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40-576: Schilde ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsxɪldə] ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp . The municipality comprises the towns of Schilde proper and 's-Gravenwezel  [ nl ] . In 2021, Schilde had a total population of 19,925. The total area is 35.99 km². It has one of the highest per capita income levels in Flanders. Schilde is home to Rugbyclub Diabolos . This Antwerp Province location article

80-444: A geographical, linguistic, economic, social or cultural nature. In 1964 and in 1969 and 1970, roughly 300 municipalities ceased to exist and were subsumed into other municipalities. The number of municipalities was reduced from 2,663 in 1961 to 2,586 in 1965 and to 2,359 in 1971. Article 4 of the constitution states that each municipality must belong to only one of the four official language areas that were established in 1962–63. In

120-725: A policy declaration by the Eyskens III Government in November 1958 encouraged small communes to merge. This led to the Unitary Law of 14 February 1961, which introduced new provisions to facilitate mergers of communes by giving the government the right to carry out such regroupings for a period of ten years. These new provisions led to an initial reduction in the number of communes. In 1964, Belgium had 2,585 communes, 110 of which were grouped into 37 new entities. Belgium had come to have 2,379 communes by 1970, and 2,359

160-834: A result, there are several differences between the municipal institutions in Flanders, in Wallonia and in Brussels. Wallonia has also further devolved part of its responsibilities to the German-speaking Community with regards to its 9 municipalities. The three Regions can amend or replace the existing legislation on the municipalities, most notably the New Municipal Law. In the Flanders the Municipal Decree of 15 July 2005 applies. In Wallonia

200-526: A six-year reprieve, in the course of 1982, two decrees and two laws regulated the details of the merger of the communes of Antwerp , Berchem , Borgerhout , Deurne , Ekeren , Hoboken , Merksem and Wilrijk for 1 January 1983. On 1 January 1983, Belgium comprised 589 communes, as stipulated by the law of 30 December 1975: 308 in the Flemish Region , 262 in the Walloon Region and 19 in

240-609: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Municipalities of Belgium Here are three lists of municipalities for each one of the three regions: The municipalities, as an administrative division , were officially created in 1795, when the Directoire reorganised the structures of the Ancien Régime . The municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants were grouped in so-called canton municipalities. In 1800, these canton municipalities were abolished again and

280-417: Is also responsible for the maintenance of public order in their municipality. They chair the college of mayor and aldermen or the municipal college, depending on the region , as well. In the Flanders and Brussels , the mayor is appointed by the regional government, on the nomination of the municipal council, for a term of office of six years. In Wallonia , the mayor is the municipal councillor who received

320-454: Is responsible for the daily administration of the municipality. It is also responsible for the preparation and implementation of the decisions of the municipal council. The municipal council ( Dutch : gemeenteraad ; French : conseil communal ; German : Gemeinderat ) is the representative assembly of the municipality and consists of members directly elected for a term of office of six years. The number of municipal councillors depends on

360-483: The Brussels-Capital Region . 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 through the special law of 13 July 2001 transferring various powers to the regions and communities. In their 13 July 2009 coalition agreement for

400-709: The Court of Cassation confirmed the illegality of the creation of Greater Antwerp, despite the insistence of the occupation authorities. The end of the German occupation put a radical end to these mergers of communes and a return to the pre-war status quo, but the idea was not abandoned. In the aftermath of the Second World War, four communes were abolished between 1945 and 1961. On 1 January 1961, there were 2,663 communes in Belgium. A ministerial circular of 1957 and

440-610: The East Cantons that were added to Belgium following the First World War . In 1961, the so-called Unitary Law ( Dutch : Eenheidswet ; French : Loi unique ; German : Einheitsgesetz ), of which the fourth chapter was dedicated to the territorial organisation of the municipalities, was adopted. The authority to abolish municipalities was entrusted to the executive branch for a period of 10 years. Municipalities could be merged on financial grounds or on grounds of

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480-481: The Jemappe , Dyle and Sambre-et-Meuse departments. The Dutch period did not put an end to this process, which continued to a lesser extent, so that by 1830 there were 2,492 communes. With Belgium's independence, the trend was reversed with the creation of new communes, reaching a peak in 1928, when the country counted 2,675 communes, after 153 had been created and 7 abolished over the same period. Thus, in 1896,

520-435: The regular elections of 14 October 2018 , and the change took effect on 1 January 2019. The mayor ( Dutch : burgemeester ; French : bourgmestre ; German : Bürgermeister ) is not only the head of the municipality but also the representative of the regional and the federal government at the local level. In that capacity, they are responsible for the execution of laws , decrees , ordinances and orders. The mayor

560-584: The Belgian borders were recognised in 1839, as 124 municipalities were ceded to the Netherlands and another 119 municipalities became the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (see the article Communes of Luxembourg for details). New municipalities were created until 1928. There were 2,528 municipalities in 1850, 2,572 in 1875, 2,617 in 1900 and a maximum of 2,675 in 1929. This also includes the municipalities of

600-608: The Brussels-Capital Region, the PS, Ecolo, cdH, Open Vld, CD&V and Groen agreed to set up a working group on the better distribution of competences between the Region and the communes and on communal borders, which would be made up of regional and communal representatives and would submit its conclusions over two years. On 17 September 2010, the note concluded "Following the debate on the advisability of merging communes,

640-625: The Code of Local Democracy and Decentralization applies. In Brussels several provisions of the New Municipal Law have been modified by ordinance , such as the Ordinance of 17 July 2003. The legal framework in the three Regions is still relatively similar, but that could change in the future. Since 1970, the Belgian Constitution includes the possibility to create agglomerations and federations of municipalities by law. This possibility

680-637: The Minister of the Interior, Joseph Michel , of the Tindemans II Government , announced the launch of the remodeling of the communal map, to be completed by the communal elections of October 1976. Several criteria were used to group communes together, such as financial, geographical, linguistic, economic, social or cultural elements, without altering the boundaries of the administrative districts and provinces unless they were justified under

720-788: The Province of Limburg (Netherlands) and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Since 1830, Belgium had administered the whole of Limburg and Luxembourg. In 1831, the Treaty of the Eighteen Articles had recognized this, but it was never signed by the Netherlands. The corresponding communes were therefore lost in 1839. After the First World War, the communes of the East Cantons were annexed from Germany. Population movements,

760-519: The Revolution (26 October 1795) led to territorial reorganization, with the commune as the basic territorial unit. In 1800, there were 2,741 communes in what is now Belgium. However, the French authorities wanted to reduce the number of communes in the Belgian départements, and urged the departmental prefects to take measures to that effect. A total of 127 communes were abolished during this period in

800-656: The decision of the population (91% in Ruiselede in April 2022), but in at least one case ( Boortmeerbeek ) a fusion aborted as a consequence of the referendum. The Walloon décret regulating future fusions of communes was published in the Moniteur belge on 17 September 2019. The only fusion approved so far by the Walloon Parliament, due to be effective on 1 January 2025, unites Bastogne and Bertogne under

840-532: The federal level to the three regions. This did not instantly have any significant effect on the reorganisation of municipalities, up until the Flemish Bourgeois Government (2014-2019) provided a legal framework and financial incentives for municipalities to consider merging. This led 15 Flemish municipalities to merge into seven, decreasing the total number of Flemish municipalities from 308 to 300. Their municipal councils were elected in

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880-626: The following year. At the end of this ten-year period, in 1971, Lucien Harmegnies , Minister of the Interior under the Eyskens IV Government (1968–1972), decided to proceed with the remembrement of the territory and had a new law passed on 23 July 1971. This broadened the scope of the Unitary Law to make it applicable in the case of large conurbations, initially excluded from these provisions. However, no new merger proposals were put forward until June 1974. In September 1974,

920-569: The future of communes, including the merger of communes. The German occupation of Belgium during World War II overturned the kingdom's municipal structure. The Germans wanted the outlying communes around major conurbations to form a single commune with a single administration and police organization As a result, several communes were grouped together, leading to the birth of seven large communes between 1941 and 1942: Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent, La Louvière and Liège. The legal authorities opposed these creations, and on 1 February 1943,

960-523: The group recommends reviewing communal boundaries crossing obstacles such as railroads or roadways." 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 as of 1 January 2019, reducing

1000-585: The hamlet called La Bretagne separated from Landelies (part of Montigny-le-Tilleul since 1977) to become an autonomous commune under the name Goutroux . Article 3 of the Belgian Constitution as then in force (currently article 7) and the provincial law of 1836 codified the procedures for mergers or the creation of new communes in Belgium. During this period, Belgium underwent two changes to its territorial boundaries. The Treaty of London (1839) led Belgium to cede part of its territory, forming

1040-439: The largest number of preferential votes of the majority party that received the largest number of votes in the municipal elections. Hence, it is also possible that the mayor is not a member of the largest party, as the largest party is not always part of the governing coalition. It is also possible in Wallonia for the municipal council to adopt a constructive motion of no confidence in the municipal college. The executive organ of

1080-534: The law of 23 July 1971. After consulting the provinces and communes between September 1974 and January 1975 on merger proposals, a draft merger plan was written and submitted to two regional ministerial committees, one for Wallonia and the other for Flanders. This project resulted in the Royal Decree of 17 September 1975, dividing Belgium into 589 communes by 1 January 1977, but was postponed by six years for Antwerp and seven communes on its outskirts. This

1120-509: The most minute Belgian municipalities are still found in this group, notably Herstappe with only 84 inhabitants (in 2006). Lucien Harmegnies, Minister of the Interior in the government of Gaston Eyskens (1968–1972) decided to continue the process of territorial reorganization of Belgium. In 1971, the provisions of the Unity Law were extended and modified to apply to large agglomerations, which were initially excluded from its provisions. It

1160-422: The municipalities of Berchem , Borgerhout , Deurne , Hoboken , Ekeren , Merksem and Wilrijk in 1983 finally reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium to 589 and was the last reorganization of the municipalities for several decades because the merger of the 19 municipalities of Brussels was postponed indefinitely. The fifth state reform (2001) transferred the responsibility over municipalities from

1200-426: The municipality is known as the college of mayor and aldermen ( Dutch : college van burgemeester en schepenen ; French : collège des bourgmestre et échevins ), commonly referred to as the college of aldermen ( Dutch : schepencollege ; French : collège échevinal ), in Flanders and Brussels, and as the municipal college ( French : collège communal ; German : gemeindekollegium ) in Wallonia. This college

1240-445: The number of Flemish municipalities from 308 to 300, and the Belgian total from 589 to 581. Several more municipalities are in the process of merging by 1 January 2025: e.g. Gooik , Galmaarden and Herne , Hasselt and Kortessem , Lochristi and Wachtebeke . Most fusions were decided by the municipal councils without – nonbinding – local referenda, and where one was organised, several ( Zwijndrecht , Ruiselede ) went on against

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1280-485: The number of autonomous municipalities became 2,776. Not much changed during the United Kingdom of the Netherlands , only a number of smaller municipalities were merged. In 1831, Belgium was divided into 2,739 municipalities, a number which remained more or less constant until 1961. The law of 30 March 1836 regulated municipalities and their governing bodies. The number of municipalities was reduced to 2,508 when

1320-530: The number of inhabitants of the municipality, and can vary from 7 to 55. It is responsible for all matters that are of municipal interest. Following the Fifth State Reform in 2001, the responsibility for the composition, the organization, the competences and the activities of the municipal institutions were devolved to the Regions , as well as the responsibility for the provincial institutions . As

1360-434: The rural exodus and the economic upheavals of the 19th and early 20th centuries led to new thinking on the organization of the municipal map, especially in Brussels, where there was a desire to create a "Greater Brussels". On the eve of the First World War, two solutions were put forward: grouping the outlying communes with Brussels, or creating an inter-communal structure to manage certain responsibilities. In 1921, just after

1400-404: The three officially unilingual language areas, a couple of dozen municipalities in the vicinity of another language area must provide limited facilities for speakers of that other language. As only a law carried by special majorities can change the language status of any municipality, these arrangements have prevented some small municipalities with facilities to be merged in the 1970s, and thus

1440-452: The war, the mayor of Brussels, Adolphe Max, proposed the creation of a metropolitan district for the Brussels conurbation. In the same year, the communes of Laeken , Neder-Over-Heembeek and Haren merged with Brussels to form the City of Brussels , without any consultation and consent of the concerned populations. In the interwar period, publications on communal management outlined ideas for

1480-537: Was a Belgian political process that rationalized and reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium between 1964 and 1983. In 1961, there were 2,663 such municipalities; by 1983, these had been re-arranged and combined into 589 larger municipalities. The annexation by France of the Austrian Netherlands , the principalities of Liège and Stavelot and the Duchy of Bouillon on 4 Brumaire of Year IV of

1520-721: Was another Minister of the Interior, Joseph Michel, who managed the process. On 30 December 1975 the law regarding the merger of the municipalities was adopted. The merger became effective on 1 January 1977. The merger of 1977 further reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium from 2,359 to 596. Because of the specific nature of the reorganization in Antwerp , the law of 30 December 1975 did not enter into force for Antwerp until 1 January 1983. The formerly-independent municipalities were called districts and were given an advisory function. However, on 1 January 2001 they were given an administrative function again. The merger of Antwerp with

1560-475: Was only used once in 1971 when the Brussels Agglomeration, comprising the 19 municipalities of Brussels , was put into place. It de facto ceased to exist in 1989 when the organs of the Brussels-Capital Region were established. Fusion of the Belgian municipalities The fusion of the Belgian municipalities (French: fusion des communes , Dutch: fusie van Belgische gemeenten )

1600-429: Was ratified by the law of 30 December 1975. On 1 January 1977, Belgium went from 2,359 to 596 communes. Following the adoption of the law of December 1975, in 1976 a special commission was set up in each province to rectify the administrative boundaries of all 596 communes. After discussions with communes, individuals and private bodies, royal decrees were issued in 1982 to finalize the rectifications. Having obtained

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