8th Public Event of the Re-Bel initiative
Thursday 20 December 2012, 2-6pm
An ebook based on this event was published in September 2013
Must Brussels’s communes be merged ? The experiences of Antwerp, Berlin and Vienna
The relationship between the Brussels Region and its 19 communes and its relationship with the communes that surround it in Vlaams Brabant and Brabant wallon are both important to its daily functioning and to its long-term prospects. How can these relationships be improved? The examples of Antwerp and Paris are sometimes offered as a model for the former relationship and the examples of the eurometropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai or of the French Communautés urbaines as a model for the latter. But there are other examples further afield that may provide more relevant food for thought, in particular the Länder of Vienna and Berlin. Both are the capital cities of a member state of the EU, separate components of a federal state and completely surrounded by another component of this same federal state. Lessons might be learned from how these and other cities cope with challenges broadly analogous to those faced by Brussels, its communes and its metropolitan area.
Lead Pieces
Small is beautiful? Lessons from a decade of decentralisation in Antwerp, by Wouter Van Dooren & Dave Sinardet
How should the interdependencies between Brussels and its hinterland be organized?, by Caroline Van Wynsberghe
Programme
1.30 pm Registration
2-3.45 pm: Can the internal governance of Antwerp (and Paris) provide a model for the internal governance of Brussels?
Introduction by Philippe Van Parijs (UCLouvain and Oxford)
1. Can the internal governance of Antwerp (and Paris) provide a model for the internal governance of Brussels?
Chaired by Bea Cantillon (UA)
Lead Piece by Dave Sinardet (VUB and UA) and Wouter Van Dooren (UA)
Comments by
Harald Bürger (Verbindungsbüro der Stadt Wien),
Maik Martin (Senat für Inneres und Sport, Berlin)
Stefan Sottiaux (Constitutional law, KU Leuven)
Discussion
4.15-6pm: How should the interdependencies between Brussels and its hinterland be organized?
Chaired by Estelle Cantillon (ULB)
Lead Piece by Caroline Van Wynsberghe (UCL)
Comments by
Harald Bürger (Verbindungsbüro der Stadt Wien)
Volker Loewe (Büro des Landes Berlin bei der EU)
Christian Behrendt (Constitutional law, Université de Liège)
Discussion
Conclusions by Paul De Grauwe (LSE and KU Leuven)
6pm: Reception