“Bilingual services in Brussels municipalities must improve”

Since 2015, only five of the 19 Brussels municipalities have taken up the offer of the Huis van het Nederlands to improve the bilingualism of their staff. Flemish MP Annabel Tavernier, who requested the figures from the Flemish minister for Brussels Benjamin Dalle (CD&V), thinks that number is too low. “The bilingual services provided by the Brussels public administrations leave much to be desired. Therefore, extra efforts are essential. Flanders is reaching out to the Brussels municipalities to help them with this, but the municipalities themselves have to be willing.”

The Huis van het Nederlands has an offer for the Brussels municipal authorities to improve the knowledge of Dutch among their staff. Since 2015, such language policy trajectories have been completed with the municipalities of Anderlecht, Brussels and Jette. The municipalities of Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, Sint-Agatha-Berchem and Anderlecht are currently following such an intensive language programme. Collaborations with the municipalities of Elsene and Vorst are in the pipeline, but have been postponed for the time being due to the coronavirus.

Only five of the 19 municipalities are using the Huis van het Nederlands offer

Flemish MP Annabel Tavernier welcomes the fact that some Brussels municipalities are taking the responsibility to improve the knowledge of Dutch in their services, but points out that it concerns a minority. “The Brussels-Capital Region has 19 municipalities, and most of them simply ignore the Huis van het Nederlands offer. The Brussels Vice-Governor’s annual reports repeatedly prove how bad the situation of mandatory bilingualism is in the Brussels municipalities. The urgency to make additional efforts is therefore high. The same also applies to the OCMWs. Unfortunately, there are currently no specific collaborations ongoing or planned with any of the Brussels OCMWs.”

The majority of the Brussels municipalities refuse Flanders’ outstretched hand

Annabel Tavernier emphasises that the municipalities are aware of the offer of the Huis van het Nederlands. “Last autumn, the Brussels local authorities received a new communication to draw attention to the offer of language policy support at the Huis van het Nederlands. That communication was mainly aimed at the municipalities with which the Huis van het Nederlands has not yet collaborated. Only Oudergem and Sint-Gillis responded to this. The majority of Brussels public administrations therefore deliberately refuse to make any effort to do something about this deficient bilingual service. However, all they have to do is grasp Flanders’ outstretched hand.”

The Huis van het Nederlands is offering a broader range to convince Brussels municipalities

The Huis van het Nederlands is currently working on offering a new and broader range for the Brussels municipalities to make the step towards collaboration with the Huis van het Nederlands even smaller and more attractive in the future. In the future, the municipalities will have a choice between an entry-level offer, an offer with a focus on language learning and an intensive language policy programme. “Flanders thus continues to make efforts to work with public authorities through the Huis van het Nederlands. The ultimate responsibility lies with the municipalities to finally tackle their lack of compliance with the language legislation,” Annabel Tavernier concludes.