Circular Peeters

Introduction

The circular Peeters is a document which specifies the language use within the municipal authorities of the Dutch language area in Belgium. This circular was sent to the governors of the Flemish provinces on 16 December 1997 by the then Flemish Minister for Local Affairs Leo Peeters.

This circular was later on supplemented by the circular Martens, which defines a similar regulation for the service provision by the Public Centres for Social Welfare, and was reconfirmed by the circular Keulen.

The most debated parts in the circular Peeters are those pertaining to the so-called municipalities with facilities in the Vlaamse Rand around Brussels and along the linguistic boundary.

Legal background

Belgium is subdivided into four language areas: the Dutch language area, the French language area, the bilingual area of Brussels Capital and the German language area. ‘The precedence of the language of each monolingual area' (Article 4 of the Constitution) applies in each of the municipalities of the monolingual areas, so also in the municipalities with facilities which form an integrated part of the Dutch language area.

After the demarcation of the linguistic boundary, facilities were introduced in municipalities where the language minority, which had only developed recently at the time, was larger than 30 per cent. In these municipalities private individuals can be offered the municipal service in the language of their preference upon request (in this case French). The circular stipulates that these facilities are intended as a measure to promote integration and are expected to terminate automatically. However, because the law is ambiguous in this context, French-speakers perceive these facilities as a permanent right that has been granted to a minority.

The fact that the raison d'être of these facilities is interpreted in this way is causing a large inflow of many new, mainly French-speaking, residents who do consequently not feel the need to make any overtures in their contacts with the local population, social life and shop owners and remain mainly oriented towards the Brussels Capital Region. In order to discourage this evolution, the Flemish Community invokes the circular Peeters and in this way orders municipalities to strictly comply with the language law of the monolingual area. The most important rule in this circular is the provision that the municipalities with facilities must as a rule send all the documents to the citizens in Dutch. Afterwards, people who wish to receive a French translation must apply for this at their own initiative for each separate document. As for the application of documents at the city hall, the rule is that these documents must be drawn up and issued in Dutch in the municipalities along the linguistic boundary. Afterwards, citizens can request a translation. In the municipalities in the Brussels periphery citizens can request on beforehand a document that is drawn up in French.

The circular also stipulates that the internal administration of a municipality with facilities as well as the local public services must at all times use the Dutch language. It is prohibited for instance to speak a language other than Dutch during meetings of the municipal council or the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. The non-appointment of 3 Mayors of municipalities with facilities following the latest municipal council elections of 2006 is also a consequence of the strict interpretation of the language law, as laid down by the circular Peeters.

Legal battle

Although they do not have any authority on the territory of the Flemish Region, the French-speaking Community and the Walloon Region, together with the French-speaking local authorities of a number of municipalities with facilities, have for years now been fighting a legal battle via an objection procedure against the circular Peeters. The objections show that the term ‘facilities' is interpreted differently by both parties: the French-speaking side invokes the personal right to free language use of French-speakers, whereas Flemings associate the language use in administrative affairs with the territoriality principle.

In the end (a Dutch-speaking chamber of) the Council of State did not annul the circular because a too wide interpretation of the facilities would result in a system of bilingualism, whereby the language preference of individuals is recorded in files and would thus create an unconstitutional situation.

The circular Peeters is thus still in force and in July 2008 the Council of State passed a judgement, defining this letter as the only correct interpretation of the language law for the 6 municipalities with facilities around the Brussels Capital Region.

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