Here is a text from The Economist, which you can read and write a summary report on.
Cross-border co-operation or redrawing borders
A summary of Charlemagne’s article
In 1968 a language war took place at the University of Leuven splitting it into two parts. This
was followed by a series of divisions within the Belgian Catholic
church and major national political parties. The championing of the
linguistic agenda eventually turned Belgium into a near-ungovernable
state.
The last election in June 2010 left the Kingdom with a caretaker government for 230 days, thereby breaking a new European record. Nonetheless, due to its many-layered decentralised administration, daily life went on in Belgium. The country even chaired the rotating European Presidency without any problems during the second half of 2010. "Eurocrats", along with financial markets, seemed not to be worried about living in a paralysed country with a giant public debt close to 100% of its GDP.
Over the years up to the time this article came out, the break-up of Belgium had looked less and less unthinkable. Nevertheless, any hint of partition would trigger a dumping of Belgian bonds because of the uncertainty over who would pay back the federal debt.
Yet, some Flemish separatists, who are comforted by a strong euro and an ever-deeper integration of the EU, hope that Europe would be the acid that dissolves Belgium. As such, even though Europe overcame a lot of historic enmities within its borders as national sovereignties eroded through the EU integration, which is an antidote for violent nationalism, this integration process also enables non-violent groups, such as the Flemish separatists, to act up and receive broad support from voters. This means that a precedent of a rich region pulling away from a poorer one would concern many other EU Member States, such as Spain or Italy.
Luckily, conundrums created by overlapping communities are better solved with democratic tools, such as minority rights, autonomy or tolerance, rather than by redrawing borders.
The last election in June 2010 left the Kingdom with a caretaker government for 230 days, thereby breaking a new European record. Nonetheless, due to its many-layered decentralised administration, daily life went on in Belgium. The country even chaired the rotating European Presidency without any problems during the second half of 2010. "Eurocrats", along with financial markets, seemed not to be worried about living in a paralysed country with a giant public debt close to 100% of its GDP.
Over the years up to the time this article came out, the break-up of Belgium had looked less and less unthinkable. Nevertheless, any hint of partition would trigger a dumping of Belgian bonds because of the uncertainty over who would pay back the federal debt.
Yet, some Flemish separatists, who are comforted by a strong euro and an ever-deeper integration of the EU, hope that Europe would be the acid that dissolves Belgium. As such, even though Europe overcame a lot of historic enmities within its borders as national sovereignties eroded through the EU integration, which is an antidote for violent nationalism, this integration process also enables non-violent groups, such as the Flemish separatists, to act up and receive broad support from voters. This means that a precedent of a rich region pulling away from a poorer one would concern many other EU Member States, such as Spain or Italy.
Luckily, conundrums created by overlapping communities are better solved with democratic tools, such as minority rights, autonomy or tolerance, rather than by redrawing borders.
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