Resolved: Flanders and Wallonia as E.U. States

On August 22, 2024, Bart De Wever of the New Flemish Alliance group in Belgium resigned as his efforts to form a government had stalled. His group had won the most votes in the E.U. state’s most recent election back in June, at which time King Philippe appointed De Wever to find consensus among five groups on policies such as taxation on capital gains. Belgium’s longest period without an elected government is an incredible 592 days, which was set after the previous record of 541 days that had been set after the 2010 elections.[1] With two culturally-different regions, Belgium has been difficult to govern. Being a state in a union could conceivably help Belgium in this regard.

A day after De Wever resigned, a media report insisted that “Belgium must form a government to file a federal budget to the European Commission by September 20, 2024.”[2] Yet it seems easy enough to miss such a deadline. Rather than look for administrative means by which being in the Union could pressure the state to get its act together on governing, the possible impact may be more basic. Put another way, thinking bureaucratically is not sufficiently “outside of the box.”

Theoretically, there being some governmental sovereignty at the federal (i.e., E.U.) level takes the pressure off a state to form a government because not all governmental responsibilities are handled any longer at the state level. In other words, there is less riding on which groups govern the member state. But the amount of sovereignty that had been delegated by the states to the Union by 2024 was not sufficient to relieve enough pressure, given that the 592 and 541 days had occurred when Belgium was in the European Union. Furthermore, the heady game of politics can make virtually anything seem important to political antagonists, even if major decisions of public policy are taken elsewhere.

So, like the efficacy of any administrative means by which the E.U. might attempt to chide a stalled state into forming a government, taking the heat off is also unlikely to succeed. Being in a union presents Belgium instead with the non-ideological alternative of splitting into two E.U. states without them being foreign. In other words, being in a political union effectively relativizes the fallout from splitting up because both Flanders and Wallonia would still be in the Union; neither, after all, would be the smallest state in the Union. The intractability in governing should be a wake-up call, or indication, that maybe the two regions would be better off as separate states; governing together just hasn’t worked out very well.

Of course, opposing such a change, which seems drastic, is the ideology of nationalism and the related difficulty, especially in Europe, of letting go of some history. The same ideology has manifested in the E.U.’s Euroskeptic parties in the European Parliament to the potential detriment of the Union itself. Even conflating the union with a “bloc” is harmful in that Belgians would not realize the extent to which Flanders and Wallonia would still together by virtue of being states in the same union, which is substantially different than a trading bloc or military alliance. Citizens of Flanders and Wallonia would all be E.U. citizens, for example. They could live and work in the other state, and they wouldn’t have to go through customs in traveling back to visit old friends. Additionally, the currency wouldn’t change. They would all still be represented in the European Parliament.

Ironically, Belgians might even have a greater Flemish and Walloon cultural identity due to greater cohesion at the state level. Identifying more at the federal level—leveraging this—could thus make enhanced regional identity stronger rather than weaker. Il faut séparer être ensemble. It is a pity that thinking outside the box is perceived generally as radical, and thus as easily dismissable, and that making substantial rather than merely incremental change is often an up-hill battle, given the intractability of political will and the related momentum of stasis in the status quo, whether it is working or not.

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1. Angela Skujins, “Belgian Government Talks at a Standstill after Resignation of Key Negotiator,” Euronews, August 23, 2024.
2. Ibid.

Public Policy on Housing in the E.U.: On the Impact on Federalism

With rents and the price of houses being historically high in 2024 in the E.U., it is no surprise that housing was a salient issue in the E.U. election campaigns that summer. Legislative action on the state level had been insufficient. Hence, President von der Leyen told the parliament, “I want this Commission to support people where it matters most, and if it matters to Europeans, it matters to Europe.”[1] The Union complementing legislative action by state governments on such an important issue is admittedly a step in the direction of solving an urgent problem, but the impact on the federal system in the future should not be ignored. As important as a pressing issue of the day is, someone should be keeping an eye on the shop itself. The gradual political consolidation of the U.S. federal system over more than two centuries at the expense of federalism is an example of what can happen when policy-makers are too oriented in putting out policy “brush fires” without bothering to ask how the federal system itself could be impacted.

To be sure, homelessness and high house prices and rents had become big problems by 2024. In 2023, an estimated 890,000 people were homeless in the E.U., while over 650,000 people were homeless in the U.S., out of total populations of almost 447 million and 336 million, respectively. Even though less than 1 million out of hundreds of millions looks minor, the trauma of being without a stable shelter, as well as the fear of losing one’s shelter due to a dire change in economic condition, argues in favor of housing being recognized as a human right that governments are obliged to supply where reliance on a market and personal income falls short. Put another way, the sort of existential angst that is triggered by homelessness and, to a much lesser though significant (yet subtle) degree, losing a job (or even knowing that it is possible) belongs in the state of nature rather than in civil society. Where the supply of available units of affordable (i.e., low-income, and no-income) housing is less than the number of homeless in a given geographical area, this argument suggests that government should see to it that the gap is filled. This is, of course, a normative argument, one that has been much more prevalient in the E.U. than in the U.S.

Generally speaking, government targets for new units tend to fall short of those that would be necessary to expunge actualized existential angst. In the E.U. state of Ireland, a local-government official bragged to a journalist in 2024 that the city government would reach its target, and the journalist pointed out that it is insufficient to eliminate homelessness in the city. Both in terms of being shy in having more affordable-housing units built and in standing up to hedge funds that are driving up house prices by buying up some as investment (and even by keeping some units vacant to increase the shortage), local governments have fallen short.

Besides spending money on the construction of new units, government can restrict the use of residential real estate for investment and even as small hotels (e.g. Airbnb). At least as long as homelessness exists, so this argument goes, shelter’s use for speculation is inconsistent with housing as a human right. To be sure, the moneyed interests in a society can be hard for democratically-elected representatives to resist even when a significant number of people are paralyzed by existential angst.  

Not going nearly so far but signaling a shift in societal and governmental priorities, President von der Leyen of the European Commission set up her second portfolio, or term of office, in the summer of 2024 by stressing “the urgency of tackling the housing crisis, proposing the first-ever European affordable housing plan and a commissioner responsible for the policy area, as the Socialists had demanded as a condition for backing her second term.”[2] At the time, “a significant investment gap in social and affordable housing” existed in the Union.[3] In addition to there being the homeless, people were “struggling to find affordable homes,” von der Leyen said at the mid-July plenary in Strasbourg.[4] “Between 2010 and the end of 2023, average rents in the E.U. increased by almost 23% and house prices by nearly 48%, leading to protests in cities.”[5] The general economic interest was being negatively impaired by the housing- (and food-) led cost of living increases.

The E.U. being a federal system of dual sovereignty, like the U.S., von der Leyen had to contend with the “limited competency” of the E.U. in housing; by this I do not mean incompetence. Rather, the federal and state levels could both legislate in housing. Because the states could “only use public funds to target the most vulnerable groups,” space was open for the federal government to legislate to bring the cost of housing down. In other words, the states were oriented to the homeless problem, which arguably represents a greater, or more severe harm in society, so the Union’s activity on the wider problem of high rental and house markets would not usurp the residual sovereignty of the state governments.

This is not to trivialize the problem of high housing markets, whether in California or Ireland. “In terms of state aid [at the federal level], we would like to see the recognition of social and affordable housing for all—beyond disadvantaged groups or social groups with fewer opportunities—as a service of general economic interest,” said Christophe Rouillon, president of the PES group in the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).[6] The scope not only of the problem, but also of the legislative means, or power, is such that this “limited competency” of the Union could have a significant impact on shifting more power from the states to the Union. “The E.U. can influence housing through financial regulation, competition law, energy efficiency, regulatory and planning standards, cohesion policy, climate action, urban/rural and social policies,” Rouillon stated.

The impact of federalism should not be lost on policy makers both at the federal and state level even though the primary focus is on the policy issues (i.e., homelessness and high real estate markets). In reaching a fever pitch of societal displeasure, these issues may give us a glimpse into how modern federal systems, which are characterized by split (or dual) governmental sovereignty, tend to consolidate power at the federal level at the expense of the state governments over time. Europeans would be wise to think about whether the E.U., just over 30 years old in 2024, would be as consolidated at the U.S. in 2024 after more than two-hundred more years. Both unions being of vast territorial expanse in 2024, such that states in each union can differ from one another in the same union so much that “one size does not fit all” in public policies, political consolidation comes with significant drawbacks. Additionally, the “check and balance” feature of federalism is rendered inoperative when a federal government has so much power that the state governments cannot counter-balance it. The question of whether the E.U. might end up as consolidated politically as the U.S. is thus not at all trivial.

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1. Paula Soler, “Von der Leyen Promised an EU Commissioner to Tackle the Housing Crisis,” Euronews, August 13, 2024.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid. For those readers who feel the need to substitute “bloc” for “Union,” there is help.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.