ABSTRACT
One of the major puzzles for contemporary political science is how and to what extent states centralise competences or, on the contrary, shift powers to local, regional, European or international arenas. In this respect, Belgium has been subject to two developments over recent decades. On the one hand, a large number of competences have been transferred to the European level, while, on the other hand, the reform of the Belgian state has led to sub-units with a substantial portfolio of policy competences, including foreign relations. Few other states went through such extensive reforms. This process can be seen as an attempt to adjust the scale of government to reflect better Belgium’s political and cultural heterogeneity. At the same time, Belgium became intensively involved in and supportive of the process of European integration. Today it participates fully in all policy areas, including the monetary union, the Schengen Agreements and the emerging common defence policy. Belgium’s integration into the European Union can be considered as an attempt to create policy-making venues that increase the territorial scope of market exchange. In sum, the combination of federalisation and European integration results in a system of multilevel governance (MLG) which satisfies two seemingly contradictory considerations, i.e. coping with heterogeneity while at the same time reaping the benefits of an expanded economic market.
