EU統合の深化とベルギーの連邦化改革

Abstract

Belgian state has been reformed from a centralized state into a federal state by four constitutional revisions over the last twenty-five years. The purpose of this reform was to settle the serious conflicts between two language groups, French and Dutch. This paper aims to explore the federalization process in relation to the European integration, especially to the developing role of subnational actors in the EU.The most impotant feature of Belgian federal system is the existence of two different entities, that is “Region” and “Community”. “Region” is based on the territory and has its competences concerning economy, such as regional economic development, employment, industrialization, and environment. “Community” is related to language and culture, its competences are linked to personal matters, for example, culture, language policies, education, health care, and welfare.Meanwhile, in the process of European integration, subnational entities, that is, regions or local authorities have got more influence on the EU decision-making. European regional policy has remarkably developed after the reform of the Structual Funds in the late 1980s. The Maastricht Treaty, which established the Committee of the Regions, intensified the debate about whether the principle of subsidiality should be understood to imply more participation for subnational actors in the EU decision-making. Moreover, Belgian subnational authorities have got the privileges to take part in the Council of Ministers concerning issues that relate to the competences of federal entities. These changes have not only economical but also institutional impact on the relation between federal government and subnational authorities, and Belgian federal entities have been more and more reinforced.In general, federal system has a purpose to cope with both unity and diversity. In Belgian case, these two directions existed. Ethnic conflicts between two language groups and empowerment of federal entities in the EU worked as centrifugal force for maintaining the Belgian state, on the other hand, bilingual capital Brussel and lasting importance of Belgian state in the EU decision-making worked as centripetal force. Belgian federalization process has developed in this multi-layer international system; EU, Belgium and federal entitites. Belgian case has an important meaning as example of the complicated relation among three layers in the international society.