Brussels is a capital city like no other in Europe. Every other big city grew over centuries trough the continuous annexation of the outskirt districts. But not the “City of Brussels” which currently counts only ca. 180 000 inhabitants and constitutes only a minor portion of the actual urban area. The rest of the city area within the urban ring is from the administrative point of view a group of 18 separate small towns with its own town halls, town councils and town assemblies.
None of the 19 administrations has a say about the overall city life topics like public transport, urban planning, heritage, green spaces, waste and recycling, infrastructure, public works, air quality, energy or sustainable development. All this is a responsibility of the “Brussels Capital Region”, a construct which represents the actual city with its ca. 1,2 million inhabitants. This particular political structure has a number of consequences for the day-to-day life, one of which has been particularly widely discussed in the scope of the 2016 terrorist attacks. Another important consequence is that non-national residents living in Brussels have only right to participate in the democratic process if their district-town with its very limited governance scope. According to the Brussels Times the share of European citizens in the Brussel’s population has currently reached 23%. And yet this substantial number of citizens has no right to participate in the local election on the city level of the “Brussels Capital Region” and therefore is not represented in its institutions. This situation has been described by the 1Bru1Vote movement as “one of the largest democratic deficits in the European Union“.
1Bru1Vote is a grassroots initiative seeking to give voice to the foreign nationals in Brussels. It’s petition calling for their right to participate in the 2019 “regional” elections has been handed over to the Belgian Prime Minister.
However this action has not been successful.
We believe that every citizen should be given right to be heard in the democratic process which shapes his or her local living environment. Therefore we support the future efforts of the 1Bru1Vote initiative.
Read more at www.facebook.com/1Bru1Vote/