Sample reading report

Why Belgium's unending linguistic disputes matter to Europe    

The 1968 language wars between the Dutch-speaking and Francophone Belgians led to the division of the 1.6 m books in the library of the University of Leuven. It was followed by the partition within the Catholic church and the main political parties (Catholics, liberals and socialists). Belgian politics became tribal, and Belgium turned into a near-ungovernable federation.

After the election in June 2010, a caretaker government was in office for 230 days, thus holding the European record for being the country without a government for the longest time. Fortunately, the bond markets seemed largely unconcerned about Belgium's giant public debt close to 100% of its GDP. Surprisingly, Belgium registered some student protests urging their country's politicians to get a move on not until the end of January 2011.

At the time this article came out the world gave little thought to Belgium, even though a break-up looked less unthinkable than it had been before the elections in 2010. Paradoxically, the slow dissolution of Belgium went hand in hand with the deeper integration of the EU. One way of looking at Belgium's divide is to see it as a counterpart to the EU's split between the north and the south. In Belgium’s case, however, the euro gave all parties the luxury of intransigence.

The blockage in question is unlike the previous ones in that for the first time, an avowedly separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), became dominant in Flanders. This party, led by Bart de Wever, wants a decisive shift of powers to Flanders, and it makes little secret of its wish to see Belgium “evaporate” within the EU. The N-VA wants to see the EU-rope string Belgium up.

Strangely, the erosion of sovereignty is seen as the antidote to violent nationalism. According to Mark Leonard, the Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the EU's “taking the gun out of politics” has contradictory effects; on the one hand, it makes it easier to draw violent groups into politics. On the other hand, it allows not only peaceful nationalists to act up, but also voters to support them, because there is no danger of bloodshed.

Separatism is not a singular phenomenon restricted to Belgium in the EU, e.g., rich regions pulling away from poorer ones in Spain and Italy, big ethnic minorities in many ex-communist countries moving towards more autonomy, or the Scottish nationalists speaking of independence while remaining within the EU.

Changing national borders rarely resolves nationalist and ethnic disputes. Nevertheless, where communities overlap, tolerance, respect for minority rights, autonomy and cross-border co-operation are better democratic tools.

In any case, it will be much more difficult to separate the Dutch-speakers and Francophones in Brussels than it was at the University of Leuven. This conundrum offers the best hope that, in the end, Flemings and Walloons will somehow learn to live together for the benefit of Belgium and perhaps of the whole EU.