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The fusion of the Belgian municipalities (French: ''fusion des communes'', Dutch: ''fusie van Belgische gemeenten'') was a Belgian political process that rationalized and reduced the number of
La fusion des communes: une réforme trentenaire (Merger of municipalities: a thirty-year old reform)
''Territoire(s) wallon(s)'', special issue (August 2008), pp. 27-34.
The fusion of the Belgian municipalities (French: ''fusion des communes'', Dutch: ''fusie van Belgische gemeenten'') was a Belgian political process that rationalized and reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium
Belgium comprises 581 municipalities ( nl, gemeenten; french: communes; german: Gemeinden), 300 of them grouped into five provinces in Flanders and 262 others in five provinces in Wallonia, while the remaining 19 are in the Brussels Capital R ...
between 1975 and 1983. In 1961, there were 2,663 such municipalities; by 1983, these had been re-arranged and combined into 589 municipalities.
The project of merging a number of local authorities to improve service delivery by streamlining administration and creating economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables a ...
was the work of the government headed by Leo Tindemans
Leonard Clemence "Leo" Tindemans (; 16 April 1922 – 26 December 2014) was a Belgian politician. He served as the prime minister of Belgium serving from 25 April 1974 until he resigned as minister on 20 October 1978. He was a member of the Chri ...
(1974–1978), and in particular of Interior Minister Joseph Michel. The legal framework in which the mergers would be implemented was laid out in an act passed by the Belgian Parliament
The Federal Parliament is the bicameral parliament of Belgium. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives (Dutch: , french: Chambre des Représentants, german: Abgeordnetenkammer) and the Senate (Dutch: , french: Sénat, german: Senat). It sit ...
on 30 December 1975.M. Lazzari, P. Verjans and A.-L. DurviauxLa fusion des communes: une réforme trentenaire (Merger of municipalities: a thirty-year old reform)
''Territoire(s) wallon(s)'', special issue (August 2008), pp. 27-34.
21st century
The regionalisation of local government organisation slowly renewed the question of municipality merging, especially in Flanders. The Flemish, Walloon and Brussels Regions became responsible for their respective municipalities in 2001. The Flemish decree of 24 June 2016 on the Voluntary Merging of Municipalities created a regulated procedure, including a financial incentive for municipalities who merge. After decades without any change, some municipalities began seriously considering a fusion. Fifteen Flemish municipalities were merged into seven per 1 January 2019, reducing the number of Flemish municipalities from 308 to 300, and the Belgian total from 589 to 581. As of 2022, several more municipalities are in the process of merging by 1 January 2025.See also
*List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region
The 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) are the political subdivisions of Belgium's central region. The government of each municipality is respons ...
(19 municipalities)
* List of municipalities of the Flemish Region
At the creation of Belgium in 1831, there were 2,739 municipalities in the country, which had fallen to 2,663 municipalities by 1961. Following a series of decisions and actions, carried out in 1975, 1983 and 2019, the fusion of the Belgian munici ...
(300 municipalities)
* List of municipalities in Wallonia (262 municipalities)
References
Geographic history of Belgium Municipalities of Belgium Mergers of administrative divisions 1970s in Belgium 1980s in Belgium {{Belgium-geo-stub