COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONSEIL DE L'EUROPE Strasbourg, 4th November ±L>63 Restricted AS-CPL/IQ (63) 14 Or» Pr. CONSULTATIVE ASSEMBLY EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES JOINT COMMITTEE COEQ16823 ON EUROPEAN REGIONAL PLANNING ECONOMIC DECLINE The industrial conversion of a depressed area of Belgium: the Hainaut Report by Mr. P. Persoons, Deputy Director of the Bank of Brussels, Advisor to Socorec, presented to the EEO Conference on Regional Economies in December 1961 and now submitted by Mr. Molter for the information of the Joint Committee A81.818 - 2 - AS/CPl/Am. (63) 14 FOREWORD The present report is based on an economic development study undertaken by Socorec, a regional development company set up in 19 59 by a number of Belgian industrial associations to assist with the conversion of regions affected by the closing down of colleries. The study was directed and financed with the help of the ECSC High Authority. Research work was carried out by the following specialised bodies, under the guidance of the first-named: Société d'économie et de mathématiques appliquées, Paris, its Belgian branch Sobemap, the Economic and Social Research Institute of the University of Louvain, the Solvay Institute and the Hainaut Institute of Economic Research. Socorec has this study available for those wishing to consult it o It comprises ten volumes and approximately 2,900 pages, but there exists a 150-page surmia.ry. In the present report we have tried to bring out the planning features of the study and to underline the European context in which it was carried out. _ 3 - AS/CPL-/An (63) 14 CHAPTER I T.he significance for Europe of the region's obsolescent character This report is essentially concerned with the industrial strip of the Belgian Hainaut, which is divided up into three regions, from West to East; the Bori-nagé-, the. Centre, and the region of Charleroi with its £jrolongation, the Basse-Sambre» This industrial region grew up around the coalfields in the 19th century„ It constitutes a comparatively autonomous and homogeneous part of the' industrial zone which extends from the region of liège, along the' Meuse, the Sambre and the Haine rivers, and except for a break near Namur, down to the region of Valenciennes and the coalmining district of Northern Prance, which, like the Charleroi region is known as the "Black Country". Important in itself (1,060,000 inhabitants at the end of 1959)? the region we are going to discuss is also highly significant in relation to the problems of old coalfields in general. The industrial revolution began in these regions, and brought about a sudden influx of population» Housing, though it may have been an advance on the average conditions of the time when it was builty is now in a dilapidated condition and very much below modern standards. The extremely arduous working conditions of the 19th century have left their mark on the minds of the people and the whole economic and social environment has been unfavourable to an adequate birthrate. In addition orientation towards better planned industries has been hindered by a series of factors such as the isolation of the region from external markets in 1914 - 1918, the fact that industrial enterprise was confined to an economy necessarily based on certain types of manufacture ana the increasing shortage of manpower following the decline in population. AS/CPL/Am (63) 14 - 4 - A further factor was the rapid fall in coal production, on which the whole economy was originally based.. But even without the coal crisis the need for re-planning an industrial region more than a century old would inevitably have arisen. The re-planning of coalmining areas is not a problem confined to the TIainaut. ' It is arising in other European countries and a few years hence the majority of industrial regions will have to cope with similar problems. The present practice of building new appendages to the old' industrial, centres and piercing improved lines of communication, which, moreover, are unable to keep pace with the continually swelling stream of traffic,'will no longer suffice. These regions must be planned on entirely new lines. That is why I hope that several regions in Europe will find an echo of their own problems in this report devoted to the industries of the Hainaut. - 5 - AS/CPL/Am. (63) 14 CHAPTER II The industrial problems of the Hainaut (a) The extent of the economic decline 1. The comparative population of the "districts of Mons, Thuin, Soignies and Charleroi increased rapidly ^by • immigration between 1850 and 1880 from 9$ to 13$ of the . total population of Belgium. It remained constant between 1880 and 1920" and during, the. last .40 years has gradually reverted to its 1850 proportion (9$)- in spite of an influx of foreigners constituting 15$ of the population. i 2. The- coal production of the Hainaut, which was 17?500,000 .tons in 1910, that is to say 72$ of national production, ; is at present 9 ? 500,000 tons or 40fo of national production (I960). ' 3. Since 1947 total employment has fallen by 22$ in the Borinage and 11$ in the Centre, a loss of 35,000 jobs. The figure for the Charleroi region is only 79000, or 3.5/°. During the same period, the total .level of employment remained stable in the country as a whole.' Between 1957 and 1961, the number of workers employed in the Borinage fell by. 14,600, including 12,500 miners and 1,500 workers in other industries. In the Centre, the number employed fell by 10,600 „ The tertiary sector continued to grow but the number of miners fell by 10,500 and other industrial workers by 1,000. Since 1957 the fall in employment has also affected the region-of Charleroi which has lost 13,000 workers or 6$ of the total population. This percentage is obviously lower than in •••the Centre- '(12$) and the Borinage. (15$)5 and it explains why.we continue to make a distinction between the two regions where the situation is really critical and the region of Charleroi. The figures .seem to indicate, however, that Charleroi is following, at some 10-years' distance, the same process of decline which is at present undermining'the Centre where it did not begin until 10 years later than in the Borinage. The situation with regard to immigrant workers in the Centre and the Borinage deteriorated between 1957 (when the immigrants exceeded the emigrants by 6,500) and 1961 AS/CPL//un (63) 14 - 6 - (when they numbered 1,000 less than emigrants, a fact which illustrates the few job?- offering in the region. miners' wages were relatively ...high, this development had an appreciable effect on the average standard of living m the region. 4. The total regional income of the Borinage and the Centre fell from 22,400 million Belgian francs in 1957 to 20,000 . million in 1961, a drop of more than 10$, whereas the • national' income rose during the same period by 9.5$•> Per capita income fell by approximately 9f° and is at present only 80$.of the average for the country. Per capita income also fell in the Charleroi area between 1957 and 1961, though less seriously than in the other two regions ('2.5$). CONCLUSION When the working population falls by 12 or 15$ in 5 years and the -per capita income by 9 or 10$, the economic consequences of such a sudden movement cannot be immediately assessed. The Centre and the Borinage are accordingly in a position where they have not yet felt the cumulative process of t.^e decline. Indeed, this process, might be arrested altogether if the economy could, be stabilised at its present level. In order to achieve this aim, which might appear a modest one, but which is, as we shall see, foughc with difficulty, it is necessary to set out briefly the general causes of the decline. (b) General causes of the economic decline 1. Declining Population The Hainaut has long suffered from an unduly low birthrate, principally owing to the economic- and social conditiono surrounding its growth in the 19th century. The population problem was later considerably worsened by the depression o the Thirties to the extent that today half of the Belgian inhabitants of the Hainaut are over 40 years of age. In ^ Belgium as a whole, however, the proportion of the population over 40 years of age is only 43$, in spite of the fact that it .has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe» As a comparison, it might be mentioned that in the Netherlands the proportion is only 35$. The fall in population has been partially offset by immigration from abroad. Foreign workers represent 17.5/° of the manpower employed in industry in the Hainaut. 70/° of them are Italians. They form a young section of the ./. - 7 - AS/CPL/Am (63) 14 population, less than 25% "being over 40 years of age. However, only a small number of foreign workers are. married to Belgian nationals. Many have left their fam-ilies behind in thier own countries, which shows that they have no desire to settle permanently* in their present place of . work. In 1957, when coal production was at its height, about 10,000 foreign workers left the country as against approximately 20,000 who entered it. It is a fact that those foreign workers who are accompanied by their .families usually ha,ve a number of children. Among the foreign population, the under-15 age group represents 27% of the total, as compared with 21% for the local population.