Editing Municipalities of Belgium (section)

== History ==
=== Before 1830 ===
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}

The municipalities, as an [[administrative division]], were officially created in 1795, when the [[French Directory|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 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.

=== Between 1830 and 1961 ===
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 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 the [[Eupen-Malmedy|East Cantons]] that were added to Belgium following the [[First World War]].

=== From 1961 to 1977 ===
In 1961, the so-called [[Unitary Law]] ({{langx|nl|Eenheidswet}}; {{langx|fr|Loi unique}}; {{langx|de|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 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 of Belgium|constitution]] states that each municipality must belong to only one of the four official [[Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium|language areas]] that were established in 1962–63. In the three officially [[Monolingualism|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 language facilities|municipalities with facilities]] to be [[Fusion of the communes|merged]] in the 1970s, and thus the most minute Belgian municipalities are still found in this group, notably [[Herstappe]] with only 84 inhabitants (in 2006).<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=GLE10D8AM
|title=Herstappe – Vijftig procent inwoners gaat mee naar Brussel
|language=nl
|date=2006-08-18
|author=Smeets, Rudi
|publisher=[[Het Nieuwsblad]], newspaper
|access-date=2007-09-04}}</ref>

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 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 [[Fusion of the Belgian municipalities|merger of 1977]] further reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium from 2,359 to 596.

====Antwerp====
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 (district)|Antwerp]] with the municipalities of [[Berchem]], [[Borgerhout]], [[Deurne, Belgium|Deurne]], [[Hoboken, Antwerp|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.

===21st century===
The fifth [[State reform in Belgium|state reform]] (2001) transferred the responsibility over municipalities from 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 the [[2018 Belgian local elections|regular elections of 14 October 2018]], and the change took effect on 1 January 2019.