Бельгиядағы Брюссель-Халле-Вильворде аймағының тарихы мен реформасы

Former constituency in Belgium

The area within Belgium known as Brussels Halle Vilvoorde encompasses the bilingual—French and Dutch—Brussels Capital Region, which coincides with the arrondissement of Brussels Capital and the surrounding Dutch speaking area of Halle Vilvoorde, which in turn coincides with the arrondissement of Halle Vilvoorde. Halle Vilvoorde contains several municipalities with language facilities, i. e. municipalities where French speaking people form a considerable part of the population and therefore have special language rights. This area forms the judicial arrondissement of Brussels, which is the location of a tribunal of first instance, enterprise tribunal and a labour tribunal. It was reformed in July 2012, as part of the sixth Belgian state reform. It also forms the more commonly known electoral district of Brussels Halle Vilvoorde, which, as part of the same 2012 reform, was completely split into a Brussels electoral district and, together with the electoral district of Leuven, into the electoral district of the province of Flemish Brabant. All Belgian electoral arrondissements now coincide with the Belgian provinces. The Brussels Capital Region does not belong to any province and has formed its own electoral district since July 2012. Before the splitting, the Brussels Halle Vilvoorde was an exception since Halle Vilvoorde is part of the province of Flemish Brabant, the other part being the Arrondissement of Leuven (which formed its own electoral district). One peculiarity remaining after the reform is that inhabitants of the six municipalities with language facilities around Brussels can still choose to vote for electoral lists of the Brussels Capital Region. Brussels Halle Vilvoorde has been the subject of a highly sensitive dispute within Belgium and was one of the main topics of the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis. A majority of the Flemings wanted to split it into two arrondissements (like the administrative ones), while the Francophones wanted to keep it as it was or, at a minimum, split it with concessions. The lists for the federal and European elections were composed of both Dutch and French language parties (in all other electoral areas it is either Dutch or French language parties), while the area is partly monolingual Halle Vilvoorde and bilingual Brussels. Consequently, French speakers living in monolingual Dutch speaking Halle Vilvoorde could vote for French language parties; whereas Dutch speakers living in monolingual French speaking Walloon Brabant could not vote for Dutch language parties. In 2003, the Court of Arbitration ruled the BHV district to be unconstitutional, citing unequal voting rights. It was abolished as part of the 2012 sixth Belgian state reform.

The Brussels judicial and electoral arrondissement, corresponding to what became later Brussels Halle Vilvoorde, has existed since the Belgian Revolution in 1830, when the country was created as a unitary state. At that time, French was the only language in politics, administration, justice, the army and all education except primary, to the disadvantage of Dutch speakers. Some Dutch speakers therefore decided to raise their children in French. Discrimination of the Dutch language started to lessen from the end of the 19th century onwards and came to a complete end in 1967, the year in which the Belgian Constitution got an official Dutch version. Belgium, as a unitary state, consisted of nine provinces with several arrondissements. Each arrondissement also served as an electoral district, however some of them were later grouped together. One of the nine provinces was Brabant, which consisted of the arrondissements of Brussels, Leuven and Nivelles. Upon the fixation of the language border in 1963, the arrondissement of Brussels was split into the bilingual arrondissement of Brussels Capital and the unilingual Halle Vilvoorde, but was retained as grouped arrondissements forming the electoral district of Brussels Halle Vilvoorde. Furthermore, nothing in the judicial structure was reformed, leaving the judicial arrondissement of Brussels unchanged. In the course of history, the administrative and political situation in Belgium has changed considerably and BHV has grown to become a major exception within the contemporary federal state of Belgium.

In 2003, one week after the election, the Arbitration Court (Arbitragehof, ), now the Constitutional Court of Belgium, declared the new election law unconstitutional. It judged that, among other things, the definition of the electoral arrondissement Brussels Halle Vilvoorde for national and European elections is a violation of the non discrimination principle between Belgians, taken in combination with articles 1 to 5 of the Constitution (especially article 4, defining the language areas). However, it left open the precise nature of any solution and thus did not demand the splitting of the electoral district but did not allow it to be kept as it is now. Nevertheless, the Court declared the results of the 2003 elections (already held under the law declared unconstitutional) to be valid to avoid having to redo the elections. The court however did not rule on all aspects of constitutionality. Among other things, it did not rule on the fact that some French speakers now enjoy de facto rights that Flemish do not. This applies mainly to the fact that a French speaker from Brussels who moves into a commune in the Flemish Region can still continue to vote for French speaking Brussels candidates, but a Fleming who moves into the (equally) monolingual Walloon Region cannot vote any longer for his Flemish candidates of choice from the two regions where Dutch is an official language (Flemish Region and Brussels Region). signed by the three large Flemish parties Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V), Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) and Different Socialist Party (SP. A), in addition to the Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N VA) (the at that time CD&V cartel partner) and the left liberal Spirit (the at that time SP. A cartel partner). Although the Flemish government and the Flemish parliament have no legal power concerning the case, the issue was seen as a commitment of the governing parties at a federal level, VLD and SP. A, to settle the case in the federal government.

Because the former arrondissements still exist in Brabant (see the previous section(s) for more information) there is a special arrangement for the provinces of Flemish and Walloon Brabant: for the allocation of seats between the party lists on the level of the former province of Brabant, lists can be combined between Leuven and Brussels Halle Vilvoorde (Dutch speaking parties do this) or between Nivelles and Brussels Halle Vilvoorde (French speaking parties do this). This practice is known in French as apparentement and in Dutch as apparentering. Voters can choose between candidates from both Flemish and Walloon parties (in all other electoral areas it is either Flemish or Walloon parties), although the area is partly monolingual Halle Vilvoorde (belonging to the Flemish Community) and bilingual Brussels (belonging to both communities), and consequently French speakers living in monolingual Dutch speaking Halle Vilvoorde can vote for French language parties, whereas Dutch speakers living in monolingual French speaking Walloon Brabant (equal to the former electoral arrondissement of Nivelles) cannot vote for Dutch language parties. This is discrimination according to the Flemish. Whatever the case may be, for the elections of 2007 the governor of the province of Flemish Brabant (instructed by the Flemish Minister of Administrative Affairs) stroke out from the lists of registered voters in BHV, all expatriates who had filled their voter’s registration form in French, including those who had registered in Municipalities with language facilities (where communication with the local and federal administration is normally allowed in either language). Likewise, for the elections of 2010, Belgian expatriates who had filled their voter’s registration form in French were stricken out from the lists, including in the municipality with language facilities of Sint Genesius Rode / Rhode Saint Genèse.

Since this is one judicial arrondissement, a legal case can be handled by both Dutch speaking and French speaking judges. This causes a problem comparable with the electoral situation: Brussels is bilingual, and Halle Vilvoorde is monolingual Dutch, so it is possible that a French judge is appointed a legal case from the Dutch speaking Halle Vilvoorde region, which is unfair from a Flemish point of view. The fact that Brussels has a more extensive court network, for example the Law Courts of Brussels, adds to this issue.

Many legal experts in Flanders, such as and Matthias Storme, argue that there is no way out, other than splitting BHV, that will respect the entire Belgian constitution. On the political level, Flemings argue that French speakers who choose to live in Flanders should respect the Flemish institutions, legislation and official language (Dutch), and should stop requesting an exceptional status (of not having to respect the Flemish institutions that are constitutionally established and internationally recognized). French speakers are asked to respect the division of Belgium into four linguistic areas, a democratically approved division with the support of a majority of French speaking members of the Belgian parliament. Flemings say that they want the same level of respect for their institutions as is the case everywhere else in the European Union.

Just as unanimously, at least among the political parties, most French speaking politicians claim that those French speakers who live in the Flemish Region should have the right to be treated as a linguistic minority that falls under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. This would then give them a kind of an "extraterritorial" voting right. This point of view differs sharply from many French speaking businessman and academics. 'Beci', a Brussels based employers organisation with 90% membership of French speaking businessmen, explicitly states it respects all the existing institutions, including the boundaries between the language areas. Similarly, a growing number of French speaking intellectuals and academics state that French speakers living in the Flemish region should stop behaving as if they are not in Flanders and thus vote for the Flemish electoral college. Philippe Van Parijs, a leading French speaking philosopher and economist from the UCL also defends strict 'territoriality' and for ending both the linguistic facilities and the 'extraterritorial' voting rights for French speakers living in the Flemish Region. He defended it in an interview in De Standaard and Le Soir on 23 August 2007.

There is a lack of consensus in national legal authorities about this subject as they seem divided between French and Dutch speakers. The French speaking Community and the Flemish Community have a different interpretation of the language facilities enjoyed by the French speaking population in some municipalities. There are binding rulings (as early as from 1968) from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, an institution with direct authority in all EU states, to confirm that the recognition of specific minority rights for the French speakers is to be limited to a very few number of municipalities and to a limited set of public services. Regular supra national recommendations from the Council of Europe, a body without direct authority and therefore a lesser status in the legal order in Belgium, expressed concerns in 2002 that the minority of French speakers in Flanders should be recognized and protected as an official linguistic minority, as defined by advise of the Venice Commission. However, other reports from this institution provide arguments to the contrary (e. g. the fact that the francophones in Flanders cannot be regarded as looking back on longstanding and peaceful relations with the Flemish authorities). Also, they cannot be regarded as being "sufficient in numbers" within the Council's definition so as to constitute a linguistic minority within Flanders. Flemish authorities have stated that the recommendations from the Council of Europe are invalid as they did not take into account the Belgian constitution or the European jurisprudence, which confirms a very limited definition of the 'language facilities'. As such, the Council of Europe and especially its 'rapporteurs', appear to be neglecting the special character of Belgium. It should also be noted that, the French language minority around Brussels is of quite recent origin (see Francization of Brussels). There is no 'historic French speaking minority' in these areas.

The problem of BHV became an important issue in the 2007–2008 Belgian government formation. On 7 November 2007, the Flemish parties voted at the Committee on the Interior of the Chamber of Representatives for the disentanglement, while the French speaking parties refused to vote and left the room. This situation has never previously occurred in Belgian history. All representatives of the Flemish parties voted in favor of the split of the BHV electoral district, with the exception of Tinne van der Straeten, of Groen!, the Flemish green party, who abstained. This situation shows that the Belgian debate goes far beyond legal quarrels about BHV; as the power of Walloon institutions decrease (and this since its industrial breakdown in the late 1960s) and as the Flemish government clearly consolidates its ideological orientation toward a situation of cultural domination, supported by demographic and financial matters. Every step in the Belgian debate can be interpreted symbolically as a fight between two cultures that might show mutual respect only when they can be protected from each other's domination. On 23 December, the interim Government officially came into office. The transitional period came to an end on 20 March 2008, when Yves Leterme was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Leterme I Government. Negotiations continued, but again no solution was reached, and Leterme offered the King his resignation on 15 July 2008, but the King refused.

The newly appointed Flemish President of the Constitutional Court Marc Bossuyt has stated that federal elections (after 2007) would be deemed "unconstitutional" if a legal arrangement for Brussels Halle Vilvoorde were not put into place by then. According to Article 65 of the Belgian Constitution, the Federal Parliament ends after four years, automatically leading to new federal elections within 40 days. This means the next federal elections were scheduled for 2011. In April 2010, the Flemish liberal VLD withdrew themselves from the government because no solution was found for the problem of BHV at the agreed upon date and so caused the collapse of the Leterme II Government. Consequently, new elections had to be set up, resulting in the general elections of June 2010. For these elections, several mayors in Halle Vilvoorde started a legal procedure because BHV was still not solved, and they refused to organise the elections in their municipalities, as with the previous two federal elections. The province of Flemish Brabant organised the elections instead. After these general elections, the next government will have to find a solution for BHV. N VA, the winner and now largest party of Flanders and Belgium, want to split BHV without concessions for French speakers. During the 2010 Belgian government formation, a solution for BHV has been part of a larger agreement. Mid September 2011 a tentative agreement was reached to partially split the district.

As part of the sixth Belgian state reform, the electoral district has been split and the judicial arrondissement has been reformed. On 13 July 2012 the Belgian Chamber of Representatives voted the laws (106 42) regarding the splitting of BHV. On 19 July 2012, the laws were signed by King Albert II in a public ceremony.

The BHV electoral district is split, and the Halle Vilvoorde electoral area is merged with the Leuven electoral area, forming a single provincial constituency corresponding to the province of Flemish Brabant; and the Brussels electoral area became a new separate single constituency corresponding to the Brussels Region. Inhabitants living in Halle Vilvoorde, whether French speaking or Dutch speaking, lost the possibility to vote for politicians from Brussels during the federal elections. However, the inhabitants of the six Flemish municipalities around Brussels with French language facilities, being Linkebeek, Wezembeek Oppem, Kraainem, Drogenbos, Wemmel and Sint Genesius Rode, are given the opportunity to choose their vote on a list either from Brussels or from Flemish Brabant, but are not allowed to vote for both. There has been criticism of the agreement, for example a Brussels lawyer noting that it is startlingly complex, difficult to accomplish and very disadvantageous to Flanders.