen and 1082 persons in the district of Mal- medy. ◀ 1919-1920: Under the Treaty of Ver- sailles, Neutral-Moresnet and - after a disputed referendum - the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium. turn of Eupen-Malmedy to Germany in ◀ Between 1920-1925 1925 the for- exchange for 200 million gold marks. mer German districts were subject to Negotiations fail because of the ener- the authoritarian transitional regime getic objection of France. of Lieutenant-General